Interoperable formats for virtual machine disks across implementations benefit customers in multiple ways:
- Commonality of formats preserve customer's configurations as they move between vendor solutions.
- There are a number of valuable solutions such as backup, system imaging, patch management, replication, virtual machine migration and mobility that require a knowledge of virtual disk formats. Commonality of formats enable solution providers to create software products that work with any virtualization solution. This, in turn, promotes customer choice and increases the number of solutions available in the marketplace.
- Lastly, commonality of formats enable storage systems to optimize, in the long run, for storage and access of virtual disks.
