What Is VMware? A Guide to Virtualization

VMware is a virtualization software company based in Palo Alto, California. More than 500,000 customers, including nearly every Fortune 100 entity, use VMware for virtual machine management.

Virtualization technology allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on a single hardware platform, optimizing resource usage. This technology helps with server consolidation, disaster recovery, and efficient application deployment.

Throughout this article, we’ll explore VMware in depth, covering its key features, benefits, and use cases.

Let’s begin with the basics, specifically the company’s history, and then explore the product’s core concepts.

The History of VMware

VMware’s story started in 1998 in Palo Alto, California. Five graduates from the University of California, Berkeley, namely Diane Greene, Mendel Rosenblum, Scott Devine, Ellen Wang, and Edouard Bugnion started the company.

At the time, the young but promising company had only 20 employees. Today, the number of VMware employees has grown to about 38,300.

Here are some of the major milestones in the company’s history:

1999: VMware launched its first product, VMware Workstation. This breakthrough allowed users to run multiple operating systems on a single machine and gained immediate popularity.

2001: The company entered the server market with VMware GSX Server and VMware ESX Server, marking a significant expansion beyond desktop virtualization.

2004: VMware held its first VMworld conference in San Diego, which would later become the world’s largest cloud computing and virtualization event. This year also saw the introduction of 64-bit support.

2007: The company raised about $1.1 billion through its initial public offering (IPO), with EMC selling 15% of VMware to the public.

2008: It announced a strategic partnership with Cisco to develop joint data center solutions.

2012: VMware acquired Nicira, a key player in network virtualization, and appointed Pat Gelsinger as CEO.

2014: Acquired AirWatch for $1.54 billion.

2020: The company committed to achieving carbon neutrality and 100% renewable energy use for global operations by 2020.

2021: Pat Gelsinger left VMware to become CEO of Intel, and Raghu Raghuram took over as CEO.

2023: Broadcom Inc., an American multinational company, acquired VMware in a cash-and-stock deal worth $69 billion.

Core Concepts

Virtualization is a broad topic that requires some technical knowledge to understand.

In the section below, I’ll break down four important concepts about this technology. Hopefully, you’ll begin to understand what virtualization is all about and how it works.

There are four types of virtualization, including:

• Server virtualization: Server virtualization is when you create multiple virtual server instances on one physical machine. Imagine you have one powerful computer but want to run different operating systems, like Windows and Linux, on it simultaneously. With server virtualization, you can create virtual “mini-computers” (virtual machines) on that one physical machine. That way, each mini-computer can run its own operating system and applications.

• Network virtualization: Virtualizing a network involves making different virtual networks that share the same physical network. This allows you to manage and secure each virtual network separately. For example, you can have one network for your company’s internal communication and another for customer-facing services. The common denominator here is that each network runs on the same hardware.
• Desktop virtualization: Desktop virtualization is when you can access your desktop setup, applications, and programs from another device in a different location. You can use desktop virtualization as long as you have an internet connection.
• Application virtualization: This type of virtualization allows you to run applications on your device without installing them. Instead of running on your local machine, the application runs on a server, which you can access from your computer.

From these core concepts, virtualization makes technology more flexible. It also saves resources, especially hardware, by allowing you to create partitions of existing hardware instead of investing in a new one.

Believe it or not, although virtualization solves many problems, it creates newer challenges for IT management.

That’s why VMware offers products and solutions designed to simplify IT operations. Let’s examine some of these products and the problems they’re designed to solve.

By now, you should have an idea of VMware’s importance in achieving virtualization. Let’s now look deeper at the individual benefits this software offers.

Cost Efficiency

With VMware, the need for more physical hardware will be the least of your concerns.

For example, you don’t need several physical servers, each dedicated to a single application. Instead, you can consolidate them into two or three physical servers running multiple virtual machines.

When you compare the costs of consolidating servers with the initial purchase cost of the hardware, the former is the cheaper option.

Fewer physical servers mean less rack space, fewer cables, and a reduced complexity of your data center setup.

