Recently, Gartner released its latest report“China x86 Server Virtualization Market Guide”, indicating that the virtualization rate of x86 server infrastructure in Chinese enterprises is lower than the global average; IT infrastructure decision-makers in China must understand market trends, improve server virtualization levels and speed to support business agility, promote cost optimization, and meet the needs of digital business development.
The report also presents some key findings:
■The server virtualization rate of Chinese enterprises is only about 40%, lower than the 80% virtualization rate of mature global markets, but it is expected to soar in the next three years;
■ The largest virtualization provider in China is still VMware, but due to users’ preference for domestic suppliers and the relatively high deployment costs of VMware, the market share of domestic suppliers is expected to grow;
■ Many domestic enterprises are unable to migrate their business from physical servers to virtualization platforms due to a lack of management and operational skills, inability to convert legacy applications, and concerns about system stability.
The report suggests that IT infrastructure decision-makers in China should focus on building and maintaining reliable infrastructure, aiming for automation, optimizing virtualization workload capabilities, building private clouds, and preparing for future migration of virtualization workloads to public clouds; by emphasizing cost optimization, improving system availability, and increasing agility, they can consolidate the results of their investments in virtualization construction.
The Rise of Domestic Virtualization Solutions Six domestic vendors selected
Gartner summarizes a situation in the report: Chinese IT infrastructure decision-makers are increasingly favoring domestic virtualization solutions over global ones.
Domestic suppliers are expected to capture market share from foreign suppliers with competitive cost advantages, good relationships, and flexible customization capabilities.
Based on an understanding of the Chinese market and products, Gartner has listed the representative suppliers in the current Chinese virtualization market:
Most of them are familiar names, but one name is mentioned for the first time by Gartner: Winhong. What is this supplier that has caught Gartner’s attention?
It turns out that this is a key technology and service provider for cloud computing and big data—Yunhong. Yunhong is a leading domestic provider of key technologies and services for cloud computing and big data, adhering to the path of productizing domestic independent virtualization software. The Gartner report also provides a detailed introduction to Yunhong:
“Yunhong’s proprietary x86 server virtualization platform CNware was launched in 2010 and is widely used in government, financial services, defense, and military fields. Notably, Yunhong collaborates with domestic microprocessor chip manufacturers to provide solutions for sensitive industries. Additionally, Yunhong partners with major domestic x86 server manufacturers, independent software vendors, and system integrators to provide a complete set of integrated solutions. As an independent software product for server virtualization, Yunhong CNware aims to provide a secure, programmable management, and automated operation cloud operating system.”
Strength of Representative Suppliers Three Highly Recognized Features
In fact, before being included in the Gartner report, the Yunhong CNware virtualization platform had already received authoritative recognition in China. Technically, it is known for its “three high” characteristics:
High Security: Yunhong products meet the security inspection requirements of the National Development and Reform Commission (Public Security Ministry Inspection Center) for cloud operating systems (enhanced level) and the Information Technology Security Evaluation Criteria (EAL3). They have passed the evaluation of virtualization product security and confidentiality technology by the National Confidentiality Bureau. The core security technologies of CNware include DDoS defense at the virtualization layer, virtual firewalls, virtual machine data encryption, integrity verification, three-person management, dual-factor authentication, and support for domestic encryption algorithms.
High Compatibility: The Yunhong CNware virtualization platform has rich heterogeneous compatibility, capable of supporting various x86 virtualization resources (VMware, vSphere) and RISC architecture mini-computer virtualization (IBM PowerVM). At the same time, the CNware virtualization platform has good compatibility with mainstream servers in the industry.
High Availability: When certain physical hosts in the virtualization resource pool fail, the virtual machines on the failed physical hosts will start on other normal physical hosts within the resource pool, ensuring the safe and reliable continuous operation of the resource pool. In addition to protection against physical machine failures and virtual machine crashes, CNware has added detection and protection mechanisms for Windows blue screens and Linux kernel crashes.
Deeply Cultivating Industries, Flourishing Everywhere Achieving Outstanding Results in Various Industries, Extensive Ecological Cooperation
Yunhong’s business covers multiple information technology industries, with the financial sector being particularly prominent. In the 2017 IDC list of China’s Fintech Pioneers, Yunhong was the only professional cloud computing company selected; according to the China Financial Cloud Market Research Report by CCID Consulting, Yunhong ranked second in market share in the financial cloud sector from 2016 to 2017, holding a leadership position. Additionally, the 2016-2017 analysis of brand competitiveness in the Chinese cloud management platform market by CCID Consulting indicated that Yunhong is currently the closest domestic company to achieving the goal of becoming “China’s VMware.” Furthermore, in major information technology projects for government clouds, medical clouds, and educational clouds, Yunhong’s products and services are frequently seen.
It is understood that Yunhong has extensive cooperation with domestic hardware and software vendors. On the hardware side,DELL, IBM, Lenovo, Sugon, and Baode are among the server manufacturers that have partnerships with Yunhong. On the software side, Yunhong collaborates withFuture International, Taihao, Feilong, Fenghuo, and Sichuang Co., Ltd. to create a smart city ecosystem and provide core technologies for cloud computing virtualization.
It is evident that although Yunhong is a new name in the Gartner report, it has already become a significant force in the field of key technologies for cloud computing in China.
It is worth mentioning that in this Gartner report, Yunhong is the only independent professional software provider for server virtualization selected. Previously, in the IDC “PRC SDC Software Tracker 2017H1” report, Yunhong also appeared as the only independent professional software provider, highlighting that domestic companies represented by Yunhong have reached a leading level in the field of independently developed cloud computing and big data key technologies.
Gartner recommends that Chinese enterprises choose suitable server virtualization suppliers as partners to achieve their server virtualization goals.
Domestic suppliers have many case experiences that are suitable for national conditions, which can be provided to similar clients, delivering complete solutions that not only ensure technical capabilities but also save deployment costs. Perhaps, domestic suppliers will be a better choice.