Open Virtualization Format (OVF) Released
The Open Virtualization Format (OVF) was recently released as version 1.0 by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). What is OVF you may ask? OVF is a set of standards that enable interoperability through the creation of systems management standards for virtualized environments. This doesn’t replace formats such as VHD or VMDK. OVF is more of an abstraction layer. This really benefits vendors that make virtual appliances. Now, vendors can concentrate on making a virtual appliance that conforms to the OVF standard and rest assured that their virtual appliance will run on a myriad of hypervisors like ESX, Hyper-V, and Xen/XenServer.
Key benefits of the OVF standard include:
- Portable virtual machine (VM) packaging
- Optimization for secure distribution
- Simplified installation and deployment
- Support for both single VM and multi-VM configurations
- Vendor and platform independent
- Extensible
- Localizable
Technorati : Citrix, Microsoft, OVF, VMware, Virtual Appliance
Del.icio.us : Citrix, Microsoft, OVF, VMware, Virtual Appliance
