The Oracle virtualization portfolio got a boost with the company's acquisition of Sun, and it has signaled a willingness to take on VMware, a SearchServerVirtualization.com article by Barbara Darrow and Jo Maitland states.

With Oracle VM 3 expected to be released this spring, it will give Oracle credible Xen-based server virtualization that could challenge VMware, Microsoft and Citrix Systems Inc., the authors write, at least in the tens of thousands of Oracle database and application shops.

"Oracle VM 3 really does have some promise," says Chris Wolf, virtualization analyst with the Burton Group. "VMware is still dominant -- even in the data center where Oracle lives -- but in organizations where a separate group manages the Oracle infrastructure, there's an opportunity."

Oracle has a huge potential customer base for it to approach with virtualization solutions. The article lists the following as considerations:

• Gartner's latest numbers show Oracle with a 43% share of market revenue for the database market, compared with 24% for IBM, and 18% for Microsoft.

• In enterprise applications (enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, etc.), Oracle, with its PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Seibel Systems acquisitions along with its own Oracle applications, vies with SAP for the market lead.

• With its acquisition of BEA Systems, Oracle has become a leader in application servers and middleware.

Darrow and Maitland also challenge readers to consider Oracle virtualization in the context of the shift to cloud computing. They point out that the majority of public cloud service providers -- including Amazon, Rackspace, GoGrid and Joyent -- all use the open source Xen hypervisor for virtualization. Oracle VM is Xen-based, making it a friendlier option for Amazon Web Services and other cloud providers that have already built their infrastructure on Xen.

Rex Wang, vice president of marketing at Oracle, said during a recent Oracle cloud event in San Francisco, that the company has talked with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to get the cloud provider to support Oracle VM. An AWS spokesperson declined to comment to Darrow and Maitland regarding the matter.

There are also indications that virtualization is yet another area where power and market share will shift to existing technology leaders. So as the platform and application software leaders like Microsoft and Oracle get their own virtualization products and strategies in line, the need for a separate third-party virtualization vendor, such as VMware, evaporates. The article cites VMware's move beyond server virtualization as a possible sign that it even knows the days of a virtualization-specific company are numbered.

More Information

Can Oracle virtualization be a player? - SearchServerVirtualization.com article

Oracle and Virtualization home page

Oracle VM

"The Underground Oracle VM Manual"

Installing Solaris 10 OS as a VM Under an Oracle VM Environment

Oracle VM Server Virtualization Software 2.2 [...read more...]

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