OpenQRM, the open source data-center management platform, announced the availability of a beta version of release 4.0. This is a significant release as it is a complete rewrite and port frmo the Java platform to PHP, focusing on several design specifications:

• KIS (keep it simple)
• run everywhere (support for every linux distribution, especially Debian+Ubuntu)
• clean up (remove all not needed code)
• reduce code base (less code = less bugs)
• using existing components (instead of providing own binaries/libs)
• better packaging and dependencies
• enabling/disabling plugins via the GUI
• support for multiple databases (DB2, Mysql, Oracle, Postgres)
• porting from java to PHP
• focus on rapid-, appliance-based deployment, virtualization- and storage-management
• ease-up installation
• and more...

OpenQRM has seen quite some changes recently, including becoming independent from Qlusters. Those changes don't seem to have had impact on the dynamic of the project though.

OpenQRM, the provisioning and management solution for physical and virtual systems, initially developed by Qlusters, is now an independent project. Release 3.5 will be the last done by Qlusters, and Matt Rechenburg, the manager of the project, will continue to lead its development.

As seen on the 451Group

The 451 Group had a press release stating that "Thanks to open source projects, the hypervisor – the software layer that enables physical machines to run multiple virtual machines – has become a commodity. As a result, hypervisor vendors have become virtualization management vendors and are now selling virtualization administration". In one year, their list of private companies in the category "VM management" has grown from 6 companies to 50!

It's been years that we hear software will become a commodity, with Sun clearly following that direction. Virtualisation is a clear example of that trend, with the sector's current leader VMWare well aware of this, and offering free downloads of its basic solutions. But Free and Open Source solutions are moving also, as illustrated by Open QRM (which will be represented by its project manager at the Virtualisation event organised by Profoss, where a session titled "The future is in the management tools" will also be organised)