A few days ago Team Fusion posted about Apple Mac OS X 10.5 being their 61st supported OS. That’s pretty darn cool. Thing is, though, it doesn’t make a darn bit of difference to me.
Instead, I’d really like to run Mac OS X in ESX Server. I don’t even care if I have to buy Apple Xserve hardware to do it. I’d love to see Mac OS X guests in VirtualCenter, able to use VMotion, snapshots, HA, cloning, and all the enterprise features we already have for Windows, Linux, Netware, and Solaris x86. It would also be very cool to see Mac OS X virtual desktops. Imagine how easy it would be to switch people over then.
As it stands, the column of aging Xserves in my data center is likely to be replaced with Linux VMs when the warranties on the hardware expire. Why? Because hardware isn’t worth it anymore. It doesn’t matter whose logo is on it or how snazzy brushed aluminum is, appearances don’t change the fact that physical hardware in my increasingly warm and full data center is, at most, 5% utilized on average. Customers and their applications need encapsulation and isolation, not hardware. And especially not expensive hardware with short warranties. There are lots of good reasons to run Mac OS X in an enterprise, but without an enterprise virtualization solution it’ll continue losing to Linux, or, heaven forbid, Windows.
In conclusion, I hope the Fusion announcement is a prelude to bigger things, and I look forward to the day when my Mac desktop is just a VM running out of my data center. :-)