VMware Announces GSX Server 2.5 for Effortless Data Center Virtualization

Enterprise-Class Virtual Machine Software Increases Server Resource Utilization and Server Management Efficiencies

PALO ALTO, Calif., February 3, 2003 - VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual machine software for industry-standard systems, today announced the general availability of GSX Server 2.5, the latest release of its enterprise-class virtual machine software for business-critical applications in the data center and beyond.

GSX Server 2.5 builds on the success of GSX Server 2.0 and provides a secure, uniform platform for consolidating and partitioning servers to increase server resource utilization and server management efficiencies. The product's robust architecture and ability to integrate easily into Microsoft Windows and Linux host environments make GSX Server easy to deploy and manage. The product is widely used by Fortune 500 companies for consolidating servers, streamlining software lifecycle management and delivering cost-effective high availability.

"VMware GSX Server has already returned our initial investment several times over," said Tony Adams, technology analyst for the J.R. Simplot Company. "We've been able to achieve high availability for key components of our Web infrastructure at very low cost, as well as a huge reduction in the time to build development servers - from hours to minutes. With VMware GSX Server, we've been able to consolidate up to eight servers on one physical machine, too, which is both a significant cost savings and a real reduction in server sprawl."

GSX Server is based on VMware's patented virtual machine technology, which allows customers to run multiple operating systems and associated applications concurrently on a single industry-standard system. Each instance is fully isolated and can be started, stopped, resumed and restored on any system running VMware virtual machine software. Key features that make GSX Server ideal for the corporate data center and throughout the enterprise include:

Execution of multiple operating systems and associated applications on a single industry-standard system
Scalable high performance to dozens of simultaneous virtual machines on multi-processor systems
Strong isolation, which ensures that host and other virtual machines are unaffected by a software failure in a virtual machine
Flexibility to choose either Windows or Linux host operating systems
COM and Perl scripting API environments to automate and customize virtual machine management
Remote management through Windows or Linux remote console clients or a Web-based interface
SCSI reservation support, allowing for clustered virtual machines to share SCSI devices

"VMware now has more than 1,500 enterprise server customers and their usage of our products is expanding. We take great pride in our ongoing delivery of solid value to our end users. The release of GSX Server 2.5 continues on this commitment, " said Diane Greene, president and chief executive officer of VMware. "VMware is leading with innovation and delivering significantly reduced total cost of ownership in the IT areas of high availability, server consolidation, provisioning and software compatibility."

New and enhanced features in GSX Server 2.5 include:

Enhanced performance and manageability
Support for the largest servers for maximum scalability, extensibility and robustness
- Support for up to 64GB of host memory
- Support for up to 32 host processors, qualified with Unisys
- Support for up to 64 active virtual machines
Support for the latest Windows operating systems, including Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003, all editions
Support for the latest Linux operating systems, including Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8
Full support for Novell NetWare 4, 5 and 6 guest operating systems for more comprehensive compatibility

Pricing and Availability

GSX Server 2.5 is available today for both Windows and Linux host operating systems on the VMware Store at http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/. Pricing includes 12 months of product maintenance and support and starts at $3025 for two processor systems and $6050 for four processor systems. GSX Server 2.5 is a free update to registered customers of GSX Server 2.0. A full-featured trial version can be downloaded directly from the VMware Web site at http://www.vmware.com

Dell, NEC Systems Technologies, Stratus and Unisys are in distribution with GSX Server. The product is also available through VMware channel partners including CorpSoft, Ingram Micro, Lifeboat, Programmer's Paradise, Software House International, Software Spectrum and Synnex.

About VMware, Inc.

VMware, Inc. is the global leader in virtual machine software for industry-standard systems. With more than 5,000 customers worldwide and 80% of the Fortune 100, VMware provides companies with a proven set of enterprise products and solutions to consolidate their server infrastructure, improve software lifecycle management and provide application compatibility in mixed operating system environments. Based on the company's patented technology, VMware's products enable companies to flexibly scale and control their infrastructure to quickly respond to business demands, improve return on investment and dramatically reduce total cost of ownership. VMware is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit www.vmware.com or call 650-475-5000.

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