Open source, cross-platform, virtualization software that enables developers to deliver code faster by running multiple operating systems on a single device, used to deploy applications on-premises and to the cloud. Oracle VM VIrtualBox is Oracle's cross-platform virtualization offering, acquired with Sun Microsystems in early 2010. The software was originally developed by Innotek GmbH.
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Quantum ActiveScale
Score 7.0 out of 10
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Quantum offers the ActiveScale cloud object storage system, acquired from Western Digital February 2020, designed to provide a highly durable, scale-out economic storage system. ActiveScale is a more recent model replacing the former Amplidata Object Storage product line that was acquired by Western Digital from HGST in 2015.
It is best suited when you want to have different operating systems on your laptop or desktop. You can easily switch between operating systems without the need to uninstall one. In another scenario, if you expect some application to damage your device, it would be best to run the application on the VM such that the damage can only be done to the virtual machine. It is less appropriate when time synchronization is very important. At times the VMs run their own times differently from the host time and this may cause some losses if what you doing is critical. Another important thing to take note of is the licensing of the application you want to run your VM. Some licenses do not allow the applications to be run on virtual servers so it is not appropriate to use the VM at this time.
Enterprise grade organizations with B2B clientele would be served well by using this product. It alleviates the need for an on-premise storage solution by offering a cloud-based alternative. Smaller organizations with less data capacity needs would be better served with an in-house solution, unless they come out with more reasonable pricing down the road.
I have had issues in the past when it has come to resizing VM disk storage. The issue is entirely detailed here: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9103 -- the problem was caused because of having existing snapshots (which error message output was not detailing). I haven't had to deal with the issue due to my dynamic disk sizes not being small from the start anymore (this is mostly an issue for my Windows VMs where the base disk may need significant size for the OS). It looks like, for a resize, that a merge of all snapshots has to occur first -- one user on that list details a workaround to maintain snapshots by cloning the VM. (Note: 5.2 was just released a few weeks ago, and looks like it should prevent the problem happening in the future by properly informing users that it isn't possible with snapshots).
Certain scenarios, like resizing disks, required dropping into a terminal as there were no options to previously do so via the GUI. According to some recent posts, I've seen that v5.2 has added disk management stuff like that to the GUI (or will be adding it). I'm comfortable with dropping into the terminal, but in a teaching scenario or when evaluating the learnability of the tools, it complicates things.
It has been a fantastic solution, and now it is so highly integrated into our business, it would be difficult to imagine continuing to without it. It is part of our customer contracts as well, and it saves us from having to invest in the on-premise alternative to provide the required storage capacity.
Easy and quick to use. Runs at sufficient speed even with 5/6 VMs running, and can handle a bridged network with ease. Easy to disassociate from the host to ensure the environment built within VB is quarantined should anything happen, meaning no risk to physical hardware. Quick to pick up. Quick to add new machines. Cloning feature very quick and comprehensive. I've never had a VM crash or freeze.
VirutalBox is very similar to using Vmware with the slight difference in appearance and what might be considered a less polished look. However, what it lacks in polish and looks it makes up for in functionality, easy of use and the wide range of operating systems and features it supports without the need of buying the full professional edition
What sets Amplidata apart is the cloud-based storage capability. We’ve realized cost savings due to the fact that we are no longer housing the data on premise, and clients rest assured that they have greater visibility into their data.
The only problem I have found is that the deployment is dependent and intrinsically linked to the Host OS. This is different from bare metal solutions which remove that dependency on a Host OS. The latter is more reliable and removes a layer of potential failure.
For personal use, there is no monetary investment, I am running 5 CentOS servers flawlessly in my home lab.
Saves a ton of money in an enterprise environment by not having to purchase physical test servers. (Cost of Enterprise product is way lower vs Cost of standing up physical servers and/or cloud servers)
Makes virtualization very easy and friendly for everyone for test instances.
Amplidata has enabled us to replace our on-premise data storage for many of our larger clients, thus reducing the cost to deploy and house this ourselves
Clients feel confident in storing their sensitive data with us knowing that they have full management and visibility at their fingertips
The ability to quickly scale allows us to meet the needs of clients of all sizes
