VMware ESX 4.0 aka vSphere 4.0 platform

The next major release of VMware ESX platform is being prepared. The platform newly called as vSphere 4.0 is going to be based on six stones which provide:

1. vCompute - virtualization layer, hypervisor, live migration
   
2. vStorage - storage management, replication
   
3. vNetwork - network management, distributed switch, Cisco Nexus switch
   
4. Availability - clustering, data protection
   
5. Security - VMsafe APIs, vShield Zones
   
6. Scalability - dynamic resource management, distributed power management
   

Furthermore, the new platform will support virtual machines with 8 virtual CPUs and 256 GB of virtual memory.

The second most important part of virtual environment is centralized management. Today, we know it as VMware VirtualCenter Server. In the future, it should be called vCenter Suite. The good news, it will be available for Linux servers as well so no more Windows licenses are required.