vfabric

VMware yesterday announced vFabric 5, an integrated application platform for virtual and cloud environments.

Combining the Spring development framework for Java and the latest generation of vFabric application services, vFabric 5 will provide the core application platform for building, deploying and running modern applications.

vFabric 5 introduces a flexible packaging and licensing model that will allow enterprises to purchase application infrastructure software based on virtual machines, rather than physical hardware CPUs, and to pay only for the licenses in use.

The model in vFabric 5 more closely aligns to cloud computing models that directly link the cost of software with use, consumption and value delivered to the organization.

vFabric 5 is engineered specifically to take advantage of the server architecture of VMware vSphere. The new Elastic Memory for Java (EM4J) capability that will be available in vFabric tc Server will allow for optimal management of memory across Java applications through the use of memory ballooning in the JVM.

Over 3 million developers use the Spring framework to build enterprise Java applications. With vFabric 5, users can gain insight into the performance of their Spring applications with the new Spring Insight Operations.

VMware vFabric 5 will be generally available in late summer 2011.

It will be offered in two versions: VMware vFabric Standard at $1,200 per VM and VMware vFabric Advanced at $1,800 per VM.

VMware at VMworld introduced its cloud application platform strategy and solutions, enabling developers to build and run modern applications that intelligently share information with underlying infrastructure to maximize application performance, quality of service and infrastructure utilization.

VMware vFabric cloud application platform combines the market-leading Spring Java development framework with platform services including lightweight application server, global data management, cloud-ready messaging, dynamic load balancing and application performance management. Applications built on VMware vFabric provide performance and portability across heterogeneous cloud environments.

Principles that have defined today’s most demanding consumer applications – built-in scalability, new data models, distributed infrastructures – are heavily influencing the production of new internal customer enterprise applications. As such, these modern applications need to support dynamic user interactions, low-latency data access and virtual infrastructure all while meeting the security and compliance demands of the enterprise. VMware vFabric is uniquely optimized for cloud computing’s increasingly dynamic architectures, unlike traditional middleware that requires complete stack control.

Applications are increasingly built with modern development frameworks that leverage runtime and data management services that are much more agile and designed for virtualization. An open solution, VMware vFabric will initially target the 2.5 million users that develop Spring Java applications. VMware vFabric will deliver the following key benefits:

Maximize Speed and Innovation: Customers can bring modern applications to market faster and with less complexity; new applications can be delivered in days or weeks rather than months or years, and at scale.
Extend the Benefits of Virtualization to the Application: VMware vFabric can coordinate with underlying infrastructure to help ensure optimal application performance, quality of service and infrastructure resource utilization.
An Evolutionary Path to the Cloud: Developers will be able to build new applications in a familiar and productive way while enabling the choice of where to run them, whether on premise or in public clouds such as VMforce or Google.

Spring can speed development by more than 50 percent through developer tools and features that make it easy to create new applications that:

Provide a rich, modern user experience across a range of platforms, browsers and personal devices
Integrate applications using proven Enterprise Application Integration patterns, including batch processing
Access data in a wide range of structured and unstructured formats
Leverage popular social media services and cloud service APIs

The VMware cloud application platform delivers modern middleware infrastructure to developers, application architects and IT teams as a collection of cloud-scale, integrated services:

Lightweight Application Server: tc Server, an enterprise version of Apache Tomcat, is optimized for Spring and VMware vSphere and can be instantaneously provisioned to meet the scalability needs of modern applications.
Data Management Services: GemFire speeds application performance and eliminates database bottlenecks by providing real-time access to globally distributed data.
Cloud-Ready Messaging Service: RabbitMQ facilitates communications between applications inside and outside the datacenter.
Dynamic Load Balancer: ERS, an enterprise version Apache web server, helps ensure optimal performance by distributing and balancing application load.
Application Performance Management: Hyperic enables proactive performance management through transparent visibility into modern applications deployed across physical, virtual and cloud environments.