VMware Announces Preferred Hardware Partner Program

Compaq, Dell, and IBM to be Founding Partners

PALO ALTO, Calif., December 5, 2000-- VMware, Inc. announced today the formation of its Preferred Hardware Partner Program. Founding partners in the program include Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ), Dell, and IBM (NYSE:IBM).

The program provides a way for VMware and its hardware partners to test, optimize, and jointly market solutions based on VMware software and partner hardware. By participating in the Preferred Hardware Partner Program, hardware vendors are able to assure their customers that their systems have been fully tested and optimized to support VMware products.

This announcement is being made in conjunction with VMware's entry into the server market with two products designed for service providers and enterprise IT customers.

VMware launched its first product - VMware Workstation for developers and other technical professionals - in May 1999. Since then, VMware has more than 500,000 registered users including 5,000 corporate customers in more than 100 countries.

"We are pleased to welcome these founding partners into our Preferred Hardware Partner Program," said Diane Greene, president and chief executive officer of VMware. "Their participation demonstrates our shared commitment to providing our customers with the information they need to make confident decisions about how to deploy VMware's new server products."

Compaq

"We welcome VMware's new server software products," said Gary Campbell, vice president and chief technical officer, Enterprise Servers, Compaq Computer Corp. "Compaq ProLiant industry-standard server platforms deliver the highest levels of performance and scale out for rapid deployment. Our relationship with VMware will enable us to provide customers with even greater flexibility and an even wider array of proven solutions."

Dell

"Service Providers are an increasingly important market for Dell PowerEdge and PowerApp servers," said Gene Austin, vice president, worldwide marketing, Dell Enterprise Systems Group. "Partnerships like ours with VMware help Dell deliver best-of-breed solutions and expand our position in the marketplace."

About VMware

VMware is a leading provider of software for delivering managed services on Intel computers safely, reliably and on demand. VMware's customers include service providers, enterprise information technology groups, and technical professionals. Founded in 1998, VMware delivered its first product - software that enables Intel desktop computers to run multiple operating systems simultaneously - in May 1999. VMware has more than 500,000 registered users including 5,000 corporate customers in 100 countries. VMware is a privately held company based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, please visit the Web site at http://www.vmware.com.

# # #

(c)2000 VMware, Incorporated. All rights reserved. VMware, the VMware boxes logo, MultipleWorlds, GSX Server, and ESX Server are trademarks of VMware, Incorporated. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other trademarks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their perspective companies.