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by lsc 4052 days ago
"A post-hypervisor world "

lol. I've been predicting a backlash against this virtualization hype since 2005, and this is the first time I've heard anyone else mention anything like it.

Of course, if you had told me in 2005 that we would be switching from hypervisors back to containers, I would have broke down crying.

Is our industry run by masochists? or just the inexperienced, who don't know any better?
3 comments
parasubvert 4052 days ago
This was written by a VC hoping that Docker is going to be worth more than VMware. I suspect he may be disappointed.
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lsc 4052 days ago
A lot of the value of vmware is in the sales channels. Why use VMware rather than QEMU/KVM? it used to be that VMware came with support. But now that KVM is owned by RedHat, which in my experience, gives way better than average support? yeah.

but, yeah. Docker doesn't solve the "take this ancient rack of failing servers and consolidate them down to one server... without updating the software" use case that VMware is so often used for.

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parasubvert 4052 days ago
Why use VMware? Is indeed the existential question that's facing them. For now, it's because many IT shops can't wrap their heads around the alternatives or justify the switch. Lack of skills (lots of Windoes centric shops), deep love for DRS/Vmotion/HA, deep support for fibre channel setups, etc. Btw this is arguably why VMware announced Photon recently, to go after RedHat. Eat at their Linux monopoly.

That said, VMware did basically invent x86 virtualization as we know it today, and that's justified the many billions in wealth it has generated to date. Docker is (so far) a registry and a CLI wrapper around a Linux kernel feature. It can and will be more, but it's not clear what.

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otterley 4052 days ago
To be fair, containers aren't a virtualization solution; they're more of a packaging mechanism.
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lsc 4052 days ago
that is... a healthy way to look at it.

My experience has been that using containers to go multi-tenant leads only to misery and pain.

But it does seem a reasonable-ish way to handle packaging, though I have less experience with that use case. It does seem like it would work, assuming you still have a way to update everything, and assuming everything is happy with the same kernel.

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noblethrasher 4052 days ago
Please, expound.
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