RedHat宣布了新的开源虚拟机软件正式开始向VMware发起挑战

RedHat宣布了新的开源虚拟机软件正式开始向VMware发起挑战。新的虚拟机软件将包含在RHEL5.4中。RedHat此举能否撼动VMware的老大地位，让我们拭目以待。 一下是新闻的详细内容。

Red Hat Inc. today introduced an entire line of virtualization software aimed at disrupting current market leader VMware Inc.'s position by giving customers an open-source option for virtualizing their data centers.

The new line includes the built-in virtualization of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as well as two virtual-machine management
products -- one for desktops and one for servers. Red Hat also is
offering a stand-alone hypervisor called Red Hat Enterprise
Virtualization.

The new products also position Red Hat more solidly against Microsoft Corp., which has a line of virtualization enablement and management technologies to accompany its Windows Server software.

Red Hat purchased Israel-based virtualization software vendor Qumranet
last September, and the new offerings are based on some of the
technology from that deal. They also represent a migration from the Xen
hypervisor, on which Red Hat based the virtualization included in RHEL
5, to the KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) hypervisor. KVM is based
on the Linux kernel and is designed for high performance and stability.

Red Hat will continue to support customers using the Xen
virtualization software through the life cycle of the RHEL 5 operating
system -- until at least 2014, the company said. The KVM hypervisor
will first appear in RHEL 5.4, due for final release in the next few
months. Red Hat released the current version of RHEL, 5.3, on Jan. 20.

The introduction of Red Hat's virtualization line, along with the
announcement last week that Red Hat and competitor Microsoft will
support customers running each other's virtualization software, mean
the heat is on market leader VMware, which had a rocky 2008 with the
sudden departure of President and CEO Diane Greene amid financial woes.
She was replaced midyear by former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz.

Microsoft and Citrix Systems Inc. also said today that they are
working together more closely to compete better with VMware. Citrix
plans to release a new suite of virtualization management tools in
April that will be offered for Microsoft's Hyper-V and its own Citrix
XenServer virtualization software, the companies said.

Specifically, Red Hat's new product line includes the Red Hat
Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Servers, Red Hat Enterprise
Virtualization Manager for Desktops, RHEL and the hypervisor.

The server virtualization manager product will provide a scalable,
GUI-based management system so enterprises can manage every object in a
virtualized environment -- be it a user, an image or a virtual server,
said Navin Thadani, senior director of Red Hat's virtualization business.

Similarly, the desktop virtualization manager will allow enterprises
to centrally manage, secure and enforce policies for a virtual desktop
environment without interrupting the user experience, Thadani said. The
software takes advantage of a technology called SolidlCE from Qumranet
and the Spice remote-rendering technology.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor is a small-footprint
hypervisor that Thadani said would likely be most popular with
customers that have limited virtualization experience. He defended Red
Hat's decision to offer another stand-alone hypervisor to a market that
already has several options for what is rapidly becoming a commodity
technology, saying that Red Hat wants to give customers a choice for
their different virtualization needs.

Red Hat did not provide pricing information for its virtualization
line. The company will introduce the products gradually over the next
18 months, with the first ones appearing in about three months, it said.