I've read through all the press releases at least twice now for VMware's vSphere, and I'm still not clear on how it is much more than a routine upgrade from the company's VMWare Infrastructure product.

Don't get me wrong, VMWare Infrastructure is a great package in and of itself, and a major upgrade is nothing to sneeze at, but I'm not sure that I would rate the already important role of in-house server virtualization as being quite what the company is now billing it as, which is "Building the Internal Cloud."

Given all the debate over what cloud computing is and is not, I suppose VMWare are entitled to their own version, but plain ol' server virtualization doesn't meet my definition of the term. I suppose you could argue they are providing many of the tools necessary to build a more typical cloud environment, with highly abstracted storage and processing services, but I don't see such an environment coming out of the box with this package.

That said, it's not a bad marketing move, considering the press that cloud services have been getting. A lot of executives have their noses in the air, and with recent studies suggesting that internal services are still more cost effective for the enterprise, this will allow them to both jump on the cloud bandwagon and continue to operate within their comfort zones. Existing users will see the upgrade for what it is and not be dissuaded. So it's probably a very astute move in terms of consolidating the various versions of abstraction that we have all become obsessed with of late.

* Title stolen, with my apologies, from commenter "Tim" on Scott Lowe's blog; check the comments thread for other humorous takes.