Enhanced Platform Delivers Performance, Efficiency at Scale for Public and Private Cloud Infrastructures.

PALO ALTO, CA, Jul 13, 2010  – VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, today announced VMware vSphere 4.1, the latest version of the award-winning VMware virtualization platform, as well as an expanded portfolio of virtualization management solutions. VMware once again sets the bar in virtualization, coupling dramatic scalability and performance enhancements with new management capabilities to deliver the most powerful foundation for cloud computing.

“Strategically, server virtualization is an IT modernization catalyst that will change how IT is acquired, consumed, managed, sourced and paid for. Virtualization will even change how businesses innovate and grow,” said Thomas Bittman, VP Distinguished Analyst at Gartner. “Done well, server virtualization makes fundamental changes that can lead an organization down the path of private and public cloud computing.”

Cloud computing represents a new model for the way IT services are developed, provisioned and consumed. VMware virtualization enables enterprises and service providers to lay the foundation for cloud computing by aggregating an elastic pool of computing resources that can be accessed on-demand while enabling policy-based automation and management to increase efficiency. VMware vSphere 4.1 and the VMware vCenter(TM) product family are cornerstone solutions for customers and service providers building private and public cloud environments. As such, these technologies have attracted a broad partner ecosystem of industry leaders that support and extend this foundation. Read more about partner ecosystem support for VMware vSphere 4.1.

“Virtualization occupies an increasingly central position within IT strategy as the cornerstone of modern infrastructures and the foundation for cloud computing,” said Raghu Raghuram, senior vice president and general manager, virtualization and cloud platforms, VMware. “As the market leader, VMware vSphere(TM) is redefining the economics of computing, while helping customers to achieve the levels of utilization and automation that underpin the promise of cloud computing.”

VMware vSphere 4.1 Advances the Foundation for Cloud Computing With groundbreaking new memory management and expanded resource pooling capabilities, VMware vSphere 4.1 promises to accelerate the evolution of datacenters and service providers into cloud computing environments, setting the standard for key tenets of cloud computing.

“Over the past two and a half years as we’ve significantly reduced IT cost and complexity while increasing efficiency, VMware has become a central part of our IT strategy,” said Brad Blake, CTO at Boston Medical Center. “VMware vSphere(TM) has proven its ability to handle the most demanding applications and scale to support an increasing percentage of our infrastructure. Through VMware’s continued innovation and vision, VMware vSphere has become the foundation for our cloud computing strategy.”

“With this release, VMware has once again raised the bar in virtualization,” said Rob Zelinka, Director of Infrastructure at TTX. “As we increasingly virtualize more of our production systems and mission-critical applications, advancements like memory compression and storage and network I/O controls ensure that we can maintain — or improve — service levels while creating a more flexible, scalable and cost-effective infrastructure.”

Expanded Management Portfolio and Licensing Model for Cloud Environments VMware vCenter helps customers further reduce complexity of their IT environment while increasing operational efficiency through policy-based management of provisioning, deployment, and performance optimization. VMware has broadened its management portfolio to deliver a complete set of solutions to automate the management of dynamic virtualized systems. Today VMware is introducing:

• VMware vCenter Configuration Manager (formerly EMC Ionix Application Stack Manager and EMC Ionix Server Configuration Manager) ensures policy based compliance and avoids configuration drift by automating manual configuration tasks across virtual and physical servers and workstations.
• VMware vCenter Application Discovery Manager (formerly EMC Ionix Application Discovery Manager) quickly and accurately maps application dependencies to accelerate datacenter moves, precisely plan infrastructure consolidations, and confidently virtualize business-critical applications.

VMware is also introducing a new per VM licensing model for the VMware vCenter management solutions. This new model aligns licensing costs to the number of virtual machines being managed, rather than to the physical hardware. As virtualization and cloud computing become more prevalent models of IT infrastructure, the virtual machine is rapidly becoming the standard measure of infrastructure deployments. In a virtualized environment, the hardware configuration is abstracted and changes frequently due to virtual machine migrations across the datacenter, making hardware-based licensing complex. The new virtual machine-based licensing model for VMware vCenter offers customers better alignment between software costs and benefits delivered. This new model will also better support customers’ needs to port computing environments across diverse hardware configurations, including multiple CPU scenarios, without incurring additional costs. This new licensing model will be in effect on September 1, 2010 for VMware vCenter products only.

Pricing and Availability

VMware vSphere 4.1 is currently available in packages and prices that address the widest range of customer requirements, from Small and Mid-size Business solutions starting at $83 per processor to full enterprise editions for the most demanding environments at $3,495 per processor. More information on VMware vSphere 4.1 editions and prices.