VMware has expanded on its ultra-converged hardware scheme EVO:RAIL, and its forthcoming big brother EVO:RACK which defines a data center design - and promised to share elements of EVO:RACK with the Open Compute Project.

VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger promised to share features of the EVO:RACK specifications with the Open Compute Project, the industry grouping which was initiated by Facebook to create open source hardware specifications for data centers. This is something of a turnaround as Gelsinger has been critical of Open Compute in the past and VMware is keeping a tight grip on the specs for the small-scale OPEN:RAIL systems.

Racking up support
"EVO:RACK needed partners and Open Compute is perfect for what we are trying to achieve," he told DatacenterDynamics, at the VMworld event in Barcelona this week. "Open Compute has responded positively."

VMware has been a member of Open Compute for some time, but in 2012, Gelsinger was highly skeptical about using Open Compute for data center storage:“No one is running mission critical infrastructure on Open Compute today," he told this writer's former publication, TechWeekEurope, speaking as chief operating officer of EMC."And even some of those who initiated those projects have backed away from them."

Two years on, he's more positive. VMware has launched a mission to define modules for instant-on virtualized ultra-converged hardware. And, while VMware is very confident in its own ability to define this by itself, using its own software stack, it recognises two that defining a whole data center is going to be a bigger job, VMware spokespeople told DatacenterDynamics.

"EVO: RACK is a tech preview," EVO: RAIL leader Mike Mcdonough told us. "It is intended for large scale data centers, and we will be working with partners".