Xen’s future lies with Oracle and the cloud
Although x64 hypervisors are heading for commoditisation, they are not there yet. Even when they reach that stage, there is no guarantee that customers will be able to switch from one to the other easily. That raises an important question about the future of the open source Xen hypervisor and the virtualisation platforms built on it by Xen’s three main backers, Citrix, Oracle and Novell. Even the interoperability between their implementations of Xen is limited. Xen’s prospects in the enterprise are limited by the squeeze it faces from VMware’s dominant ESX/ESXi hypervisor and Microsoft’s increasingly competitive Hyper-V hypervisor. Citrix has predicted that eventually its virtual server business will mostly be based on Hyper-V rather than Xen. Oracle is Xen’s best chance for a long-term enterprise future, but even Oracle faces a battle to build up its small virtualisation business. Novell also has only a small presence in server virtualisation, and, in any case, may split its attention between Xen and the KVM hypervisor.
Xen has stronger prospects in public clouds, where its open source status makes it popular among service providers. This could shore up Xen’s enterprise standing, because interoperability concerns will encourage customers to choose the same virtualisation platform for their premises that public cloud providers are using. The Xen.org development body hopes to cement Xen’s position in public clouds by extending Xen from a core hypervisor into a wider open source virtualisation platform. This could increase its appeal to cloud providers and increase portability across Xen clouds, which are currently fragmented across different implementations of the open source code. However, it remains to be seen whether cloud providers will stick with Xen or defect to VMware.
Xen has stronger prospects in public clouds, where its open source status makes it popular among service providers. This could shore up Xen’s enterprise standing, because interoperability concerns will encourage customers to choose the same virtualisation platform for their premises that public cloud providers are using. The Xen.org development body hopes to cement Xen’s position in public clouds by extending Xen from a core hypervisor into a wider open source virtualisation platform. This could increase its appeal to cloud providers and increase portability across Xen clouds, which are currently fragmented across different implementations of the open source code. However, it remains to be seen whether cloud providers will stick with Xen or defect to VMware.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
THE OVUM VIEW
KEY MESSAGES
XEN’S STANDING IN THE ENTERPRISE
SECOND PLACE, BUT FRAGMENTED
TOUGHER COMPETITION IS COMING FROM MICROSOFT
CITRIX AND MICROSOFT ARE CLOSE, LIKE THEIR HYPERVISORS
THE MARRIAGE LIVES ON, FOR NOW
FOR THE MOMENT, XEN FITS THE BILL NICELY FOR CITRIX
HYPER-V WILL EVENTUALLY TAKE PRECEDENCE AT CITRIX
WHY CITRIX PAID $500 MILLION FOR A FUTURE COMMODITY
KVM PEELS AWAY XEN SUPPORT
RED HAT SWITCHES TO KVM
WHY RED HAT SWITCHED
IBM FOLLOWS RED HAT INTO KVM
ORACLE CONSOLIDATES THE XEN SUPPORTERS’ CLUB
ORACLE MAKES THREE BECOME ONE
ORACLE PLANTS A XEN STAKE
ORACLE WILL PLAY THE HIGH END
ORACLE WILL WORK HARD TO REGAIN CONTROL OF THE VIRTUALISATION LAYER
KVM IS NOT IN ORACLE’S PLANS
NOVELL IS AT A CROSSROADS
SOFT AND HARD POWER IN THE CLOUD
PUBLIC CLOUDS WILL INFLUENCE THE ENTERPRISE
INFRASTRUCTURE IS ONLY A CLOUDLET
CITRIX AND VMWARE ARE SCARCE IN PUBLIC CLOUDS
DEFRAGMENTING XEN IN THE CLOUD
MAKING XEN A BIGGER GIVEAWAY
STRONG BACKING FROM VENDORS, BUT WISPY SUPPORT FROM CLOUD PROVIDERS
VMWARE EMERGES IN THE PUBLIC CLOUDS
MAJOR TELCOS ADOPT VMWARE
STANDARDS AND INTEROPERABILITY WILL HAPPEN – EVENTUALLY
SOME INTEROPERABILITY EXISTS NOW
OVF IS ONLY A STARTING POINT
ON-PREMISE MANAGEMENT ACROSS DIFFERENT HYPERVISORS
PUBLIC CLOUD MANAGEMENT STANDARDS ARE ALSO NEEDED
THE OVUM VIEW
KEY MESSAGES
XEN’S STANDING IN THE ENTERPRISE
SECOND PLACE, BUT FRAGMENTED
TOUGHER COMPETITION IS COMING FROM MICROSOFT
CITRIX AND MICROSOFT ARE CLOSE, LIKE THEIR HYPERVISORS
THE MARRIAGE LIVES ON, FOR NOW
FOR THE MOMENT, XEN FITS THE BILL NICELY FOR CITRIX
HYPER-V WILL EVENTUALLY TAKE PRECEDENCE AT CITRIX
WHY CITRIX PAID $500 MILLION FOR A FUTURE COMMODITY
KVM PEELS AWAY XEN SUPPORT
RED HAT SWITCHES TO KVM
WHY RED HAT SWITCHED
IBM FOLLOWS RED HAT INTO KVM
ORACLE CONSOLIDATES THE XEN SUPPORTERS’ CLUB
ORACLE MAKES THREE BECOME ONE
ORACLE PLANTS A XEN STAKE
ORACLE WILL PLAY THE HIGH END
ORACLE WILL WORK HARD TO REGAIN CONTROL OF THE VIRTUALISATION LAYER
KVM IS NOT IN ORACLE’S PLANS
NOVELL IS AT A CROSSROADS
SOFT AND HARD POWER IN THE CLOUD
PUBLIC CLOUDS WILL INFLUENCE THE ENTERPRISE
INFRASTRUCTURE IS ONLY A CLOUDLET
CITRIX AND VMWARE ARE SCARCE IN PUBLIC CLOUDS
DEFRAGMENTING XEN IN THE CLOUD
MAKING XEN A BIGGER GIVEAWAY
STRONG BACKING FROM VENDORS, BUT WISPY SUPPORT FROM CLOUD PROVIDERS
VMWARE EMERGES IN THE PUBLIC CLOUDS
MAJOR TELCOS ADOPT VMWARE
STANDARDS AND INTEROPERABILITY WILL HAPPEN – EVENTUALLY
SOME INTEROPERABILITY EXISTS NOW
OVF IS ONLY A STARTING POINT
ON-PREMISE MANAGEMENT ACROSS DIFFERENT HYPERVISORS
PUBLIC CLOUD MANAGEMENT STANDARDS ARE ALSO NEEDED
