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VMware Virtual Infrastructure to be renamed vSphere

PostDateIcon December 19th, 2008 | PostAuthorIcon Author: Rich Brambley

VMTN moderator and Roundtable podcast regular Jason Boche and virtualization bloggers Rick Schere and Scott Lowe are reporting that VMware will be changing the name of their flagship enterprise Virtual Infrastructure products from VI 3.5 to vSphere. Following mostly the same individuals’ tweets on Twitter I learned that the new name was decided via a vote by VMware employees. It’s unclear to me at this time when the name change will officially take place, but I imagine it will coincide with the availability of the next software release.

First some quotes from the other guys, and then my first impression. 


Jason reports :

“Today at the Minneapolis VMware User Group (VMUG) meeting, VMware employees disclosed to a group of 150+ attendees the new name for the next generation of Virtual Infrastructure many have been referring to as VI4 or VI.next.  The new name is VMware vSphere.”

Scott adds:

“Personally, I very much wished they had selected one of the other names they were tossing around. I liked “VMware Vantage.” vSphere? Who came up with this name, and what in the world is this supposed to mean? To me, it creates connotations of running around in a circle getting nowhere. Not exactly the image we want to create, is it?”

Rick hinted that the name was changing yesterday :

“The next release of VMware Virtual Infrastructure (VI4) will be renamed. It will no longer be Virtual Infrastructure and the VI branding will go away.  The most I can tell you is that the new name will be out of this world.”

Read the full posts from each of these guys at the links provided in the first paragraph of this post.

My initial thoughts:

vSphere makes me think of Michael Crichton’s novel and the 1998 movie, The Sphere, which was about a spaceship found at the bottom of the ocean covered in 300 years of coral. When a team of scientists boards the technically advanced craft they discover a huge sphere on board. The Sphere turns out to be an alien with a child’s personality that causes strange manifestations based on the fears and anxieties of the individual crew members. Another mystery on this spaceship is that it apparently originated from Earth but came from the future. Which sort of supports Scott’s and Rick’s comments ….

Honestly, The novel / movie is what went through my mind when I read the posts tonight.

If I had been asked to vote on it I would have not agreed with this choice. It feels too conceptual to me. That may not be a solid reason, but the “warm fuzzy” factor is all I have to offer right now. Why not just use VDC-OS (I’ve already accepted that concept) or stick with VI? I hope to understand the method behind the madness as the VMware marketing plan unfolds over the next few weeks, months, and year.

I feel the same about the VDI product name changes too, but VMware View was another concept introduced at VMworld 2008 that I’ve had time to accept.

This is just my opinion, but all the conceptual stuff is gettting borderline vCloudy to me. It concerns me that if I feel I need to figure it out, then how are the analysts, reporters, VMware customers, and general public going to interpret the naming strategy?

updated 12.19.08 – after I finished writing this post I discovered David Marshall shares the same “gut” feelings about this name change too. David points out that Roger Lund was also at the same VMUG meeting as Jason.

updated 12.20.08 – Eric Sloof posted that vSphere appears to already be in use by a Home / Office / Industrial surveillance Application. Hmmm …

Related Posts

PostCategoryIcon Posted in news, vi3, vmware | PostTagIcon Tags: , , , , ,
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  • 1. It wasn't as simple as a straight vote.

    2. VDC-OS is a class of software platforms; vSphere is the product. Same reason to change VDI.

    3. See my thoughts on my tweet http://twitter.com/jtroyer/status/1068204505 "I like vSphere: it's a container like cloud/pool, it can grow into a whole world/ecosystem, it's more dynamic than platform/framework."
  • I am the president/leader of the Minneapolis VMUG and I was both surprised and pleased to hear these details come out. I almost could not wait to get down to the EMC sponsored happy hour bar area afterward to blog about it, but more important to me was not ruining the various relationships I have with VMware (and to not get my local VMware reps in hot water) so I had a few phone conversations with Palo Alto, obtaining their blessing, before publishing the news on my blog. Frankly, I thought holding the new name in such high secrecy was a little silly.
  • lundrog
    Next Time, I am getting this on video, and blogging live.

    :0)


    Roger L
  • Rich, I'm with you. I do believe we share the same initial gut feeling. Perhaps, like you said, it will grow on us... but for now, I'm not feeling it. View, vClient, VDC-OS, yeah, I'm not big on change (and VMware decided to change everything!), but at least the other name changes had some basis that I could get into, understand, and the names just didn't bother me. vSphere, I'm just not grocking.

    John, don't get me wrong. I totally see where you are trying to take me here with your comment above and tweet, but it just isn't doing it for me. And yeah, I know, so what, I'm not the name police. I'm just wondering, how many people will this confuse or just not sit well with. Like I said on my blog, I hope you don't mind me calling it VI4 for a while. I like it, it makes sense, and sometimes it takes us old dogs a bit longer to come on board.

    I'd love to hear some of the other potential names, even if over a beer and an NDA! Haha. ;)

    -David
  • John,

    Thanks for the info.

    I'm sure it wasn't a simple vote, but the conversation on Twitter last night seemed to support that the decision was based in some part on the popularity of the name with the VMware employees.

    I get the class of platforms vs. the product name. Just like VI Enterprise is a class of products and ESX is a product name. So, that means the new names will be VDC-OS (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) 1.0 with vSphere 1.0, for example?

    Your "grow to a world / ecosystem / container" explanation makes sense, but wasn't the concept of internal and external clouds enough? Or am I missing that distinction too.

    Jason,

    I bet you were "itching" to get to the Internet to report on what you heard! Thanks for getting it out so quickly!

    Roger,

    I'm not sure if video will have a desirable result. People / speakers change in front of cameras, and especially if they did not know / consent to being video taped before hand. VMUGs need to remain informal and comfortable in my opinion. If they don't then industry insiders may not want to speak freely or even attend at all.
  • David,

    Isaac Asimov - "The only constant is change"
  • Scott Lowe appears to know of/mention at least one other name in the running on his reaction here: http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/12/19/get-used-t...
  • lundrog
    Rich,

    Perhaps, just tossing out idea's for those that can't make the trip.
  • I have added my views on my blog, this is going to be quite a blow day to day, I know the ESX inside out and it could be called Micky Mouse 3 for all I care but Virtual Infrastructure IS your infrastructure, the name has given people trust in running there business on it.

    I wonder how many times i'll be saying "vSphere, which used to be ESX" in conversation...
  • Tom
    "vSphere, formerly known as ESX"
    a big waste of time explaining it to people
  • lundrog
    From now on, I am going to refer it VI Client as VSphere Client, and see if anyone gets it.
  • GAH!!! You're already goofing it up Roger because it was made absolutely clear at the VMUG it's small "v", captial "S", small "phere" = vSphere. Another VMWare type reference - case sensitivity - This will probably be on the new VCP exam - Haha :D
  • lundrog
    Ah ha, someone is awake on a weekend, heh.

    Now, whats a VCP exam? :0)

    Roger L
  • They cannot use vSphere as we have it - http://www.surfaceoptics.com/Products/FTIRs/VSp...
  • Jezza,

    I was aware that vSphere was already in use. The folks at VMware have gone "dark" on this. I would not be surprised if the name changes again (I have no insider info), but if it doesn't then I'm sure Surface Optics will make "some noise"?
  • Let the lawyers sort it out.
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