{"id":10206,"date":"2015-09-21T16:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T13:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/?p=10206"},"modified":"2024-08-27T07:24:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T04:24:11","slug":"when-is-a-microvisor-no-visor-at-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/when-is-a-microvisor-no-visor-at-all\/","title":{"rendered":"When Is a Microvisor No Visor at All?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_79_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-transparent ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/when-is-a-microvisor-no-visor-at-all\/#Containers_vs_virtualization\" >Containers vs. virtualization?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/when-is-a-microvisor-no-visor-at-all\/#What_does_the_%E2%80%9C-visor%E2%80%9D_imply\" >What does the &#8220;-visor&#8221; imply?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Containers_vs_virtualization\"><\/span>Containers vs. virtualization?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Containers have gained big momentum over the past year. I&#8217;m reminded of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discogs.com\/release\/2638609-Various-The-Guitars-That-Destroyed-The-World\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this album<\/a> cover, which you old folks in the crowd will remember as well.<\/p>\n<p>But wait! Containers haven&#8217;t eliminated the market for virtualization just yet. In fact, this discussion shouldn&#8217;t be positioned strictly as a containers vs. virtualization debate.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, ironically, one of the bigger <a href=\"https:\/\/tanzu.vmware.com\/content\/blog\/pivotal-and-vmware-preview-turnkey-cloud-native-platform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent stories<\/a> in the world of containers came at the recent VMworld Conference in San Francisco: VMware&#8217;s new Photon OS platform and Pivotal&#8217;s turnkey solution for it.<\/p>\n<p>VMware has apparently seen the light with Photon, described by the company as an \u201copen source, Linux container host runtime optimized for VMware vSphere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Photon OS technology preview, cool logo and all, can be downloaded (and forked) from <a href=\"http:\/\/vmware.github.io\/photon\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>StackEngine CEO Bob Quillin, who spent some years at EMC and VMware as a product marketer, asks whether this idea of VMware as a \u201cmicrovisor\u201d means it is headed toward \u201cnovisor at all.\u201d He says that VMware is now \u201cclearly embracing a pro-container approach with its collaborative announcement with sibling Pivotal\u2014but it\u2019s the end game for VMware that\u2019s unclear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the hypervisor is reduced to nothing, what remains for VMware in the long run? Is it the Photon Controller acting as a control plane for containers? Is VMware building and maintaining its own OS?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_does_the_%E2%80%9C-visor%E2%80%9D_imply\"><\/span>What does the &#8220;-visor&#8221; imply?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Maybe we can embrace and extend this \u201cnovisor\u201d term to NoVisor\u2014Not Only a Hypervisor\u2014because it appears as if we&#8217;ve entered a new age of hybrid virtualization and containers. From our perspective we don&#8217;t see an \u201cend game,\u201d and we don&#8217;t think one is needed just yet.<\/p>\n<p>Our point of view is envisioned significantly from the progress in recent years of cloud computing itself, which has quickly evolved from the original NIST definitions of cloud computing, to a different, market-driven hard distinction between \u201cpublic\u201d (e.g., AWS) and \u201cprivate\u201d (on-premises) cloud, to a ubiquitous discussion of hybrid cloud computing.<\/p>\n<p>Wash. Rinse. Repeat.<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Quillin has outlined what he calls the \u201cjourney from virtualization to containers\u201d in an <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150727021053\/http:\/\/stackengine.com\/virtualization-containerization-journey\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in-depth post<\/a> a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from his view of a zero sum game in which containers replace virtualization, it&#8217;s critical to note that he also mentions this \u201cstrategic goal\u201d for enterprise IT: \u201c(finding) an IaaS solution that developers can use or a PaaS that IT buys into.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This viewpoint relates to a sibling argument about whether PaaS is being subsumed into IaaS, with the big dog AWS working to make this happen, and other IaaS providers following suit. This argument will be the subject of another post.<\/p>\n<p>For now, what do you think? How significant is the VMware\/Pivotal announcement, and where is the -visor heading?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Containers vs. virtualization?<\/p>\n<p>Containers have gained big momentum over the past year. I&#8217;m reminded of this album cover, which you old folks in the crowd will remember as well.<\/p>\n<p>But wait! Containers haven&#8217;t eliminated the market for virtualization just yet. In fact, this discussion shouldn&#8217;t be positioned strictly as a containers vs. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[873,570,206,28],"class_list":["post-10206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-opinion","tag-cloud-native","tag-containers","tag-oss-cloud-foundry","tag-pivotal-cf"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When Is a Microvisor No Visor at All? | Altoros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"VMware and Pivotal&#039;s announcement of unified Photon OS\/Pivotal CF stack heralds a new age of hybrid virtualization and containers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/when-is-a-microvisor-no-visor-at-all\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Is a Microvisor No Visor at All? | Altoros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"VMware and Pivotal&#039;s announcement of unified Photon OS\/Pivotal CF stack heralds a new age of hybrid virtualization and containers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/when-is-a-microvisor-no-visor-at-all\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Altoros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-21T13:00:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-27T04:24:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/photon-os-pivotal-cf.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roger Strukhoff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roger Strukhoff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/when-is-a-microvisor-no-visor-at-all\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/when-is-a-microvisor-no-visor-at-all\/\",\"name\":\"When Is a Microvisor No Visor at All? 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