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The most widely deployed mobile virtualization solution
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Open Kernel Labs Blog
September 24, 2010
“Virtualization On the Go” at GigaOM Mobilize: Singalong or Slugfest?
Update: Check out the GigaOm news wrap-up
Sitting on industry panels can feel either like going ten rounds with Mike Tyson or singing in a choir. Sometimes you face a barrage of hard-hitting questions, pitting you against competitors, and other times you and your fellow panelists harmonize like an industry barbershop quartet, echoing and reinforcing shared values and messages.
The panel at GigaOm Mobilize 2010 is likely to be a mix of the two experiences – at the very least it holds the promise of lively conversation among purveyors of virtualization software, with the promise of headbutting and bodyblows on vying solutions and records.
I’ll be joining representatives from VirtualLogix (now part of Redbend) and from VMware in the event, ably moderated by referee Colin Gibbs. My esteemed industry peers and I are likely to agree on many fronts – hummmm – that mobile virtualization is a hot topic – hmmmm – that a wide range of applications exist for mobile virtualization – hummm – and that the impact of this powerful technology reaches all the way across the mobile/wireless ecosystem, from semiconductor suppliers to OEMs to ISVs to mobile network operators to end users.
More telling will be where OK Labs and the other two firms diverge. While I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t see into the mind of the moderator, I’d like to outline key differences in approach and narrative that will inform the panel session:
Targeted Technology
VMware, with its strong brand as a supplier of enterprise data center virtualization, is ambivalent about targeting the growing global mobile market. In 2008, they acquired Trango, a small company, whose hypervisor has formed the basis for VMware’s entry into mobile. Trango legacy software is completely unrelated to VMware core technology (built on Linux and VMware proprietary hypervisor code), and appears pretty much unchanged since the acquisition.
VirtualLogix, until last month’s acquisition by Redbend, was a freestanding embedded virtualization supplier whose technology emphasized performance more than strong isolation and security. Originally positioned to target network infrastructure equipment, their most visible successes to date have come from networking infrastructure applications.
OK Labs has always targeted mobile applications, building on robust microkernel-based virtualization for both performance and strong isolation of hosted software. The solid foundation lets OK Labs support applications that include secure mobile communications, hardware consolidation for BoM cost reduction and support for optimizing and managing multicore mobile silicon.
Path to Market
OK Labs approaches mobile virtualization as an embedded application for core software technology. Embedded platform software proceeds to market in three stages:
i. Reference designs built in tandem with semiconductor suppliers (like Qualcomm and ST-E)
ii. Pre-load software on handsets built by device manufacturers (like Motorola and Samsung)
iii. Rollout to end-users by mobile network operators (like ATT and Vodafone) in support of wireless services
OK Labs has been very successful to date in building and serving relationships that traverse the ecosystem, ultimately providing value both to mobile workers and to corporate IT in support of a mobile workforce.
VirtualLogix follows a comparable path to market, but with more bumps and turns. For example, they don’t enjoy integration and deployment in ubiquitous mobile reference designs the way OK Labs does with Qualcomm and other leading silicon houses.
As a global supplier to enterprise IT, VMware hopes to go to market by building on its enterprise customer relationships. Their channel and expertise focuses on IT management. Their path to market for mobile virtualization must then follow one of two routes:
Cross-ecosystem demand creation: Work with enterprise customers to influence operators to generate requirements for OEMs to work with semiconductor suppliers to integrate, productize and deploy VMware-based mobile virtualization – a long an winding road that requires experience and expertise that VMware currently lacks (especially compared to OK Labs).
Direct distribution: Create virtualization products to short-circuit the ecosystem for delivery through existing enterprise software channels. This seemingly elegant re-routing can only deliver application-level virtualization, with substantial deficits in performance and security and breadth of use cases.
Match Record
Panelists climb up into the ring, uh dais, ready for a technical bout, but ultimately spar based on market position. VMware is the IT industry heavyweight, and well-promoted (especially among Enterprise customers, but where are their wins in mobile/wireless? Do they have the stamina for the barnburners that characterize mobile/wireless?
VirtualLogix joins the Redbend portfolio of management and provisioning software; the combined company has its hands full competing with two larger competitors —InnoPath and Mformation.
In the OK Labs corner, we have a four-year record of delivering mobile virtualization solutions to top-tier MNOs and OEMs, such as Motorola and others, and of partnering with solid semiconductor suppliers such as Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson. Our combination of microkernel-based virtualization and industry solutions (like Mass-Market Smartphone Solution and SecureIT Mobile) help our customers go the distance.
So, gentlemen – shake hands, and ding ding . . .
Posted by Steve Subar on September 24 at 12:20 PM
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About Steve Subar:
Steve Subar, CEO and President of OK Labs, has been an honored leader in the technology industry for 20 plus years and has received several accolades for his work. Steve is an avid runner who can also be found communing with his surfboard in Bondi Beach, Australia; skiing the slopes of Beaver Creek, Colorado; or searching for the perfect Pinot Noir all over the world.