During the VMware Online Launch Event, live from the VMware Partner Exchange event, Pat Gelsinger (VMware Chief Executive Officer) and Ben Fathi (VMware Chief Technology Officer) have announced the new release of their main product: VMware vSphere.

The VMware vision announced (or confirmed if you prefer) during the Partner Exchange 2013 was all around three main points: Software Defined Datacenter, Hybrid Cloud and End User Computing.

Most news (or the most important) are around the first point, considering that the several previous announces have already covered the Hybrid Cloud strategy and that the EUC area.

VMware vSphere 6.0

After vSphere 5.0, 5.1 and 5.5, finally it’s the turn of a new major release (although the term major and minor releases does no really define how products is changes… each release has several changes, improvements and new features).

Sound curios but the main focus was on vSphere 6.0 (instead of the vCloud Suite 6.0), making it the unified software defined platform to build one (hybrid) cloud for every application. One cloud for any application.

Most of the new features were already be announced and almost explained during the previous VMworld, but they are still relevant and interesting, those are some of them:

• More scalability and new limits
• New availability capabilities and features
• vMotion everywhere
• VMware FT for SMP VMs
• New vCenter design and deployment
• More cloud oriented features in vCenter Server
• Some changes in GUI clients
• New installation options
• New vSphere Certificate Authority (VMCA)
• SDS vision with VSAN and vVols
• Datastore with NFS 4
• vSphere APIs for IO Filtering
• VMware AppVolumes
• Instant clone (aka project Fargo)
• 3D graphics with NVIDIA GRID vGPU

As usual, most of the new features as been introduced only in the Enterprise Plus edition (see the comparison table), but some 5.5 features are now available at lowest edition (like Reliable Memory now available also in the Enterprise edition).

Note that most of the post after the announce (included mine) were based on the beta build, but some behaview have change in the RC. For more information see vSphere 6 – Clarifying the misinformation.

Those are some of the numbers of vSphere 6.0 developer and testing proccess:

• More than 17,000 individuals participated in the beta program. We opened up the vSphere beta program last summer to get as much feedback as possible, and we were blown away by the level of customer interest. This engagement has paid off with the delivery of a rock solid product, with new capabilities we know our customers will love.
• vSphere 6 delivers 650 (!) new innovations, or roughly a new feature or improvement produced by the engineering team every other day for the past three years since the last major release shipped.
• Over 1,500 engineers worked on this release, with a keen focus on making sure we not only delivered valuable and innovative new functionality but also that we continue to improve on the fundamentals such as performance and ease-of-use.

What’s new references:

• KB 2109816 (New features in VMware vSphere 6.0.x)
• vSphere 6.0 Overview
• vSphere 6.0 is here! – KBs you need to know about
• What’s new in vSphere 6.0 – Platform
• What’s new in vSphere 6.0 – Infographic
• What’s new in vSphere 6.0 – Hands on lab
• What’s new in Virtual SAN 6.0
• What’s New with vSphere Data Protection 6.0 and vSphere Replication 6.0

See also those blog posts:

• vSphere 6.0 vExpert Blog Articles Covering What’s New, Installation, VVOLS, vMotion, Web Client and much much more
• vSphere 6.0 Link-O-Rama
• vSphere 6.0 finally announced!
• What’s in ESXi 6.0 for free license and white box users?
• VMware vSphere 6.0: What’s New?
• What’s new in VMware vSphere 6?

Andrea Mauro

Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.