VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, has announced VMware vFabric Data Director 2.0with support for virtualization of Oracle databases on VMware vSphere. vFabric Data Director 2.0 simplifies and automates database lifecycle management, allowing IT to deliver Database as a Service in order to increase developer agility while reducing total cost of ownership for databases. 

“The journey to cloud computing is all about reducing complexity for developers and IT operations in order to be able to more effectively meet the demands of today’s application realities - faster development cycles, more data and higher expectations for IT responsiveness,” said Jerry Chen, vice president, Cloud and Application Services, VMware. “VMware vFabric Data Director leverages the benefits of virtualization at the database tier to reduce database complexity and cost through policy-based automation and a self-service management model.”

Today, enterprises and service providers are rapidly implementing self-service cloud platforms that enable IT to quickly provision virtual machines and other core infrastructure components. Now, users are looking for their IT providers to deliver similar benefits from the most critical software solutions, including databases. VMware vFabric Data Director’s database virtualization makes this possible while addressing some of the challenges customers face managing a growing, heterogeneous database infrastructure - long lead times for developers, overworked DBAs and excessive operational costs.

Self-Service Database Lifecycle Management 

vFabric Data Director 2.0 automates deployment, management and governance of heterogeneous databases and enables IT to securely automate and delegate routine database management tasks, including provisioning, backup, cloning and patching. This means application teams can provision or refresh a database in minutes rather than days and IT can offer developers self-service database access while maintaining control and compliance through policy.

New and expanded capabilities in vFabric Data Director 2.0 include:

• Expanded database support - vFabric Data Director 2.0 now supports Oracle 10gR2, Oracle 11gR2 as well as vFabric Postgres 9.1 (a VMware optimized relational database based on PostgreSQL).

• Automated physical-to-virtual migration - To further simplify database virtualization, vFabric Data Director 2.0 now automates the process of migrating a physical database into a virtual environment. This enables enterprises to consolidate existing databases on VMware vSphere, achieving further cost savings and agility.

• Integration with cloud infrastructure and big data solutions - APIs for integration with other products such as vCloud Director, vFabric Application Director, the Cloud Foundry open source project, EMC Data Domain, and Greenplum Chorus. Enterprises using these products can now leverage Data Director for database provisioning and management for an integrated experience.

“One of the primary obstacles to infrastructure migration, be it to virtualized environments or to the cloud, is the complexity and risk associated with the database," said Stephen O’Grady, Principal Analyst at RedMonk. "Now, with support for Oracle as well as PostgreSQL, VMware is offering customers a more seamless transition of database assets.”

vFabric Data Director is part of the VMware vFabric family of products which includes GemFire, SQLFire and runtime products optimized for Spring, a Java development framework, plus a complete set of services to build, run and manage modern applications in distributed cloud environments.

Pricing and Availability 

vFabric Data Director 2.0 is currently available and is licensed per VM of managed database at US$750 per VM up to two vCPUs.

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