A repeated theme throughout VMworld has been the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC). VMware is pushing beyond server virtualization and even beyond infrastructure virtualization with the SDDC. VMware has re-branded the vSphere Suite to the vCloud Suite to emphasize their focus from hardware to the entire data center including applications. They have an ambitious goal of blurring the lines between application and infrastructure.
VMware showed a great example of this during their keynote. They showed how they can resize an Hadoop cluster based on the needs of the data set. Using their Cloud Foundry API it’s possible to have an elastic application controlled through their vDirector cloud manager.
The below link is to the VMware Office of the CTO blog that goes into further detail of the management strategy.
Office of the CTO | Managing the Software-Defined Datacenter.
Virtualized Geek 