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VMware vSphere™ 4 Provides ‘Always On IT’ for SMB and Branch Office IT Environments With Low Cost, High Availability Solutions

VMware vSphere™ 4 Provides ‘Always On IT’ for SMB and Branch Office IT Environments With Low Cost, High Availability Solutions

Reliable and Affordable Enterprise-Class IT Operations for Small IT Environments Available Starting at $166 per Processor

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 21, 2009 – VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, today unveiled VMware vSphereTM 4, with new features and product editions that deliver “Always On IT” for small and midsized businesses (SMBs) and remote and branch office (ROBO) IT environments. (See press release, “VMware Unveils the Industry’s First Operating System for Building the Internal Cloud— VMware vSphere 4.”) VMware vSphere 4 will deliver zero-downtime application availability and enterprise-class data protection managed under a single pane of glass, providing simplified and truly affordable disaster recovery previously out of reach for most small IT organizations.

VMware vSphere 4, the industry’s first operating system for building the internal cloud, was designed to meet the needs of a wide range of IT environments. With VMware vSphere 4, smaller IT environments will be available to achieve the full benefits of efficiency, resilience, and manageability demanded by large enterprises, at a price point that fits their more modest budgets. 

“VMware leads the way in providing IT solutions that make customers’ lives easier, and for SMB and ROBO customers, we provide a means of administering a robust, continuously available IT infrastructure with minimal overhead and high investment return,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer of VMware. “VMware vSphere 4 will extend these benefits to customers of all sizes, needs and budgets with proven technology that enables them to do more with less.”

SMB Customers Increasingly Prefer VMware Virtualization Solutions

SMB customers are increasingly turning to VMware as the virtualization industry leader who addresses their critical IT needs by delivering one of the most reliable, highest performing, and easiest to manage offerings. According to a recent blind market virtualization study of 416 IT professionals in North America and Europe, conducted by research firm Management Insight Technologies:

  • VMware is the preferred brand by 64 percent of SMBs and preferred by three times as many SMBs as the next closest competitor.
  • The group of SMBs who selected VMware as their preferred brand grew by 6 percent during the past 12 months, while the group who selected the next closest competitor decreased by 9 percent during that same time period.
  • VMware out-delivers on the most important virtualization vendor selection criteria – reliability, ease of management and performance – by up to a 34 percent margin against the next closest competitor.

“As a heavily distributed organization, we rely on Exchange as our primary communication tool,” said Kirk Patten, IT director for RotaDyne, a leading manufacturer of rubber and polyurethane rolls with approximately 500 employees worldwide. “It’s crucial that our email be highly available, and that’s one of the main reasons why we deployed it using VMware. I don't really want to have to worry about clustering vs. backup vs. site recovery. All I want is for my applications and data to be safe. VMware makes it easy for me.”

Introducing the Only ‘Always On IT’ Virtualization Solution

VMware vSphere 4 is the only virtualization solution to deliver ‘Always On IT’ that meets the most critical needs of SMB and ROBO customers by providing zero-downtime application availability and comprehensive data protection features ideal for smaller IT environments:

  • VMware Fault Tolerance and High Availability provides true continuous availability for infrastructure and applications to further enhance service continuity, enabling critical applications to run with zero downtime or data loss due to hardware failures.
  • VMware VMotion™ reduces planned downtime from server maintenance activities by enabling the live migration of running virtual machines from one server to another with no disruption or downtime.
  • VMware Data Recovery provides fully automated backup and recovery for all applications and data, with complete integration with VMware’s management client for simple deployment and efficient operation.
  • VMware vShield Zones secures applications and data inside a dynamic firewall that maintains complete protection across the physical and virtual environment with point-and-click ease.

"VMware has always provided a reliable and secure platform to support our growing infrastructure and that lets me sleep at night,” said Justin Lauer, IT manager for Campbell Clinic Orthopedics, a leading center for orthopedic teaching and practice with approximately 400 employees worldwide. “The new VMware vSphere 4 solutions add more critical capabilities for SMBs that are fully integrated with VMware's management console and are drop-dead easy to use. I’m adding VMware Data Recovery to my environment as the first line of protection for my virtual machines. VMware Fault Tolerance is far less complicated and much easier to setup than Microsoft Clustering Services. That makes it a slam dunk for SMBs looking for redundancy in their environment, as we don’t always have specialized network engineers on staff.”

