VMware ESX Server with Virtual SMP Wins PC Magazine's Technical Excellence Award

PALO ALTO, Calif., December 11, 2003- VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems, today announced that VMware ESX Server with Virtual SMP won the PC Magazine Technical Excellence Award in the systems software category, marking the second time VMware has been awarded this prestigious award. VMware Workstation was honored for its technical excellence in 2000.

PC Magazine's 20th Annual Technical Excellence Awards give recognition to "the products and technologies that moved the state of the art forward, those that broke new ground." PC Magazine's labs staff and editors nominated and then voted on the products they believed to have had the most impact on the industry.

PC Magazine lauded VMware ESX Server's ability to increase productivity using fewer physical servers. "What VMware Workstation does for the desktop, ESX Server 2 does for the server - and then some," said Michael J. Miller, editor-in-chief of PC Magazine. "VMware ESX Server with Virtual SMP gives mainframe-class power to an ordinary server rack, and unparalleled flexibility to administrators."

Adopted by thousands of IT organizations worldwide, VMware ESX Server has saved hundreds of millions of dollars in hardware and operations costs when used as a server consolidation platform. ESX Server partitions multi-processor servers into virtual machines, allowing multiple operating systems, including Microsoft Windows and Linux, to run simultaneously and independently on the same industry-standard server or blade. With VMware Virtual SMP, a single virtual machine can span two CPUs, making it possible for enterprises to deploy all of their mission-critical applications in flexible, secure and portable virtual machines.

"We're honored to be recognized by one of the industry's most respected publications," said Michael Mullany, vice president of marketing at VMware. "This award validates the value of ESX Server and the thousands of customers that have increasingly made it their standard for server virtualization."

VMware ESX Server is the first product to take advantage of VMware VirtualCenter, a breakthrough new product that broadens the capabilities of ESX Server to offer the benefits of a virtual infrastructure. VirtualCenter lets enterprises centrally manage all of their virtual machines and maximize utilization of their entire server infrastructure. Using VMotion technology in VirtualCenter, enterprises are able to respond to changing business demands in real-time and move virtual machines from one physical server to another with continuous service availability.

About PC Magazine

PC Magazine, the independent guide to technology, delivers comprehensive labs-based reviews and the most trusted recommendations for buyers of technology products and services. Reaching highly engaged technology influencers, PC Magazine provides product reviews, first looks at emerging technologies and products and opinionated columns from renowned technology pundits.

About VMware, Inc.

VMware, Inc. 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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