Sun launches xVM virtualization platform
At Oracle OpenWorld Rich Green, executive vice president of software at Sun, unveiled his company's latest twist on virtualization-the Sun xVM platform. Sun xVM is based on the Xen hypervisor and supports Windows, Linux and Solaris guest operating systems, Green said.
Context & Ripple Effects
Sun's xVM debut lands in a market VMware already moved to free with its Server product in early 2006, which reset expectations for what a hypervisor should cost. By building xVM on the open-source Xen hypervisor rather than a proprietary stack, Sun is positioning price itself as the weapon.
The launch also caps a year of deliberate rebranding: Sun retired the SUNW ticker in favor of JAVA in August 2007 and had earlier laid out a goal of building a Linux ecosystem, so a hypervisor that runs Windows, Linux and Solaris guests reads as the infrastructure piece of that software-first identity. Unveiling it on stage at Oracle OpenWorld, rather than at a Sun event, underscores how much the company now courts partner audiences.
First-order effects
- Enterprises evaluating server consolidation gain a no-license-cost Xen option that runs their mixed Windows, Linux and Solaris estates, directly undercutting VMware's paid hypervisor tiers.
- VMware, whose own February 2006 free-Server move started this price war, now faces an open-source rival attacking from below on cost while matching its multi-guest-OS support.
Second-order effects
- With the hypervisor layer racing toward free on both sides, competition shifts to what wraps around it — management tools, support contracts and OS tie-ins — where Sun can bundle Solaris subscriptions and VMware must defend its tooling franchise.
- Hardware vendors shipping commodity x86 servers get another reason to qualify Solaris and Xen stacks alongside Linux, widening distribution for Sun software beyond Sun-branded iron.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the hypervisor becomes a commoditized utility like the operating systems beneath it, with vendor profits migrating up the stack to management, provisioning and support — the same dynamic VMware's 2006 freebie set in motion.
The trend: Server virtualization is following the open-source commoditization playbook, dragging hypervisor prices toward zero and pushing vendor differentiation into management software and support.