"OpenQRM starts out by abstracting the system environment from the physical hardware [and] then providing a layer of abstraction from the virtualization technology as well," he said. "OpenQRM can provision, configure and deploy system environments to physical or virtual systems. Xen, VMWare (both ESX and GSX), Linux-VServer and Qemu are all supported."

This flexibility also extends to being able to migrate a system environment from one virtualization technology like VMWare to another like Xen by changing an entry in a drop-down menu.

Harleman claims openQRM is the only data center management solution that works with Solaris, FreeBSD, Windows and Linux, and in the past year its functionality was expanded to also manage data center power requirements. "OpenQRM can also automatically configure the storage and network as part of provisioning the system environment, [for example] configure a switch to put a new system environment on a particular VLAN or the system to access a particular storage island, to enable the true abstraction and portability of all systems in today's data centers," he said.

It's this type of system and storage management across physical and virtual environments that makes openQRM a precursor to utility computing and "true commoditization of the whole data center hardware that virtualization and grid computing proponents talk about without the price-performance penalty associated with them".

With a focus on abstraction, management, and monitoring, Harleman believes openQRM is not a competitor to the big names like OpenView, Tivoli, and UniCenter, which have less emphasis on rapid repurposing and virtualization.