News Releases3 min read

VMware and IBM Drive More Value into Blade Servers

VMware and IBM Drive More Value into Blade Servers

IBM to Bundle Evaluation Copies of Industry-Leading VMware Virtual Infrastructure in IBM eServer BladeCenter Shipments

PALO ALTO, Calif. and SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 23, 2005 — At the Server Blade Summit 2005, VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems, today announced an agreement with IBM to bundle evaluation copies of VMware virtual infrastructure into IBM eServer BladeCenter shipments worldwide. Under terms of the agreement, customers purchasing IBM BladeCenter will receive six-month evaluation copies of VMware ESX Server, VMware Virtual SMP and VMware VirtualCenter with VMotion.

"VMware virtual infrastructure on IBM eServer BladeCenter allows customers to experience the benefits of virtualization in a scale out environment. Not only can they increase the utilization of their individual server resources, but they can increase the utilization and flexibility of their complete infrastructure," said Jeff Benck, vice president and business line executive of IBM eServer BladeCenter. "This enhances application availability, speeds deployment and reduces overall operating costs - key needs for delivering an enterprise class x86 infrastructure platform."

IBM eServer BladeCenter running VMware virtual infrastructure provides enterprises with scalable, virtualized server platforms on which to deploy their mission-critical applications and services, helping customers experience a dramatic reduction in the cost of ownership by reducing the size and complexity of their IT infrastructure.

"VMware virtual infrastructure increases the efficiency of the IBM BladeCenter," said Carlo Bonura, technical system analyst for Dean Health System, a Wisconsin-based provider of integrated medical services, insurance and research. "It makes our server environment more manageable and redundant, and it also boosts efficiency because blades take up half the space of traditional 1U servers. And virtual machines share resources such as switches and interface cards, making management simpler and more centralized."

VMware ESX Server is VMware's data center-class virtual infrastructure software for partitioning, consolidating and managing computing resources. Virtual SMP support allows virtual machines to span multiple physical processors, making virtual machines ideal for resource-intensive enterprise applications. VMware VirtualCenter provides customers a central point of control for virtual computing resources, and VMotion technology enables live virtual machines to be migrated for dynamic load balancing and zero-downtime maintenance.

"IBM and VMware share the same vision of increasing efficiency and reducing complexity for our customers," said Diane Greene, president of VMware. "Coupling blades with VMware virtual infrastructure goes a long way towards helping enterprise customers better contain, monitor and manage server workloads. This combination further strengthens the joint IBM/VMware offerings."

This announcement expands an existing VMware and IBM relationship, as well as the commitment by the two companies to work together on providing solutions that help simplify management and utilization of IT resources. IBM has been offering VMware virtual infrastructure on IBM eServer systems for nearly three years. VMware provides the partitioning technology for IBM's industry-leading Virtualization Engine technology, and VMware and IBM are jointly developing integrated management solutions with IBM Director, IBM's leading client/server workgroup manager.

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.

# # #

Trademarks

VMware, Virtual SMP and VMotion are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or various jurisdictions. All other trademarks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined under the Federal Securities Laws. 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) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iii) risks associated with acquisitions and investments, including the challenges and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving anticipated synergies; (iv) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures and new product introductions; (v) the relative and varying rates of product price and component cost declines and the volume and mixture of product and services revenues; (vi) component and product quality and availability; (vii) the transition to new products, the uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and rapid technological and market change; (viii) insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; (ix) war or acts of terrorism; (x) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (xi) fluctuating currency exchange rates; and (xii) other one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in EMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. EMC and VMware disclaim any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.