Tech giants form Open Virtualisation Alliance

A host of tech giants, including HP, IBM and Intel, have formed the Open Virtualisation Alliance.

The group will seek to support the continued adoption of open virtualisation technologies, focusing strongly on the kernel-based virtual machine (KVM).

KVM would allow businesses to create multiple unmodified virtual versions of Linux and Windows on a single server. The framework consists of a loadable kernel module, kvm.ko, which provides the core virtualisation infrastructure, alongside a processor specific module.

Other companies involved in the Open Virtualisation Alliance include BMC Software, Eucalyptus Systems, Red Hat and SUSE.

"With the formation of this alliance, we are taking an important step forward with other industry leaders to ensure that businesses have an open virtualisation alternative," said Inna Kuznetsova, vice president of the IBM Systems and Technology Group.

The alliance will provide education, best practices and technical advice to businesses looking to understand the range of virtualisation options open to them.

It will also "encourage interoperability and accelerate the expansion of the ecosystem of third party solutions around KVM."

"When one company dominates an industry, innovation suffers, and customers pay the price," added Scott Crenshaw, vice president and general manager of the cloud business division at Red Hat.

"Red Hat and the open source community are breaking the stranglehold of closed virtualisation, enabling better performance, scalability, security - and better economics."

Earlier this month, Red Hat and IBM announced a partnership to produce products base on KVM.