2015 Data Center 100: 20 Virtualization Vendors
Data Center 100: Top 20 Virtualization Vendors
The virtualization of compute, storage, networking and other resources gives data center infrastructures the base on which to provide services to multiple internal or external customers as well as adopt cloud computing, regardless of which hardware platforms are used. While virtualization was once limited to mainframes, it has now spread to nearly every nook and cranny in the modern data center.
Building on virtualization is a new wave of technologies such as software-defined networking and software-defined storage, which are moving data centers farther away from a focus on purchasing the best hardware to focus on running networking and storage services on commodity servers. While this part of the virtualization business is new, it is maturing quickly as yet another route to the cloud.
Here are the data center virtualization technology providers to make this year's Data Center 100 list.
AppSense
Sunnyvale, Calif.
Scott Arnold
CEO
AppSense, developer of the DesktopNow application for managing physical and virtual desktops and the DataNow application for secure access, sync and sharing of data, help businesses improve user experience and productivity while optimizing security and reducing costs.
Big Switch Networks
Santa Clara, Calif.
Douglas Murray
CEO
Big Switch is a leader in in the nascent SDN industry. Its flagship Big Cloud Fabric is a bare metal SDN switching fabric targeted at new data center deployments for modern workloads like private clouds, while its Big Tap Monitoring Fabric provides an entry-level network monitoring solution.
Citrix Systems
Santa Clara, Calif.
Mark Templeton
President, CEO
Citrix is a leader in developing mobile workspaces technology including virtualization, mobility management, networking and cloud services. The company's solutions give businesses access to applications, desktops, data, and communications on any device, over any network and cloud.
DataCore
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
George Teixeira
President, CEO
DataCore Software develops software-defined storage. The company's SANsymphony V10 storage services platform and DataCore Virtual SAN application for building storage infrastructures on any hypervisor allow the building of infrastructures that scale to up to 64 nodes and more than 100 million IOPs.
Jeda Networks
Newport Beach, Calif.
Stuart Berman
CEO
Jeda Networks develops what it calls software-defined storage networks, which it says expands on the concept of software-defined networks to build scalable and virtual SANs. The company's Fabric Network Controller is software that creates a high-performance storage overlay network on top of an Ethernet network.
Maxta
Sunnyvale, Calif.
Yoram Novick
Founder, CEO
Maxta's MaxDeploy hyper-converged reference architecture and software works with the Maxta Storage Platform (MxSP) to allow businesses to combine virtual servers along with any combination of storage devices as a single infrastructure to eliminate the need for external NAS or SAN devices for many applications.
Microsoft
Redmond, Wash.
Satya Nadella
CEO
Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization platform is second only to VMware's in terms of adoption, and is the force behind the building private cloud infrastructures and in connecting businesses to Microsoft's own Azure public cloud and the company's cloud-based services and applications.
Midokura
San Francisco
Dan Mihai Dumitriu
CEO, CTO
Midokura developed MidoNet, an open, software-only network virtualization system that allows the building of isolated networks in software which then overlays an existing network hardware infrastructure. MidoNet, which scales to hundreds of thousands of virtual ports, is cloud-agnostic, and integrates with OpenStack.
Nexenta
Santa Clara, Calif.
Tarkan Maner
Chairman, CEO
Nexenta develops software-defined storage solutions for building scalable cloud-optimized and virtualization-optimized storage solutions on any hardware platform. Nexenta's core storage platform, NexentaStor, is based on OpenSolaris and OpenStorage ZFS technology, and operates in multivendor environments.
Palo Alto Networks
Santa Clara, Calif.
Mark McLaughlin
Chairman, President, CEO
Palo Alto Networks develops network security based on the company's next-generation firewall, including a leading virtualized firewall, which uses an optimized hardware and software architecture to deliver visibility and control over applications, users and content across networks, branch offices and mobile devices.
Plexxi
Nashua, N.H.
Richard Napolitano
CEO
Plexxi develops software-defined networking software that "renders" network configurations based on application requirements. That software sits on the company's software-definable hardware platform. The company claims its hardware can be quickly defined and redefined by the company's software in response to the needs of a customer's application.
PLUMgrid
Sunnyvale, Calif.
Awais Nemat
Co-Founder, CEO
The PLUMgrid Open Networking Suite provides the cloud's virtual network infrastructure with multitenancy, security, scale and performance. The suite's Virtual Domains provides tenants with complete isolation and control by allowing networks to be created or changed on demand without impacting other Virtual Domains or the physical network.
Red Hat
Raleigh, N.C.
James Whitehurst
President, CEO
Red Hat used its experience in developing a business around the open-source Linux to form a leading provider of open cloud and virtualization solutions and services including server and desktop virtualization along with IaaS and PaaS.
Silver Peak
Santa Clara, Calif.
David Hughes
Chairman, CEO
Silver Peak's Unity software-defined WAN fabric spans enterprise networks with the Internet and public clouds. It intelligently routes traffic over optimal paths with AES-256 encryption and SHA-1 authentication based on cloud services and Internet conditions to provide what the company says is consistent SaaS performance.
StrataCloud
Atlanta
Brian Cohen
CEO
StrataCloud develops unified infrastructure management solutions for virtual, converged and cloud environments. It provides a single, granular view of operations along with the situational intelligence to help companies optimize IT infrastructures to speed deployment, optimize performance, right-size capacity, and increase IT productivity.
Teradici
Burnaby, British Columbia
Dan Cordingley
President, CEO
Teradici delivers PC-over-IP (PCoIP) technology that transfers the image of software running on a central server or workstation to any PCoIP-ready endpoint. The image is compressed and encrypted, making the user experience similar to having the application run on a local PC.
Unidesk
Marlborough, Mass.
Don Bulens
President, CEO
Unidesk virtualizes everything above the hypervisor, including the Windows operating system, applications and users, as separately managed layers to help simplify the building, patching and supporting of virtual desktops. Its technology is integrated with VMware Horizon View, Citrix XenDesktop and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services.
Virtual Bridges
Austin, Texas
Jack Angelo
VP, GM
Virtual Bridges' VERDE is a single-sku desktop virtualization platform which helps customers quickly move from bare metal to VDI with no specialized expertise needed. The company's Bridgepoint delivers a self-deploying virtual appliance that works on the cloud to quickly allow orchestration of virtual desktop workloads.
VMturbo
Boston
Ben Nye
CEO
VMTurbo is a control system for dynamic virtual environments that understands the inter-dependencies of resource management decisions such as placement, sizing and capacity, and then adjusts those resources to optimize workload performance and infrastructure utilization. VMTurbo connects to vCenter, Hyper-V, XenServer or RHEV-M.
VMware
Palo Alto, Calif.
Pat Gelsinger
CEO
VMware remains the leader by far in terms of the platform used by companies to virtualize their IT. VMware has built on that strength to become a leader in virtualized networking, storage, and data center infrastructure, and is moving fast to be a cloud technology leader.