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VMware and IBM Extend Strategic Alliance

VMware and IBM Extend Strategic Alliance

Announce Three-year Extension to Partnership; VMware Software Powers IBM eServer xSeries and BladeCenter Virtualization

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 19, 2004 — VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for x86-based systems, today announced a three-year extension to its strategic alliance with IBM. The partnership, which began in 2002, has been extended through 2007.

As part of the agreement, IBM will offer VMware VirtualCenter, VMware VMotion, VMware ESX Server and VMware Virtual SMP software products on the IBM eServer xSeries and BladeCenter systems worldwide. Additionally, IBM will offer the BladeCenter license pack with VMware integrated solutions designed specifically for eServer BladeCenter systems.

"Being able to virtualize computing and manage systems remotely is a critical aspect of on demand computing," said Leo Suarez, vice president of IBM eServer xSeries products. "Our partnership with VMware complements the IBM on demand strategy by bringing partitioning to the xSeries and industry-standard BladeCenter product lines. Combined with IBM Virtualization Engine, VMware extends IBM's virtualization capability across the entire xSeries and industry-standard BladeCenter servers."

IBM eServer xSeries and BladeCenter systems running VMware virtual infrastructure software provides customers with a scalable, virtualized server platform on which to deploy their Microsoft Windows, Linux and NetWare-based applications and services. Customers are able to lower their total costs by reducing the size and complexity of their IT infrastructures.

"The combination of IBM's powerful servers with VMware virtual infrastructure software gives us a cost-effective, complete IT infrastructure," said Shawn Kaiser, senior network engineer at The Coleman Company, a leading manufacturer and distributor of a wide range of products for camping and leisure-time activities. "It gives us dynamic servers that can change and grow to meet the demands of our business, while providing a reliable, scalable solution for the future."

IBM BladeCenter customers can significantly increase their hardware utilization by running VMware virtual infrastructure software. VMware ESX Server and IBM BladeCenter solutions can host more than 100 virtual machines in a single BladeCenter chassis with 28 CPUs.

"With the signing of our expanded agreement and the inclusion of VMware in IBM's Virtualization Engine strategy, our relationship with IBM continues to grow," said Diane Greene, president of VMware. "Most importantly, our shared customers will benefit from efficient and flexible IT resources and increased hardware utilization on the IBM eServer xSeries and BladeCenter systems."

Virtual Infrastructure

Virtual infrastructure provides a layer of abstraction between the computing, storage and networking hardware and the software that runs on it. By implementing a virtual infrastructure, IT organizations can provision new services and change the amount of resources dedicated to a software service simply by interacting with a management console as opposed to physically reconfiguring or repurposing hardware. The hardware management is now completely separated from the software management, and hardware equipment can be treated as a single pool of processing, storage and networking power to be allocated and reallocated on the fly across the enterprise.

By creating a uniform virtual hardware platform across the entire data center, virtual infrastructure allows software to be installed on or moved from any physical system to another without requiring reconfiguration of the software—operating system or applications. Virtual infrastructure makes existing resources more efficient and flexible, driving cost out of IT.

About VMware

VMware, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC), is the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for x86-based systems. The world's largest companies use VMware solutions to simplify their IT, fully leverage their existing computing investments and respond faster to changing business demands. VMware is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit www.vmware.com or call 650-475-5000.


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(C) 2004 VMware, Inc. all rights reserved. VMware, ESX Server and GSX Server are trademarks of VMware, Inc. All other trademarks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.