Channel sings praises of vSphere 4 upgrade

Cloud generating system from VMware opens new door for partners to offer professional services

Hitting the Spot: VMware's vSphere 4 has earned a thumbs-up from channel players

The channel has hailed virtualisation giant VMware’s work on vSphere 4, with industry players praising the operating system’s new services opportunities.

Released in May, vSphere 4 was a massive update from its flagship ESX 3.51 hypervisor and management toolset, which many predicted would put pressure on both Microsoft and the Xen development community.

In addition to the name change, the vendor added new switching and management features to raise the bar for x86 datacentre virtualisation technology, and to help promote it as the first cloud operating system.

Phil Cambers, commercial director at the SITS Group, a VMware Accredited Consultancy (VAC), said the release of vSphere 4 Essentials Plus hits a sweet spot among SMEs.

“It is a great way to get virtualisation into an organisation at a low price with lots of functionality,”he said.

Andrew Cooke, principal consultant at Intercept, said that due to demand, the VMware VAR had recently held an event on the benefits of vSphere 4.

“The event demonstrated how vSphere 4 is easy to upgrade, but still requires professional services to protect critical business data,” said Cooke.