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VMware Launches Virtualization Software for Windows-Based Intel Servers

VMware Launches Virtualization Software for Windows-Based Intel Servers

Windows version of VMware GSX Server to meet growing demand for server consolidation Customers include Lotus Development Corporation, First Consulting Group and the Florida Department of Transportation

Palo Alto, Calif., July 23, 2001 -- VMware, Inc., the leader in virtualization software for Intel computers, today announced availability of a Windows version of VMware GSX Server, the first virtualization software product to enable businesses to logically partition their Windows-based servers into multiple secure "virtual servers." The product was designed to meet the growing demand in the Windows market for server consolidation. The Windows version of GSX Server is available immediately from VMware's online store at http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/.

Based on patent-pending technology, VMware products are the first to virtualize Intel machines, thus liberating them for advanced capabilities such as server consolidation, capacity planning, and rapid provisioning. With VMware server products, enterprises can dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of computing by:

  • Using virtual servers to obtain unprecedented levels of manageability over physical departmental and enterprise servers;
  • Using virtual servers to encapsulate operating systems and their applications, thereby insulating them from variations in hardware;
  • Adding flexibility to server deployments, solving issues of application incompatibility; and
  • Enabling servers to be moved off low-end hardware and onto more scalable and reliable platforms -- while saving money.

"Businesses around the globe are telling us that they need to consolidate their servers," said Diane Greene, co-founder, president and CEO of VMware. "Most servers are being used at only 10-35% capacity. VMware server products enable businesses to do more with less, while gaining unprecedented levels of flexibility and control."

Huge market for consolidation on Intel servers

In January 2001, VMware introduced the Linux version of GSX Server -- a product that enables businesses to run multiple operating environments on a single Linux-based machine. With the Windows version of GSX Server, businesses can run multiple operating environments and theiapplications on a single physical server with a Windows NT or Windows 2000 host.

The market for Intel servers is growing rapidly. According to Gartner Dataquest, the worldwide Intel IA-32 server market grew to $14.2 billion in 1999, and is expected to grow to $17.7 billion in 2004 -- from 2.7 million units to 5.3 million units, close to 100% growth. The size of the market confirms the emergence of Intel servers in enterprise computing environments, and the opportunity that virtualization software has for delivering business benefits that were once the exclusive domain of mainframe computers.

"Virtual machines have long ranked among the most powerful tools available on mainframes, where they have been invaluable for managing multiple dominant workloads on a single machine," said Tony Iams, Vice President of Systems Software Research at D.H. Brown Associates, Inc. "The availability of GSX Server significantly increases the options available to IT managers who want to use industry-standard hardware for applications that require similar workload management capabilities, such as server consolidation or high-end service provider environments."

Rapid customer acceptance of new product

Since the new product went into public beta on June 4, more than 2,500 customers have requested copies for evaluation. Early purchasers include Lotus Development Corporation, First Consulting Group and the Florida Department of Transportation, which are all using GSX Server to better manage and consolidate their server resources.

  • Lotus Development Corporation "Our field Sales Engineers are using VMware technology for demonstrating Lotus products to customers, and we've found that our software runs flawlessly in virtual machines," said François Devoret, Director of Lotus Development Corporation's Worldwide Technology Group. "Based on that experience, we plan to deploy GSX Server in our Executive Briefing Centers as a platform for Lotus server products. The flexibility of virtual machines greatly expands our ability to stage and deliver demonstrations on a moment's notice using existing hardware. VMware's virtualization technology is multiplying sales effectiveness at Lotus and cutting costs."
  • First Consulting Group "Our Web development group would normally need a separate servefor each project team," said Mike Seigafuse, Director of Infrastructure and Operations at First Consulting Group, a leading provider of information-based consulting, integration and management services to health-related industries. "Instead, with GSX Server, we've consolidated six Windows 2000 and Windows NT servers onto a single dual-CPU system. We anticipate an even higher degree of server consolidation in our Customer Support operation where we plan to replace 18 PCs needed to diagnose customer issues on various versions of our software with virtual machines running on a single GSX Server system. We've been able to reduce capital expenditures, conserve data center floorspace, and maintain tighter change control over our servers. Consolidating servers has not meant sacrificing performance. In fact, our move from real to virtual servers was barely noticed by our development teams."
  • Florida Department of Transportation "GSX Server has proven to be a fast and reliable platform foserver consolidation," said Clint Adkison, Database Administrator at the Florida Department of Transportation. "We're using GSX Server to run several multi-tier database, middleware, and application servers on each physical servemachine. Running servers in virtual machines gives us control over the proliferation of development and test servers in our data center and lets our staff work with a variety of system environments that simply wouldn't be feasible using real servers. We're a Windows shop, so GSX Server on the Windows platform has been eagerly awaited here."

About VMware

VMware, Inc. virtualizes computing, dramatically reducing the cost and complexity of delivering enterprise services. The VMware virtualization layer turns your physical computers into a pool of logical computing resources. The resources can then be dynamically allocated to any operating system or application at your choice of granularity. As a result, our customers can use our software to consolidate servers and manage server capacity, rapidly provision, streamline application deployment, guarantee service levels and speed development and testing. VMware was founded in 1998 and we have more than 750,000 registered users internationally. We're based in Palo Alto, California and we're on the Web at www.vmware.com.

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