VMware vSAN, why we use it
The path to fully virtualized infrastructure began in 1998 with VMware’s virtualization of the data center infrastructure. Until then, at least on the x86 platform, if you wanted to host your workload, you had to buy a separate server; This was the main reason internet startups at the time required so much capital that you had to buy separate servers for each workload and have them in a centralized data center. Server growth was a real and huge problem. Soon after, the Xen project was started at the University of Cambridge in ; Xen eventually became the virtualization platform of choice for many cloud service providers with the budget to customize.
VMware has succeeded in providing organizations with a way to manage workloads more efficiently, and the result of reducing the computer to a set of virtual files has sparked a new wave of innovation. It was easy to backup, replicate, keep stable and protect the user from the impact of unreliable hardware.This made VMware a billion dollar company; It also sparked a wave of innovation that we’ve seen in the cloud space ever since.
VMware is the choice. VMware has doubled down on its software-defined data center strategy, which has also virtualized networking, storage and compute. I’ve been using the VMware infrastructure since around 2004/5 when I discovered Workstation and shortly after ESX. Networking Dogbert as Network Administrator Networking has always been a huge income; Space companies have made their fortunes.It would be a mistake to think gear was their source of income; often it came from the software.
Many OEMs required special training, had their own software and operating systems; when hardware began to become a commodity and software a secret sauce. This constraint was very problematic for companies because once they decided on a vendor, they were stuck and couldn’t really choose another vendor (and often had to retrain their staff, etc.). Of course, this chaotic environment was ripe for disruption.