So if you work in IT, and even better, if you’re in the virtualization space of IT as I am, you have to know that VMworld is happening this week.
VMworld is just about the biggest vCelebration of vTechnologies there is. Part trade-show, part pilgrimage, part vLollapalooza, VMworld is where all the sexy new vProducts are announced by VMware, makers of ESXi, vSphere, vCenter, and so many other vThings.
It’s an awesome show…think MacWorld at the height of Steve Jobs but with fewer hipsters and way more virtualization engineers. Awesome.
And I’ve never been :sadface:
And 2014’s VMworld was a doozy. You see, the vGiant announced a new 2U, four node vSphere & vSAN cluster-in-a-box hardware device called EVO:RAIL. I’ve been reading all about EVO:RAIL for the last two days and here’s what I think as your loyal Hyper-V blogger:
- What’s in a name? Right off the bat, I was struck by the name for this appliance. EVO:RAIL…say what? What’s VMware trying to get across here? Am I to associate EVO with the fast Mitsubishi Lancers of my youth, or is this EVO in the more Manga/Anime sense of the word? Taken together, EVO:RAIL also calls to mind sci-fi, does it not? You could picture Lt. Cmdr Data talking about an EVO:RAIL to Cmdr Riker, as in “The Romulan bird of prey is outfitted with four EVO:RAIL phase cannons, against which the Enterprise’s shields stand no chance.” Speaking of guns: I also thought of the US Navy’s Railguns; long range kinetic weapons designed to destroy the
Nutanix/Simplivitythe enemy. - If you’re selling an appliance, do you need vExperts? One thing that struck me about VMware’s introduction of EVO:RAIL was their emphasis on how simple it is to rack, stack, install, deploy and virtualize. They claim the “hyper-converged” 2U box can be up and running in about 15 minutes; a full rack of these babies could be computing for you in less than 2 hours.
They’ve built a sexy HTML 5 GUI to manage the thing, no vSphere console or PowerCLI in sight. It’s all pre-baked, pre-configured, and pre-built for you, the small-to-medium enterprise. It’s so simple a help desk guy could set it up. So with all that said, do I still need to hire vExperts and VCDX pros to build out my virtualization infrastructure? It would appear not. Is that the message VMware is trying to convey here? - One SKU for the Win: I can’t be the only one that thinks buying the VMware stack is a complicated & time-consuming affair. Chris Wahl points out that EVO:RAIL is one SKU, one invoice, one price to pay, and VMware’s product page confirms that, saying you can buy a Dell EVO:RAIL or a Fujitsu EVO:RAIL, but whatever you buy, it’ll be one SKU. This is really nice. But why? VMware is famous for licensing its best-in-class features…why mess with something that’s worked so well for them?
Shades of Azure simplicity here One could argue that EVO:RAIL is a reaction to simplified pricing structures on rival systems…let’s be honest with ourselves. What’s more complicated: buying a full vSphere and/or vHorizon suite for a new four node cluster, or purchasing the equivalent amount of computing units in Azure/AWS/Google Compute? What model is faster to deploy, from sales call to purchasing to receiving to service? What model probably requires consulting help?
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great. I like simple menus, and whereas buying VMware stuff before was like choosing from a complicated, multi-page, multi-entree menu, now it’s like buying burgers at In ‘n Out. That’s very cool, but it means something has changed in vLand.
- I love the density: As someone who’s putting the finishing touches on my own new virtualization infrastructure, I love the density in EVO:RAIL. 2 Rack Units with E5-26xx class Xeons packing 6 cores each means you can pack about 48 cores into 2U! Not bad, not bad at all. The product page also says you can have up to 16TB of stroage in those same 2U (courtesy of VSAN) and while you still need a ToR switch to jack into, each node has 2x10GbE SFP+ or Copper. Which is excellent. RAM is the only thing that’s a bit constrained; each node in an EVO:RAIL can only hold 192GB of RAM, a total of 768GB per EVO:RAIL.In comparison, my beloved 2U pizza boxes offer more density in some places, but less overall, given than 1 Pizza Box = one node. In the Supermicros I’m racking up later this week, I can match the core count (4×12 Core E5-46xx), improve upon the RAM (up to 1TB per node) and easily surpass the 16TB of storage. That’s all in 2U and all for about $15-18k.Where the EVO:RAIL appears to really shine is in VM/VDI density. VMware claims a single EVO:RAIL is built to support 100 General Purpose VMs or to support up to 250 VDI sessions, which is f*(*U#$ outstanding.
- I wonder if I can run Hyper-V on that: Of course I thought that. Because that would really kick ass if I could.
Overall, a mighty impressive showing from VMware this week. Like my VMware colleagues, I pine for an EVO:RAIL in my lab.
I think EVO:RAIL points to something bigger though…This product marks a shift in VMware’s thinking, a strategic reaction to the changes in the marketplace. This is not just a play against Nutranix and other hyper-converged vendors, but against the simplicity and non-specialist nature of cloud Infrastructure as a Service. This is a play against complexity in other words…this is VMware telling the marketplace that you can have best-in-class virtualization without worst-in-class licensing pain and without hiring vExperts to help you deploy it.
Wilson.tech 