VMware Introduces New Services for Server Capacity Planning and Consolidation

New Services Available from VMware and Global VMware Authorized Consulting (VAC) Partners Help Customers Optimize IT Resources

PALO ALTO, Calif., October 17, 2005 – VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems, today announced the availability of a set of focused server consolidation assessment services that assess the capacity utilization of an organization's IT infrastructure, identify opportunities for consolidation and help deliver a virtualization roadmap for effective server containment and consolidation.

"For organizations looking to increase productivity, reduce complexity and improve the predictability of their IT infrastructure, server consolidation through virtualization is a compelling solution that is rapidly becoming mainstream," said Jason Martin, vice president of VMware Professional Services. "The VMware server consolidation assessment services encapsulate best practices developed during thousands of successful enterprise customer virtual infrastructure deployments."

VMware server consolidation assessment services leverage VMware Capacity Planner, a hosted IT capacity analysis and planning tool that enables the delivery of accelerated, more accurate and benchmarked capacity planning and server consolidation assessments. These services are based on the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Methodology, a methodology for producing, validating and improving a common approach for the successful adoption, operation and management of VMware virtual infrastructure products.

AccessFlow, a VAC Partner, recently conducted a VMware server consolidation assessment service for Mechanics Bank, one of the largest banks headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with more than $2.5 billion in assets, in which AccessFlow thoroughly evaluated Mechanics Bank's current server infrastructure in order to create a successful virtualization strategy.

"VMware Capacity Planner aided us in our deployment strategy for Mechanics Bank," said Steve Kaplan, president of AccessFlow. "It helped us with 'if/then' modeling so we could come up with the optimal solution for Mechanics Bank. It gave us information on capacity planning, performance metrics during peak hours and other key utilization statistics. Further, VMware Capacity Planner's agent-less feature and Web-based analysis capabilities helped us significantly reduce the time taken to complete the assessment."

"AccessFlow was able to provide us with a clear picture of our server environment," said Richard Lewis, vice president of IT for Mechanics Bank. "We found that some applications were performing differently than we thought. Some were more memory intensive, some were CPU-bound. Having this information allowed AccessFlow to create a strategic, comprehensive virtualization solution to meet our needs."

The VMware server consolidation assessment services include an introductory capacity assessment and a more detailed virtualization assessment. Custom assessments tailored for more complex customer environments are also available. These assessment services are conducted by VMware Professional Services or VAC Partners, part of the rapidly growing global network of virtual infrastructure experts skilled in deploying VMware solutions.

For more information on VMware assessment services, visit www.vmware.com/services/consulting.html.

About VMware, Inc.

VMware, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC), is the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard 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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