The big virtualization news from the past week or so was definitely the release and General Availability of VMware vSphere version 6.5, available for download now.

New features include:

• Improvements to vCenter Server 6.5
• Transition to Web Client-only
• Improved host management
• Enhancements to VMware Tools
• vRealize Operations Manager updated to 6.4
• Enhancements to the API, specifically for developers and automation
• Security enhancements (including VM-level encryption)
• Improvements to VMware HA and DRS
• Storage-related enhancements (including automated UNMAP)
• Networking enhancements

I’ll review each of these areas and also go through some caveats — especially around compatibility with other VMware products. Continue reading →