Among the topics being discussed at VMworld 2010 – and the enterprise at large – is how to change IT from a wallet leech into an efficient and essential link in the product delivery chain. Virtualization and the cloud will help IT transition into business-centric thinking, or at least that’s the hope. The opening keynote opened with a sense of humor about itself, with a “humorous short movie that was attempting to describe and define Cloud Computing, it even enlisted the help of ‘The Oracle’ from the feature trilogy ‘The Matrix’ to try and define Cloud Computing to no avail.” Beyond the abstract goals of the conference, there are some exciting and concrete announcements coming from the Golden Gate city.

VMware’s vCloud Director, or what some are calling “a new model for consuming infrastructure services,” and starting today, you can get your own per-VM 25-pack of licenses starting at $3,750. Excitement is balanced with industry experts criticizing vCloud Director’s complicated deployment requirements (i.e. don’t expect to float into the cloud without the help of third-party products and services).

Isilon announced its integration of iSCSI into the OneFS operating system, providing an option for block storage capabilities in addition to file storage.

NetApp announces integration with VMware View 4.5 for enhanced storage and desktop virtualization capabilities. You can also count on NetApp to support VMware’s vCloud Director.

Blade Network Technologies can provide automation, provisioning, and security for virtualized networks with VMready 3.0.

Xsigo announced “the industry’s first virtual I/O technology to leverage the standard Ethernet ports found on every x86 server.” Another step forward in the quest for better enterprise efficiency and data center convergence.

Can’t get enough of VMworld 2010? Search Server Virtualization has you covered with play-by-play coverage of the goings on at VMworld 2010 and daily updates on their Search Server Virtualization blog. What are some of your favorite announcements or sessions at the conference?

Melanie Yarbrough is the assistant community editor at ITKnowledgeExchange.com. Follow her on Twitter or send her an email at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.