Consolidated servers also reduce ongoing maintenance expenses.

With fewer physical servers comes lower energy costs. For instance, if each server requires 600 watts of power, consolidating ten servers into three can save thousands of watts, translating into substantial cost savings on your electricity bill.

Scalability

As your business grows, you can quickly add more virtual machines to your existing physical servers. And the best part is that you won’t need to purchase and set up new hardware.

Let’s say you want to launch a new application. Under normal circumstances, you must first invest in a new hosting environment.

Enter VMware, a better way to get things done. With this software, you can create a new virtual machine with the snap of a finger, assign it the necessary resources, and get it up and running without any downtime.

Finally, this software simplifies resource management. You can dynamically allocate CPU, memory, and storage resources to different virtual machines based on their current needs.

If one application experiences a sudden increase in demand, you won’t need to purchase new resources to handle this demand. Instead, you can easily reallocate resources from other virtual machines.

Improved Disaster Recovery

VMware simplifies disaster recovery by making it easy to back up and restore virtual machines.

Instead of complex and time-consuming backup processes for each physical server, you can take snapshots of your virtual machines and store them securely.

If there’s a system failure, you can simply restore these snapshots, minimizing downtime and data loss.

Additionally, VMware supports automated disaster recovery solutions. If one system fails, another one seamlessly steps in. This level of preparedness is especially crucial for businesses that cannot afford prolonged downtime.

Enhanced Security

Thanks to VMware’s isolation of virtual machines, each machine operates independently. So, if one VM is compromised by malware or a security breach, the others won’t be affected.

VMware also offers advanced security features, such as virtual machine encryption, secure boot, and micro-segmentation. These features protect data and applications against unauthorized access and cyber threats.

VMware’s architecture is quite broad but boils down to these three categories:

• Hypervisor technology
• Virtual machines
• Storage and networking

Here’s what you should know.

Hypervisor Technology

A hypervisor is the software that creates and manages virtual machines. This technology also allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on a single physical server.

VMware uses two types of hypervisors: Type 1 and Type 2.

Type 1 hypervisors, such as VMware ESXi, run directly on the physical hardware. Type 2 hypervisors, such as VMware Workstation, run on top of an existing operating system.

VMware’s hypervisors create a virtual layer over the hardware. This allows multiple VMs to run independently on a single physical machine. Each VM will have its own operating system and applications.

Virtual Machines (VMs)

This is the environment where you specify the operating system, virtual hardware, and storage to be established.

As we noted earlier, resource allocation is dynamic, meaning you can easily adjust CPU, memory, and disk space based on the VM’s needs.

Storage and Networking in VMware

This software aggregates local storage from multiple servers into a single shared data store. As we saw earlier, that’s the work of vSAN.

This approach simplifies storage management and provides high availability and performance.

When it comes to networking, tools such as VMware NSX come in to help with virtual network configuration and management.

NSX allows for micro-segmentation, load balancing, and virtual network isolation, promoting efficient data traffic management within a virtual environment.

VMware may be the most popular virtualization technology today, but it’s not the only option in the market.

Here are some alternatives and a brief description of what they do best:

• Microsoft Hyper-V: Virtualizes servers and desktops on Windows.
• Oracle VM VirtualBox: Runs multiple OSes on a desktop.
• Citrix Hypervisor: Enterprise server virtualization platform (the world’s second-most popular virtualization platform, per Statista).
• KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine): Linux-based server virtualization.
• Red Hat Virtualization: Enterprise virtualization for Linux and Windows.
• Proxmox VE: Open-source virtualization management.
• Parallels Desktop: Runs Windows on macOS.
• QEMU: Hardware virtualization and emulation.
• Nutanix AHV: Integrated hypervisor for Nutanix systems.
• Xen Project: Open-source hypervisor for server virtualization.

Despite the availability of many different virtualization software, VMware is still the most preferred, enjoying a 44.8% market share.

Now, let’s examine various real-world applications of VMware and what it aims to achieve. I’ll focus on enterprise IT, cloud computing, and development and testing.

