VMLogix brings virtual lab automation into the cloud

VMLogix just announced VMLogix LabManager Cloud Edition, a new product that enables software teams to run virtual labs within cloud computing environments.  Lab automation is hot right now, and adding in cloud technology seems to make a lot of sense.  To find out more about the company’s interest in moving to the clouds, I went straight to the top and spoke with Sameer Dholakia, CEO of VMLogix.

[ Get past the cloud computing hype and see what’s real in InfoWorld’s “What cloud computing really means” | Stay on top of the cloud from an IT pro’s perspective in whurley’s Cloud Computing blog | Don’t get fooled by false premises. InfoWorld busts the nine myths of cloud computing. ]

InfoWorld: With a number of virtual lab automation companies entering the cloud space, where does VMLogix fit in this market?

VMLogix: VMLogix has always been a leader in the virtual lab automation market, and will continue to be as we add support for the cloud platforms.  Since our inception in-house at a software company, we’ve always worked closely with software engineers to understand their needs better and create solutions that match the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis.  Previously, VMLogix focused on providing customers with products to develop and manage their private cloud infrastructure, offering a critical management platform for various end-users as well as internal IT administrators.  Now, VMLogix has extended these same award-winning management capabilities to the public cloud, enabling users to take advantage of the same capabilities to manage virtual labs in Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environments.  VMLogix is the first company to offer users the flexibility of leveraging both private and public cloud infrastructures for their virtual lab automation and management requirements.

InfoWorld: How does VMLogix define the cloud, since there are so many different descriptions from different people’s perspectives? VMLogix: Instead of introducing another definition, I think it’s more important to understand how cloud computing technology can enable users.  Fundamentally, cloud computing provides users with two things:

1. transactional access to resources, which offers the ability to access and manage resources (compute, storage, and networking) in a utility-style, “pay-for-what-you-use” mode 2. an abstraction of the resource from users (enabled by virtualization), which provides users with the ability to access IT resources in a dynamic manner (i.e., access to or provision the resource in real time), scalable (real time access to any number of such resources), elastic (the ability to scale resource use up or down), and graded (the ability to provide varied quality of service to users requesting the resources).  Resource abstraction also provides a platform for increased collaboration and artifact re-use among the many users.

InfoWorld: How do public and private clouds change software development and testing? VMLogix: Traditionally, organizations have been limited to their own resources.  For software labs, which often experience fluctuations in their work cycle, this often means resources are either scarce or underutilized (e.g., if administrators plan resources to handle peak demand).  We believe that to address this fluctuation, software teams will look to tap and burst into the external public cloud when there are resource demand spikes.  What we’ll see is a lot more dev and test happening in the cloud because the volatility of demand in a lab is perfectly suited to the elasticity of the public cloud.  Other functional uses of virtual labs, such as training, pre-sales/demos, and software support, will similarly take advantage of cloud economics.  This means that the tools and management software these teams use will have to work on- and off-premises.

InfoWorld: What does VMLogix LabManager, Cloud Edition offer? VMLogix: VMLogix LabManager, Cloud Edition will enable users to work in the Amazon EC2 in order to deliver and maintain software applications more quickly, cost-effectively, and reliably.  The new edition offers an easy and cost-effective way to provide virtual lab automation to development, QA, training, pre-sales demo, and support teams.  Features include:

1. The creation and management of multi-machine configurations, enabling the combination of multiple Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) into a single environment and providing capabilities to entirely automate the deployment and re-deployment of multi-machine environments (including software stack customizations) in a self-service fashion.
2. Full virtual lab tool capabilities for tapping into powerful virtual lab management capabilities, including user/team management, license management, and lease management; enabling users/teams to share/collaborate with lab artifacts and audit trails and to access a centralized repository of software media; and enabling users to leverage Amazon’s extensive library of templates.
3. On-demand access to virtual lab resources — allowing for lower capital expenditures and easy access to the cloud over the Web for self-service IT resources from any location.
4. A pay-for-what-you-use pricing model which leverages the elasticity of the cloud and allows users to instantly scale up or scale down the lab infrastructure only when required — only paying for what is used.

InfoWorld:  Any big differences with VMLogix in the cloud from non-cloud? VMLogix: For customers looking for the familiar VMLogix management solution and an operating environment that they are accustomed to using on-premise (as part of their private cloud requirements), we offer the same type of capabilities when they tap into the public cloud, either in Cloud-only mode, or with Hybrid Cloud for bursts in IT resource needs.

InfoWorld: Are your current customers moving into the cloud? What’s the impetus for them? VMLogix: From a customer standpoint, the public cloud holds expectations of shifting upfront capital expenditure to ongoing operational expenditure and the ability to introduce potential cost savings by paying only for the resources they use.  Many of our existing customers are expecting to leverage the public cloud in concert with their existing on-premise virtual lab infrastructure.

InfoWorld: As more and more labs move into the cloud, what are some of the best practices that software teams should follow? VMLogix: Public clouds are a potentially inexhaustible pool of resources for software teams to leverage.  While this provides great flexibility to end-users, IT administrators are very concerned about unmonitored, excess, and unpredictable usage of cloud resources.  For example, the tester who forgets to shut down a running VM in the cloud can cost his company unnecessary expense.  In short, IT is worried about what the bill will be for the cloud infrastructure consumed at the end of each month.  One of the key best practices that we have baked into LabManager, Cloud Edition is the ability for IT administrators to define policies to control usage of the public cloud — such that limits on VMs, memory, etc. usage can be controlled at user and team levels.  Such policy-driven constraints allow for end-user self-service in the cloud, but in an IT-sanctioned fashion.

Once again, thank you to Sameer Dholakia, CEO of VMLogix, for taking the time to speak with me.