My team launched vCenter Operations in early 2011. Since then, it has surpassed VMware's expectations in terms of adoption, both internally and externally. Externally, customers have created their own custom dashboards and super metrics. VMware partners have also created management packs, extending vRealize Operations coverage beyond VMware. Internally, the product has become the central piece in VMware's management strategy. It has become the de facto companion to vSphere and a key component of VMware's SDDC strategy.

I travel extensively to meet customers and partners. They like vRealize Operations and they want to do more with it. One frequent request from customers is for us to document the metrics better, explaining them from a customer's viewpoint and providing practical guidance. This is where this book comes in. Iwan, whom I met during our R&D conference in San Francisco, has volunteered to address it. He has been working closely with my team and has become a virtual extension of the Management Business Unit. As a VMware CTO Ambassador, he is also one of the internal curators for the product.

vRealize Operations 6.0 is our groundbreaking release, with a brand new architecture, and it adds a lot of major functionalities. This book has been timed to coincide with the product launch. Having said that, considering the large existing installation base, the book provides good coverage for the vRealize Operations 5.8 release. You will still benefit significantly from the book even if you decide to wait for an update to the 6.0 release. My team will be taking sample pages from the book as a lot of the material is relevant for both releases.

Operating a Software-Defined Data Center becomes much more difficult if you do not get the architecture right. Iwan has explained it concisely in the first two chapters of this book. These are my favorite chapters as I see them often during my interaction with customers.

The book highlights one key differentiator of vRealize Operations. When we build the product, we do not want to simply regurgitate the information from vSphere. We want to build intelligence and simplify our operations. We started afresh and invented a set of derived metrics, formalizing VMware's recommendations on how you should operate a vSphere environment. This book explains these derived metrics and shows you how you can apply them in your environment.

This little book is a perfect complement to the product. I highly recommend you read it.

Ramin Sayar

SVP and GM

Management BU, VMware

Ramin Sayar was associated with VMware till the last few days of publishing of this book.