VMWare has announced a new release of its vFabric Data Director its database-aware visualization and self-service lifecycle management solution. The company originally released the product at VMworld 2011 last August to improve the efficiency of administering databases. The solutions makes it possible automate many common database administration tasks like provisioning, backup and cloning.

VMware has been expanding its portfolio and is increasingly focusing on data. In May, VMWare released vFabric 5.1, which included in-memory distributed SQL database, SQLFire. A month earlier in April the company acquired Cetas Software, a Hadoop-based analytics and business intelligence solution that runs on virtualized vSphere instances for an undisclosed amount. We will likely see more data related activity as VMware attempts to strengthen is position in the virtualization and platform-as-a-service space.

In the meantime, VMware is enhancing its existing products. The latest release of vFabric Data Director, version 2.0, includes support for virtualization of Oracle databases to vSphere. The move is significant given the large percentage of market share that Oracle has in the enterprise market. The new virtualization support can mean lower hardware and licensing costs and improved agility and efficiency of the database management lifecycle; ultimately, it can lead to the ability to offer databases as a service.

vFabric Data Director 2.0 includes several new capabilities:

• Support for Oracle 10gR2, Oracle 11gR2 and vFabric Postgres 9.1, a VMware optimized relational database based on PostgreSQL
• Automation of physical databases to a virtual environment
• integration with additional cloud and big data products via APIs like vCloud Director, vFabric Application Director, Cloud Foundry, EMC Data Domain, and Greenplum Chorus

vFabric Data Director 2.0 is available now for $750 per VM up to two virtual CPUs. VMware is holding a live webcast about virtualization of Oracle databases with vFabric Data Director on Thursday, July 26 at 9:00 am PST. The webinar is free, but registration is required.