Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), a leading IT and data management research and consulting firm, announced its Best of VMworld 2012 award winners.
These awards are designed to recognize companies that clearly understand and internalize the ideas behind the software defined or programmable datacenter.
While the term “Software Defined Datacenter” was coined by VMware’s CTO Steve Herrod in May 2012, the concept is not new. As described in a series of posts on EMA Senior Analyst Torsten Volk’s Physical – Virtual – Cloud: Systems Management Reloaded blog, the Software Defined Datacenter has constituted the “holy grail” of enterprise IT since the beginnings of virtualization more than a decade ago. Only today, however, do enterprises have at least some of the components available to make parts of the Software Defined Datacenter a reality.
The following five vendors are recognized for their contributions to this reality, including their ability to enable customers to more efficiently take advantage of their previous, current, and future IT investments.
- HotLink: Cross Platform Management
- Intigua: Server Management
- Virsto: Storage Management
- ActiveState: DevOps
- DynamicOps: Hybrid Cloud Management
A unifying theme across all award winners is their ability to provide critical puzzle pieces to automate and manage complex application workloads within a hybrid cloud environment. While the Software Defined Datacenter is currently more a vision than a technology framework, HotLink, Virsto, DynamicOps, ActiveState, and Intigua clearly understand the pain points customers encounter on their journeys to the cloud.
Download the EMA Impact Brief VMworld 2012 – Best of Show: Virtualization Management
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