VMware Announces vCloud Suite 5.1

At VMWorld 2012 today, VMware announced a new version of its cloud infrastructure and management software vCloud Suite. The software includes the company's virtualization, cloud infrastructure and management products in a single package.

The suite includes vSphere 5.1 with enhanced VMs with support for up to 64 virtual CPUs. vMotion now enables live migration of VMs without the need for shared storage. Also new is vSphere Data Protection as a VM back-up and recovery solution, and the disaster recovery software VMware vSphere Replication, as well as the security solution vShield Endpoint.

vCloud Director has been simplified in version 5.1 and enables users to provision virtual datacenters in shorter time. Director supports vSphere clusters with up to 30,000 VMs. vCloud Networking and Security allows the dynamic creation of virtual networks and services that are completely decoupled and independent from the physical network hardware, with support of "tens of thousands" of isolated virtual networks, VMWare said.

Additionally the new vCloud Suite includes the vCenter Site Recovery Manager, which integrates with vSphere Replication to simplify disaster recovery planning and automates the disaster recovery of applications.

The vCloud Suite 5.1 will be available on September 11 in three versions, Standard, Advanced and Enterprise. prices start at $4,995 per processor.

The Teradici APEX 2800 LP card is expected to become available in early October 2012; 2800 MXM will follow in November.

Wolfgang Gruener is a contributor to Tom's IT Pro. He is currently principal analyst at Ndicio Research, a market analysis firm that focuses on cloud computing and disruptive technologies, and maintains the conceivablytech.com blog. An 18-year veteran in IT journalism and market research, he previously published TG Daily and was managing editor of Tom's Hardware news, which he grew from a link collection in the early 2000s into one of the most comprehensive and trusted technology news sources.

See here for all of Wolfgang's Tom's IT Pro articles.

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