Cloud Computing Aligns Zimory With VMware

Zimory, a Deutsche Telkom spin-off, has moved its open source, cloud computing strategy more aggressively into the enterprise, announcing support for VMware's ESX Server.

At its core, Zimory's Enterprise Cloud melds existing virtual servers into a single cloud, which is intended to help IT managers more quickly move applications among multiple internal and external locations.

"By making the ESX Server available, we think now IT managers can better manage enterprise-class virtual servers," Zimory CTO Maximilian Ahrens said. Ahrens said he "expects" the company to add support for Microsoft's Hyper-V and KVM environments soon, although he declined to say when.

A significant advantage of Zimory's management software is that it makes server resources available to cost-conscious IT shops that many would otherwise not be able to afford. It does this in a more controlled way and a finite amount of time, allowing for better utilization of those resources down to the application level.

"The new support does a more efficient job of pulling together internal virtualization resources from Xen and VMware servers into a private cloud and then -- using Zimory Public Cloud -- these resources can be sold externally a public cloud resources," Ahrens said.

Zimory Public Cloud for sellers aggregates available server computing capacity from around the world and makes it available through an Internet trading platform.

Using Zimory Public Cloud, which was announced last month, companies can buy capacity as they need it, but without committing to a long-term contract. Zimory takes care of the administrative aspects of pricing, contracts, billing, and virtual migration.

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