VMware to Collaborate with HP on Comprehensive Solutions to Manage Mixed Physical and Virtual Datacenters

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, today announced its intention to expand its strategic relationship with HP to include the joint development of management software solutions that manage both physical and virtual datacenter resources. VMware intends to deliver with HP integrated physical and virtual datacenter management and automation software solutions that would standardize on various technologies within HP’s Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software. These new solutions would bring even greater management capabilities to the emerging concept of a virtual datacenter operating system (VDC-OS). Today’s announcement expands on the introduction of integrated software offerings from VMware and HP that help customers seamlessly automate the management of heterogeneous environments, announced earlier this year.

As a first step in the companies’ expanded relationship, VMware would work with HP to integrate HP BTO software with VMware vCenter Lab Manager, which provides self-service access to a library of pre-configured virtualized application environments, allowing teams of users to check out systems on-demand while IT maintains administrative control. With Lab Manager, organizations can reduce hardware costs, automate manual provisioning tasks, and accelerate application development and test cycles.

In addition, VMware and HP would jointly develop and bring to market enhanced virtualization management offerings for VMware vCenter and HP BTO customers based on the HP BTO application and infrastructure discovery technologies (HP Discovery and Dependency Mapping) to better manage their VDC-OS environments. A VDC-OS enables businesses to efficiently pool all types of hardware resources (including servers, storage and network) into an “internal enterprise cloud” that acts like a single, giant computer. A VDC-OS can also safely and automatically move workloads to external clouds when additional compute capacity is needed. A VDC-OS is highly elastic, self-managing and self-healing, enabling businesses large and small to benefit from the flexibility and efficiency of the “lights-out” datacenter.

“Through an expanded co-development relationship with HP we would further strengthen the VDC-OS platform as the best place to run all enterprise applications,” said Raghu Raghuram, vice president and general manager of VMware’s Server Business Unit. “By integrating HP BTO technologies for application management with VMware vCenter and combining it with the performance, reliability and security of the VMware platform, we would be able to offer our joint customers an ideal foundation for their next-generation datacenters.”

“Customers want to achieve better business value through the management of virtualized business applications. The solutions that we would develop through our collaboration with VMware would achieve just that,” said Robin Purohit, vice president and general manager, Software Products, HP.  “By working closely with VMware and taking our joint solutions to market, we would bring the application and infrastructure management capabilities of HP BTO software to thousands of customers who are building out VDC-OS environments on the VMware platform.”

As a result of this enhanced relationship, the two companies would jointly develop go-to-market and sales programs that would leverage and integrate both companies’ direct and channel sales forces.

Novell and Avnet Partner to Deliver Virtualization and Data Center Management Solutions

Collaboration offers sales support, training and market-leading products to solution providers and VARs, enabling them to deliver a more complete data center solution to their customers

Novell and Avnet Technology Solutions, an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) have announced a strategic relationship to provide virtualization and workload management solutions to data center customers. This relationship leverages Novell’s strength in delivering full lifecycle management capabilities for multi-platform data centers provided by the company’s PlateSpin brand of workload management products. Combined with Avnet’s leadership position as a global technology distributor and extensive partner network, Novell’s technology will allow Avnet’s partners in the U.S. and Canada to differentiate themselves in the marketplace with best-in-class solutions.

“This relationship further demonstrates Novell’s commitment to expanding relationships with solutions distributors, such as Avnet, and to driving sales by enabling solution providers and value–added resellers (VARs),” said Javier Colado, general manager of partners at Novell. “Avnet’s selection of Novell to provide workload management and virtualization solutions is a testament to the strength of our products and reputation in the marketplace. We view our distributor and VAR partners as more than vehicles to customers – we see them as a point of differentiation. The strengths our partners bring to the table will give our customers the complete package – a better overall product, service and support experience.”

Tim FitzGerald, director of the virtualization practice at Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, said, “Avnet and Novell have a strong vision for enabling high quality virtualization and data center management offerings that can be delivered by our community of value-added partners. By working with Novell, Avnet will be able to supply its partners with a comprehensive portfolio of products that delivers complete workload lifecycle management and virtualization across physical and virtual infrastructures.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Avnet will sell PlateSpin® workload management products including PlateSpin Recon, PlateSpin Migrate, PlateSpin Protect and PlateSpin Orchestrate to its community of partners. Both companies will also work together to provide world-class training and sales support for solution providers and value-added resellers. As a result, customers will have access to a greater number of expert solution providers and VARs, resulting in a faster time-to-value and return on investment for their virtualization and data center initiatives.

NEW VIZIONCORE PRODUCTS TO BE HIGHLIGHTED AT VMWORLD 2008

Now in its fifth year, VMworld 2008  is the must-attend event for all IT professionals looking for actionable ideas, innovative products and best practices for virtualizing the enterprise—from the desktop to the datacenter. And once again, Vizioncore plans to showcase its growing line of products that can extend your return on your investment in VMware and take you to the next level in your virtualization projects.

With Vizioncore, you have virtually infinite potential to leverage your virtual infrastructure to resolve IT challenges.  Improve your efficiency and productivity while safeguarding your systems, with our expanding set of solutions that support P2V, V2V, automation, business continuity and disaster recovery, monitoring and optimization.

At VMworld, we will demonstrate these innovations in our product set:

vRanger Pro v4.0is our next generation of our industry-standard backup and restore solution with increased speed and scalability. vRanger Pro 4.0 also shrinks the storage requirements for backups by introducing incremental support.   This version will also deliver  near instantaneous restores of files, finally eradicating the reason for procuring file level agents, as well as a simplified UI, upgraded reporting capability, improved load balancing,  and platform support for ESXi.

vOptimizer Proenables the reclamation of space taken on ESX datastores by automating the periodic resizing of Windows-based virtual machines. vOptimizer also improves VM performance and reduces the footprint of Windows by enabling the periodic streamlining of the operating system via the deletion of selected files and services.  Results include reduced enterprise storage costs, more efficient VMs and a high return optimization best practice for ESX administrators.

vFoglight (formerly vCharter Pro) has been renamed  in order to signal a software redesign to a console/cartridge architecture (as utilized by Quest Foglight).   vFoglight retains key features like the single pane of glass view in multiple virtualization layers or multiple VirtualCenters, diagnostic alerting and will soon offer monitoring for key strategic applications.

New!   vAutomation Suite (Early Demonstrations)
A series of automation oriented products will be released in late 2008 and thru 2009 that will offer virtualization integration, orchestration and heterogeneous management solutions. Come see demos of:

• vWorkflow enables the creation of automated processes for leading virtualization platforms, making it possible to:
  • Integrate and orchestrate existing management tools and infrastructure for greater agility and responsiveness
  • Extend leading virtual server platforms with customized workflows
  • Reduce manual maintenance tasks to reduce total cost of ownership
  • Automate ITIL processes to improve efficiency and compliance
• vControl is an automated, orchestrated, workflow driven, virtual machine environment ‘director’ that delivers web-based virtual machine management and control, basic backup and restore, high availability (HA), and disaster recovery. Built on a highly scalable grid architecture, vControl is a heterogeneous management solution that scales to meet the needs of multi-datacenter environments.

Register today! This is an event you don’t want to miss.

HP Encourages CIOs to Rethink Virtualization in Business Terms

HP has expanded its industry-leading virtualization portfolio to
maximize better business outcomes for customers. To meet the growing
demands of technology environments, HP is providing businesses with the
virtualization tools and strategies needed to rethink infrastructure
management, client architectures and barriers to building and
organizing infrastructures.

Check out the complete story at www.hp.com/go/virtualization2008