VMware Adds Oracle Database Support In New vFabric Release

Database administrators spend about 50 percent of their time creating new databases and moving data around, which is why VMware customers have been clamoring for a way to virtualize the widely used Oracle databases, said Fausto Ibarra, VMware's senior director of data and analytics product management, in an interview.

vFabric Data Director 2.0 includes tools and features that make this easier to achieve, according to Ibarra.

[Related: VMware Adds To Cloud Management Arsenal With DynamicsOps Buy ]

"Companies are looking to offer database-as-a-service, and they can use vFabric Data Director to define what databases they want to offer to internal users and developers, and define policies," Ibarra told CRN.

vFabric Data Director 2.0 works with the Oracle 10gR2 and Oracle 11gR2 databases and with vFabric Postgres 9.1, a relational database based on PostgreSQL that is built for running applications in the cloud.

vFabric Data Director 2.0 automates the process of migrating a database from a physical environment to a virtual one, handling provisioning, backup and high availability through cloning. By consolidating their databases on vSphere, customers can see cost savings of between 50 and 75 percent because they'll need fewer software licenses and less storage, Ibarra told CRN.

VMware has included an API for integrating vFabric Data Director 2.0 with vCloud Director, vFabric Application Director, Cloud Foundry platform-as-a-service, as well as EMC Data Domain and Greenplum Chorus.

Data Director has a full user interface to allow IT and developers to provision and manage databases, Ibarra said, and the new release exposes this UI functionality to the API.

vFabric Data Director 2.0 is available now. Each license, which costs $750, can manage one database running on a virtual machine with up to two virtual CPUs.

PUBLISHED JULY 10, 2012