The future of VMware and virtualization technology looks promising. It’s safe to say VMware has no equal at the moment.

And if statistics are anything to go by, it will take considerable effort and investment for its closest competitors to catch up.

VMware’s closest rival, Citrix Workspace, owned by the Cloud Software Group, has only a 16.68% grip on the virtualization market share. Mind you, VMWare leads with a 44.8% share of the market.

Trends in Virtualization

Regarding trends in virtualization technology, we’ll likely see more effort being directed toward containerization, edge computing, and enhanced security features.

Then there’s the artificial intelligence volcano that erupted in late 2022 when ChatGPT awakened this sleeping giant.

Shortly, AI could take over virtualization, making it less complex for the average user and more efficient for businesses.

VMware’s Road Map

The recent acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has stirred up a lot of talk in the tech world. This merger is bringing massive changes, which include moving from one-time licensing to a subscription model.

This unexpected move could bundle up to 56 products together. And because of that, some VMware products, such as Horizon, might be sold off or retired.

These shifts are enough proof that VMware is undergoing a major transformation, and from the looks of it, things are just getting started.

CRN, for instance, reports that VMware users feel left “in the dark” due to a lack of clarity about how to get into the Broadcom program. Whether or not these fears are justified is a story for another day.

However, one thing is for sure: the changes the new owners are making will affect how virtualization and cloud services work in the future.

Ready to get the most out of this virtualization technology? Here’s how to go about it.

Installation and Setup

To install VMware, the first thing you need to do is ensure your hardware meets the basic requirements. At the bare minimum, you should have:

• a 64-bit operating system with Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled;
• eight gigabytes of memory;
• two gigabytes of storage; and
• a network speed of one gigabyte per second.

Note that the system requirements might change depending on the VMware product you want to install.

Next, find the VMware product you wish to install. For demonstration purposes, I’ll use VMware Workstation.

Here’s a summary of how to install VMware on Windows:

1. Visit the VMware website and locate the VMware desktop hypervisors option.
2. Log in to Windows as an Administrator or a user in the Administrators group.
3. Open the folder where the VMware Workstation installer is downloaded (usually the Downloads folder).
4. Right-click the installer file (named something like VMware-workstation-full-xxxx-xxxx.exe) and select “Run as Administrator.”
5. Choose a setup option (the Typical option installs standard features, while the Custom option allows the selection of specific features and installation location)
6. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
7. Restart the host machine.

The installation process is slightly different for a Linux host. Here are the steps:

1. Log in to the Linux host with your user account.
2. Open a terminal interface.
3. Change to the root user (e.g., “su root”).
4. Navigate to the directory containing the VMware Workstation bundle installer (usually the Downloads directory).
5. Run the VMware Workstation installer file.
6. Accept the license agreement.
7. Follow the instructions on your screen to complete the installation.
8. Restart the Linux host.

After installation, the VMware Workstation on Windows creates desktop and quick launch shortcuts, as well as a Start Menu item.

To launch the program:

1. Head over to “Start.”
2. Select “Programs.”
3. Choose “VMware Workstation.”

If you’re on Linux, you can start VMware Workstation from the command line using the “vmware &” command or from the System Tools menu under “Applications” in some distributions.

Note that the first time you start the program, you’ll need to accept the End User License Agreement before the Workstation window opens.

Resources for Learning VMware

VMware offers comprehensive official documentation, online courses, and certifications you can explore to learn and master its technologies. The company has a subdomain specifically dedicated to its product’s documentation.

Additionally, join community forums and support channels to gain valuable insights and assistance from experienced users and VMware experts.

For instance, the VMWare subreddit alone has more than 145,000 users and contains useful information from real-life users.

That’s a great place to start if you want to participate in meaningful conversations about the company’s products without all the salesy content.

VMware is a powerful tool for virtualization, and there is no doubt about that.

But to get the most out of this software and stay ahead in the evolving world of IT, you’ll need to understand its architecture, alternatives, and future developments.

I’m hoping that after reading this article, you have a better understanding of VMware, how it works, its benefits, and use cases.