The sorry tale of Infra: will VMWare kill it?

VMWare are maintaining a stony silence about the future of VMWare Service Manager, better known to most of is as InfraEnterprise, a great service desk product originally out of Australia. Rumours are rife, with a strong concensus that version 9.2 or 9.3 likely to be last version of a total ITSM solution - there will be no VSM 10. VMWorld is on now, let's see what comes of it...

The official line one informer got from his VMWare account manager, under much duress, is they will support bug and security fixes for the next 3 years and then kill it. There will be no more development work on any module other than workflow and asset management.

Rumour has it that Alemba might pick the product up. I hope so, because when a company like VMWare acquires a product they ought to honour their inherited obligations to the customer base.

VMware are apparently only intending to develop the tool where it integrates to their core products. They have no interest in ITSM per se, they seem cloud-obsessed as one observer put it to me. Word is they are going to strip the asset management and workflow modules out of the tool and use them as add-ons to their VM management tools.

I'm forming the impression that VMWare are a toys... er tech-only vendor with no grasp of or commitment to process. We ought to be out-growing that: all significant vendors grok the people-process-tech troika.

Sure it is nice to see a company with focus. That doesn't excuse ripping the guts out of a good product and abandoning its user base. Make sure you give Infra a future, VMWare, else people will remember...

Comments

Hello IT Skeptic

Thank you for mentioning Alemba in your recent post about the death of Infra/VMware Service Manager. We share your thoughts exactly but would like to explain how Alemba fits into the picture.

Alemba is the largest independent Infra/VSM support consultancy in the world with over 100 years combined Infra/VSM experience. We have created a series of plug-ins to the application that transform how users interact with it. Cross browser support is included in this but everything uses standard VSM API calls so your core VSM system is not impacted in any way.

We are also developing a new ITSM platform which will be launched in April next year. This keeps alive the philosophy and spirit of the Infra product but is a ground-up re-write using the latest technology. Existing Infra users will be able to upgrade easily and we are currently running a promotion that will allow existing Infra users to access this new version for free once it becomes available.

We would love to talk to any existing Infra users who have questions about this and reassure them that their investment in Infra/VSM is not dead. Also more is on our website: www.alembagroup.com

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I hummed and hahhed and eventually decided it isn't. Line ball, since I try to keep product promotional stuff off the blog, but in this case it is pertinent to VMWare's commitment to burying a good product, and offering a way out for those trapped on it.

Close though. please don't every vendor pile in offering upgrade paths. Alemba genuinely is close to Infra so I let this one through. What do readers think?

I have heard through some

I have heard through some contacts that VSM will be supported and enhanced via quarterly rolling patches until 2017. The last SP will be 2017. After that, they will provide 'technical guidance' for the next 2 years until 2019.

Apparently there is no plan to replace VSM after this time, although 'that may change'.

It seems VMware are set to focus on IT Business Management, Service Catalog and Automated Provisioning.

The big loser in this will be ITSM functionality, and especially CMDB as far as I can tell...

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