Dell ‘exploring’ VMware spin-off, insists they must keep their special relationship Dell this week announced it is exploring a sale of the 81 per cent chunk of VMware it owns that is not publicly traded. A regulatory filing stated “this process is currently only at an exploratory stage” and is being contemplated because it could “benefit both Dell Technologies’ and VMware’s stockholders by simplifying capital …
So Dell can see trouble ahead for VMWare and wants to distance itself. Noted.
Unsurprising given that VMWare seems to be slipping down the list of choices for virtualization.
Personally, I was VMWare certified (VCP3) but didn't renew my cert when they decided to expire them because of the sheer cost involved...I'd imagine a lot of certified folks made the same decision...so they're not encouraging recertification and over the last 10 years I've shifted more firms away from VMWare than towards it because of the rise in solutions like KVM, ProxMox, Unraid etc...solutions that provide functions for free that you have to pay through the nose for via VMWare.
VMWare needs to re-assess itself in my opinion...they're not really a good value choice anymore.
The main thing that drove me away was theblacknif Linux support for their management tools going way back. I had to keep a Windows VM specifically for the virtual infrastructure client on hand and as time went on, I needed several of them because for older ESX machines I couldn't use the newer clients.
Of course for newer versions now it's largely web based, but even the WebUI has its problems. Using it over a VPN for example or through an SSH tunnel is pretty painful at times.
There is also the other issue that most of have probably experienced at some time or other which is the god awful transfer speeds when moving a VM off one host then uploading it to another. No matter what network setup you have, it always seems to be 30MB/s. I've never seen it higher than that.
vmkfstools to clone virtual disks to/from NFS storage is the fastest way without paid storage vMotion features - that'll do multi-gigabit quite happily. Next best is running rsync as a daemon from inetd, which will do 1Gbps (IME 1Gbps per stream when reading, but only 1Gbps per datastore when writing).
VMware works extremely well for those that are willing to pay the cost. I think there's a lot of options out there now-a-days for those that don't. I have a handful of other hosted VPS boxes out there that get forced rebooted a couple times of year each due to some problem or the other.
I'm not sure what you mean about their management being wonky behind a VPN, that's how I access our datacenters every day. No difference vs my local lab.
Anything needing windows for management is ancient history. Its all linux (proton) boxes all the way down.
vmotion is speedy.
So, sounds like you're remembering back a decade (ie. release time of VMware 3.x) and how much slower servers and networks were back then.
Any ongoing special relationship between Dell and VMWare would tend to depress the value of VMWare to another purchaser. Most obviously, if you were VMWare you would like to sell to HPE or others the level of access that Dell now enjoys, plus work out co-marketing and partner agreements so HPE or others could sell VMWare software to their clients. That would provide additional revenue streams to VMWare that will not be in place if Dell insists on what I imagine would be an ongoing exclusive relationship along the lines of their current arrangement.
I don't know that I'd say that HPE is bleeding.
In terms of technology HPE is in a better position moving forward than VMWare.
VMWare has a larger install base and there is a niche for the product, but the future DC is going to be K8 and Docker containers.
HPE has BlueData and MapR so they are in a better position to capitalize on newer technology trends.
Posted Anon for obvious reasons.
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