I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I broke the news on Kodiak, but since my first post on Kodiak back in August, Bluebear has seen quite a bit of coverage around the Internet. Fellow virtualization blogger Duncan Epping of Yellow Bricks has discussed Kodiak a number of times (here are only a few):
Bluebear’s Kodiak!
Bluebear’s Kodiak, what’s all the fuss about…
Kodiak 0.02 coming out real soon…
That’s not to mention coverage by virtualization.com, Reuters.com, and numerous other bloggers, experts, and analysts.
But where is Bluebear headed with Kodiak? What is their vision? Well, I don’t speak for Bluebear, but I did want to share some insight I’d gathered during a conversation with one of the Kodiak developers. I was curious to know how VMware’s announcements of cross-platform vCenter Server and cross-platform VI Client at VMworld 2008 would affect Kodiak. Perhaps because of VMware’s market leadership, most people see Kodiak as only a cross-platform VI replacement. The truth is, according to my information, Kodiak’s true value lies elsewhere. While it can be viewed as a VI Client replacement, and while it does bring cross-platform functionality to the table, there’s more to it than just that. Thus, cross-platform support by VMware—while sorely needed for quite some time—shouldn’t really impact Kodiak all that much.
So what is the value of Kodiak beyond cross-platform support? Good question! Here’s a couple of points I gathered from of our conversation:
- Multi-hypervisor management: One stated goal for Kodiak has always been to provide the ability to manage multiple, different hypervisors—not only ESX and ESXi, but also Xen, VirtualBox, etc. This is an area that only Microsoft is dabbling in with SCVMM, which will manage Hyper-V and ESX (via VirtualCenter only). Kodiak can manage ESX directly or via VirtualCenter.
- Management via visualization: I don’t know if this is what drove Bluebear to use Adobe AIR or if it’s a result of using Adobe AIR, but the idea behind managing virtualization with Kodiak is more through visualization than anything else. Bluebear wants users to be able to respond quickly to potential issues by making it possible to see those potential issues instead of waiting for a notification or an e-mail that something’s wrong.
I’m sure that Bluebear has all sorts of super-secret stuff in the works that will further differentiate their product from VMware’s cross-platform VI Client, even though the two products aren’t intended to directly compete.
And, of course, this doesn’t take into account Bluebear’s hardware side, aka Koala, which doesn’t get nearly the same amount of attention as Kodiak. Personally, I’m kinda hoping that the Koala will end up affordable enough for me to pick one up, as I could surely use it to host various virtual servers at home for media streaming, home automation, etc. But I digress…
Anyway, I think I have a pile of beta invites for Kodiak, so if anyone is interested post a comment here and I’ll see what I can do. Then you can take a look at the product yourself—keeping in mind that it is a very early beta—and see what you think about the future of Kodiak.
Tags: Linux, Macintosh, Virtualization, VMware, Windows, Xen
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I will take an invite.
Thanks, Jim
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grizzly?
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Also, is it just me, or can this not even create a new VM yet?
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Just to let you know, SCVMM 2008 already _does_ manage Hyper-V and ESX/VirtualCenter. It is not some kind of planned feature.
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I’d be very interested in participating in the beta program.
This looks like an interesting product. Thanks!!! -
I’am very interested in try Kodiak could you please to send an invite also for me.
Thanks a lot!!!
Giacy
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Scott,
If you have any more invites I’d love to try this out. Thanks.
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would love an invite too.
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Would be very interested in testing this beta out too, if you have any keys left. Many thanks
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as the others already said, there’s interest in the beta key. I’d like to evaluate for our business. The Koala is also some sexy piece of hardware!
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Hi,
Also interested in trying this product !
Thank you Scott.
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Kodiak seems very interesting, I’d love to get a invite if you still have any.
Thanks,
Roshan -
Send invite to me too. If you still have any.
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Scott,
I run our companies virtualization infrastructure and would love to take a look at Bluebear. If you have any invites left, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Jason
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Hi Scott,
All Windows machines are banned from both our lab environment and also our production networks. At the moment we’re kind of stuck with VMware Server with ESX installs just waiting for cross-plattform management tools. I’ve registered with Bluebear for a Beta to no avail. Could you please send me an invite?
Regards,
Peter
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Hi, I woul also very much like to get the beta invite, if you still have any available. Stuck with VI and ESXI, and this looks interesting to try
Ben
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Hey Scott,
do you have any extra invites or does anyone out there have one I could use? I would love to test Kodiak out and see if this is something we could put to use in our new esx environment.
thanks,
Justin
justin at cbvfx dot com -
hi scott
do you still have any invite left.
I’m using 2 esxi and would love to test it as i do not have any VC’s
Many thanks in advance
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Any invites left? Would live to test this out
matthewking at austin dot rr dot com
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Any invites left? I would love to run this without our Mac environment, I am sick of the other ways to connect.
jchurchward at business-continuity dot com dot au
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If you have any invites left I’d love one. I’m getting increasingly angry with running viclient in a windows vm on my linux box. If you can hook me up you’ll probably save my computer from defenestration.
Cheers,
-Ryan -
Count me in for an invite if you have any left!
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Hey Scott,
i would also like to have an invite, cos i want to ty this cool thing out.
Regands
Vitalij -
If you still got invites, I’d love one.
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If you still have invites I would appreciate one, love your blog.
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Hey Scott
If you, by any chance, have any invites left I would love to have one
TIA
Best regards
Leif -
This looks like just the thing I need for my development efforts… any chance of getting an invite?
Thank you.Regards,
jeremiah
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This is exactly what i have been looking for to manage our infrastructure. I could really use a key if someone still has one available.
Thanks
Eric -
If anyone has an invite left I would really appreciate it. If I get one I’ll come back here to pass on the favor. I’m trying to implement ESXi in multiple locations across the country on a tight budget.
n e e d b l u e b e a r (a-t) hotm@il c0m
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Hi Scott,
Do you have an invite left? Thanks,
Alex
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Hi does anyone have any invites left ? i’d be grateful for one
a l e x (@) p i x l 8 . c o . u k
Many thanks
Alex
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Hi. Do you have any invites left? I’m interested. Thanks a million.
Steff
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Hi All,
Hello every one can I get one invite for bluebear if any one has it….
Shankar
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If someone would send me an invite, it would be much appreciated! Thanks, all.
Nathan
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Hi Scott,
I work in a cross platform shop with macintosh-windows servers. I would like to have an invite for the kodiak beta and try it for a spin.
Thanks in advance.
my email is : tien.lam.nguyen@gmail.com
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greetings …
if anyone could assist with an invite, i would be greatly appreciative.
hoping to have fun with kodiak on my VMware ESX VI soon.
cheers, wizdude
wizdude at gmail dot com
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Hi, I would also like an invite to kodiak, if anyone has one available.
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In the off chance a Beta Invite is still out there.




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