The marketshare leader in virtualization software – VMware, Inc. is set to unveil its next generation hypervisor, ESX Server 4.0 and the associated tools today. The Palo Alto, California based VMware has claimed that ESX Server 4.0 is a hypervisor that virtualizes compute, storage, and network resources on x64 servers.

According to VMware, ESX Server 4.0 hypervisor has slew of features that help virtual machines to do a number of neat things, like transport around networks of machines or back each other up.

VMware has notified that its next version of its virtualisation platform – the suite of next generation virtualization products from VMware will now be called vSphere rather than VMware Infrastructure. The company has announced vSphere 4, the successor to VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) will be ready for shipping before the end of this quarter. According to the company, the vSphere 4 will be dubbed as "the first cloud operating system".

Bogomil Balkansky, vice president of marketing at VMware, the vSphere 4 includes a strategy and product set that VMware used to call the Virtual Data Center Operating System, or VDC-OS. It will go by the name Cloud OS.

According to Balkansky, VMware chief executive officer Paul Maritz has called the vSphere 4 as "21st century software mainframe," and most of the features in vSphere are in the hypervisor.

The vSphere 4 has advanced storage and network virtualisation features developed to turn corporate data centres into a single giant resource, and  with affordable entry-level editions of the new platform, the company is also targeting smaller companies. The main new features in vSphere include vStorage that offers thin provisioning support; vNetwork Distributed Switch, which virtualises network connections used by virtual machines; Fault Tolerance; and vShield Zones for security. Fault Tolerance provides high-availability support for any workload, enabling even small companies to ensure continuous availability of key applications. The vNetwork Distributed Switch "creates a network layer that spans the entire infrastructure," which makes it easier to move virtual machines around and keep their network connections intact.

Matt Piercy, VMware's senior regional director for Northern EMEA, said, "Our goal is to eliminate complexity by turning IT into a service that customers can operate at a cost level that suits them.”