Mike Day will be giving a talk on “”Beyond the Hypervisor - A Technical Roadmap for Open Virtualization, Linux, KVM.” The SCALE Team caught up with him to ask him a few questions about his presentation.
Q: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?
A: I've been working on Linux Virtualization since 2005 when IBM and some other groups helped to bring Xen into the Linux community. In 2007 we embraced KVM and by 2009 KVM was the default hypervisor in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. That same year IBM based its commercial public cloud on KVM. Prior to Linux and virtualization I worked on systems management, network protocols and networking standards, clustering software, and network operating systems for Intel, Novell, and a couple of startup companies.
Q: You're giving a talk on ”Beyond the Hypervisor - A Technical Roadmap for Open Virtualization, Linux, KVM.” Without tipping your hand on the actual talk, can you give us an idea of what we might expect?
A: The KVM Hypervisor is only part of the toolkit for running virtual machines. You need automation, format conversion, distributed block and networking services, and much more. I hope to cover the KVM roadmap in the context of some other open-source projects showing how they work together to provide a complete solution. In contrast to a monolithic closed solution.
Q: Is this your first visit to SCALE? If so, what are your expectations? If not, can you give us your impressions of the event?
A: SCALE 11X was my first experience with this event, and I was impressed and I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. The atmosphere is friendly with high-schoolers and PhDs walking around the floor at the same time. The audiences are engaged. I got some great questions in my session. This is national event as evidenced by the many attendees who travel a great distance to attend each year. The keynote speakers are outstanding again this year.
Q: Does OpenStack qualify as "Beyond the Hypervisor?"
A: Yes, OpenStack is a great example of data center automation that builds upon KVM and drives the KVM roadmap. I'll be covering some of this in my talk. OpenStack has pulled KVM into some installations where it may not have been otherwise used, which is great.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
A: I'm looking forward to the event!
[SCALE Team interview by Hannah Anderson]