VMware vSphere (formerly VMware Infrastructure 4) is VMware's cloud computing virtualization operating system.
History
VMware vSphere, a holistic view.
While VMware Infrastructure 3.5 was in development, vSphere was conceived as an enhanced suite of tools for cloud computing utilizing VMware ESX/ESXi 4.
The cloud computing-enabled tool suite was spun off as VMware Infrastructure 4 (for short, VI 4) to be distinct from VMware Infrastructure 3.5 (VI 3.5) that was then ready for release (March 30, 2009).
On April 21, 2009, VMware eventually announced vSphere 4, instead of VI 4, releasing it on May 21, 2009.
On November 19, 2009, VMware released Update 1 for vSphere 4, to add support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
VMware's vSphere 4.1 began shipping in August 2010. This update included an updated vCenter Configuration Manager, as well as vCenter Application Discovery Manager, and the ability of vMotion to move more than one virtual machine at a time from one server host to another.
On 10 February 2011, VMware released Update 1 for vSphere 4.1 to add support for RHEL 6, RHEL 5.6, SLES 11 SP1 for VMware, Ubuntu 10.10, and Solaris 10 Update 9.
On July 12, 2011, VMware released version 5 of VMware vSphere.
On August 27, 2012, VMware released vSphere 5.1. This extended vSphere to include VMware vSphere Storage Appliance, vSphere Data Protection, vSphere Replication and vShield Endpoint.
On September 22, 2013, vSphere 5.5 was released.
On May 2014 SAP an VMWare announce SAP HANA for production use on VMware vSphere 5.5
On February 3, 2015, VMware's CEO Pat Gelsinger announced vSphere 6.0 with a large number of new features and enhancements.
See also
- VMware ESX/ESXi, the hypervisor operating system component
- VMware VMFS, the VMware file system component