“VMware vSphere is easy to install and simple to manage, which is important for smaller organizations with limited IT resources such as ours,” said Tariq Ali, chief technology officer, San Mateo County Employees’ Retirement Association. “We are particularly excited about VMware Fault Tolerance and can't wait to get it into production. Our mission critical applications, such as our pension management software, currently have no way to get continuous levels of availability. With VMware Fault Tolerance, we will be able to supply those last nines of availability and get those applications virtualized.”

The Lowest Cost High Availability

VMware will introduce three new VMware vSphere 4 product editions for SMBs that deliver cost-effective server consolidation, high availability and data protection to enable Always On IT. Small businesses can deploy a server consolidation and management solution for only $166 per processor with VMware vSphere 4 Essentials and get higher application uptime with VMware vSphere 4 Essentials Plus (only $499 per processor)—these are features that are otherwise out of reach for most small companies. VMware vSphere 4 Essentials Plus is the only virtualization solution that provides high availability and data protection at this price point.

For small businesses with fewer than 20 physical servers:

  • VMware vSphere 4 Essentials provides an all-in-one solution for small offices to consolidate and manage many application workloads while reducing hardware and operating costs.
  • VMware vSphere 4 Essentials Plus adds VMware High Availability and VMware Data Recovery for a complete server consolidation and business continuity solution for the small office IT environment.

For midsized businesses:

  • VMware vSphere 4 Advanced is a scalable, strategic consolidation and availability solution that includes VMware VMotion, VMware Fault Tolerance, VMware Data Recovery and VMware vShield Zones.
Broadest Virtualization Partner Ecosystem

VMware has the industry’s broadest and most robust virtualization partner ecosystem, with more than 22,000 technology, channel and services partners, and VMware expects more than 500 technology partners to support VMware vSphere 4 by the end of 2009. (See press release, “VMware vSphere 4 Launch Supported by Broad Virtualization Ecosystem.”) This broad ecosystem provides SMB and ROBO customers with a wide variety of servers, storage devices, networking and applications that interoperate with VMware vSphere 4 and are fully supported by each vendor.  In addition, VMware vCloud™ partners such as BlueLock and SunGard are delivering SMB business continuity and disaster recovery solutions that directly leverage the cloud.

To read what partners are saying about the SMB offerings in VMware vSphere 4, please visit: http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/smb-vsphere-launch-partner.html.

Availability and Pricing 1
VMware Fault Tolerance, VMware Data Recovery and VMware vShield Zones are expected to be generally available with VMware vSphere 4 Advanced later in the second quarter of 2009. VMware vSphere 4 Essentials (list price US$995 for an all-in-one solution including central management for up to three server hosts with up to 2 processors each – equivalent to $166 per processor), VMware vSphere 4 Essentials Plus (list price US$2,995 for an all-in-one solution including central management for up to three server hosts – equivalent to $499 per processor), and VMware vSphere 4 Advanced (list price US$2,245 per processor license) are expected to be generally available from VMware and its network of OEM and channel partners later in the second quarter of 2009.

For more information on VMware vSphere 4, please visit: http://www.vmware.com/go/vsphere.
For more information on the VMware vSphere 4 pricing, please visit:  http://www.vmware.com/go/vsphere/buy.

About VMware

VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter—bringing cloud computing to businesses of all sizes.  Customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion  , more than 130,000 customers and more than 22,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC).  For more information, visit www.vmware.com.


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VMware, VMware vSphere, VMotion, vCloud and VMware vCenter are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this press release which are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements and are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements relate, but are not limited, to, customer adoption and deployment of new products and architecture, levels of demand for our products and expectations for the release and delivery of our products.  Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) the duration and deepening of negative economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in consumer or information technology spending; (iii) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors into the virtualization market, and new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors; (iv) our customers’ ability to develop, and to transition to, new products, (v) the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology initiatives; (vii) rapid technological and market changes in virtualization software; (viii) changes to product development timelines; (ix) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; (x) our ability  to attract and retain highly qualified employees; and (xi) fluctuating currency exchange rates.  These forward looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

1All prices referenced in this section are suggested US list prices and may be subject to change.