When 64 nodes are not enough

Why would VMware with years of ESX development behind them want to develop a whole new virtualization system for Docker and other container frameworks. Especially since they already have a compatible Docker support in their current product line.

The main reason I can think of is that a 64 node cluster may be limiting to some container services and the likelihood of VMware ESX/vSphere to supporting 1000s of nodes in a single cluster seems pretty unlikely. So given that more and more cloud services are being deployed across 1000s of nodes using container frameworks, VMware had to do something or say goodbye to a potentially lucrative use case for virtualization.

Yes over time VMware may indeed extend vSphere clusters to 128 or even 256 nodes but by then the world will have moved beyond VMware services for these services and where will VMware be then – left behind.

Photon to the rescue

With the new Photon system VMware has an answer to anyone that needs 1000 to 10,000 server cluster environments. Now these customers can easily deploy their services on a VMware Photon Platform which is was developed off of ESX but doesn’t have any cluster limitations of ESX.

Thus, the need for Photon was now. Customers can easily deploy container frameworks that span 1000s of nodes. Of course it won’t be as easy to manage as a 64 node vSphere cluster but it will be easy automated and easier to deploy and easier to scale when necessary, especially beyond 64 nodes.

The claim is that the new Photon will be able to support multiple container frameworks without modification.

So what’s stopping you from taking on the Amazons, Googles, and Apples of the worlds data centers?

• Maybe storage, but then there’s ScaleIO, and the other software defined storage solutions that are there to support local DAS clusters spanning almost incredible sizes of clusters.
• Maybe networking, I am not sure just where NSX is in the scheme of things but maybe it’s capable of handling 1000s of nodes and maybe not but networking could be a clear limitation to what how many nodes can be deployed in this sort of environment.

Where does this leave vSphere? Probably continuation of the current trajectory, making easier and more efficient to run VMware clusters and over time extending any current limitations. So for the moment two development streams based off of ESX and each being enhanced for it’s own market.

How much of ESX survived is an open question but it’s likely that Photon will never see the VMware familiar services and operations that is readily available to vSphere clusters.

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Photo Credit(s): A first look into Dockerfile system