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VMware Introduces VMware vSphere® Storage Applianc …

VMware Introduces VMware vSphere® Storage Appliance™, Further Simplifies IT for Small and Midsized Businesses

VMware Continues to Expand Offerings to Deliver Efficiency, Agility and Business Continuity to Companies of All Sizes

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 12, 2011 — VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today unveiled the VMware vSphere® Storage Appliance™, a new software product that will bring the rich business continuity and automated resource management capabilities of VMware vSphere to small and midsized businesses (SMBs) without the cost and complexity of shared storage.

VMware also announced today a comprehensive cloud infrastructure suite, including the release of VMware vSphere 5, a significant update to VMware vSphere.

According to an October 2010 Gartner survey of midmarket companies, SMBs are adopting virtualization at a very aggressive pace – by 2012, slightly more than 75 percent expect to have server virtualization in wide use – with disaster recovery representing the largest area of IT investment for SMBs over the next two years.¹

Until now, customers wanting to leverage the rich high availability and automated resource management functionality enabled by VMware vSphere's resource pooling capabilities needed separate shared storage hardware, which presented a cost and complexity barrier for some SMBs. The new VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will transform server internal storage into shared pools of storage, removing the shared storage hardware requirement and enabling more SMBs to take full advantage of the unique business continuity and automation capabilities of VMware vSphere, including High Availability, vMotion®, and Distributed Resource Scheduler™.  The vSphere Storage Appliance will be very simple to install and configure, eliminating the need for specialized storage skills, thus bringing high application availability to SMBs with just a few mouse clicks.

"With the introduction of the VMware vSphere® Storage Appliance™, we will continue to bring the business continuity and cost efficiency benefits of virtualization to companies of all sizes," said Bogomil Balkansky, vice president, product marketing, VMware. "Business continuity and disaster recovery top the list of priorities our SMB customers are tackling, and with this new offering we hope to empower SMBs with all the automation capabilities of VMware vSphere without the costs or complexity of shared storage.  SMBs will also find that if they do invest in shared storage hardware down the road, they'll be able to transition without any service disruption using VMware vSphere Storage vMotion®."

VMware vSphere Storage Appliance Features and Benefits
The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will offer a simple, cost-effective alternative to shared storage that will enable SMBs to take advantage of the comprehensive features of VMware vSphere, including High Availability, vMotion and Distributed Resource Scheduler.  The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance software will deliver:

  • Simplicity, Install in Just a Few Clicks – The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will be easy to install and will be integrated with VMware vCenter™ Server to enable simplified management of both servers and storage from a single, familiar console.
  • VMware vSphere High Availability without Shared Storage Hardware – The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will run as a virtual appliance on VMware vSphere, pooling server internal storage across servers to create a virtual pool of protected shared storage without the need for external storage hardware. Because it runs on multiple servers simultaneously, the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will ensure data is available to any workload, even when one of the servers in the cluster fails.
  • Datacenter Automation for Small Environments – The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will empower SMBs with the performance and efficiency of enterprise datacenters.  Its pooling capabilities will maximize hardware usage, while enabling customers to use the "set and forget" intelligent automation features of vSphere, including vMotion and Distributed Resource Scheduler, to guarantee application service levels.
Award-Winning Virtualization and Cloud Computing for SMBs

SMBs represent the fastest-growing segment of VMware's customer base, with the majority of SMBs worldwide choosing VMware as their virtualization provider. In the last two years alone, VMware has tripled the number of customers in the SMB segment by introducing solutions and services aimed specifically at this market. VMware delivers the most complete portfolio of virtualization and cloud computing offerings for businesses of all sizes, including:

  • VMware vSphere Kits for SMBs
    VMware provides all-in-one solutions for SMBs of all sizes. VMware vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus Kits enable small offices to consolidate workloads, improve availability, and centrally manage their environments with a low up-front investment. VMware Acceleration Kits provide midsize businesses with a scalable, full-featured virtualization platform, with policy-based automation to help ensure application service levels and the option to add advanced management capabilities such as multi-site failover protection.
  • VMware Go™
    VMware Go is a free, Web-based IT management service delivering simplified asset tracking, inventory and security services for SMBs.  VMware GO also guides users of any expertise level through the installation and configuration of VMware vSphere Hypervisor.
  • VMware Go Pro
    VMware Go Pro is a comprehensive cloud service that enables SMBs to consolidate, manage, control and secure their physical and virtual IT infrastructures.  Available today by subscription, VMware Go Pro provides a single pane of glass for SMBs to manage both virtual and physical infrastructures, simplifying IT management so that SMBs can focus resources on high-value initiatives instead of routine tasks.
  • VMware vSphere Hypervisor
    VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the easiest way to get started with virtualization—and it's free. Based on VMware ESXi™, the hypervisor architecture that sets the industry standard for reliability, performance and ecosystem support, VMware vSphere Hypervisor allows customers to consolidate applications onto fewer servers and start saving money through reduced hardware, power, cooling and administration costs.
Broadest Virtualization Partner Ecosystem

Mware has the industry's broadest and most robust virtualization partner ecosystem with more than 25,000 technology partners, solution providers, distributors, service providers and systems integrators, as well as every major global hardware manufacturer. This broad ecosystem provides SMB and Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO) customers with a wide variety of servers, storage devices, networking and applications that interoperate with VMware solutions and are fully supported by each vendor.  In addition, VMware vCloud® partners are delivering SMB business continuity and disaster recovery solutions that directly leverage public cloud computing services.

Pricing and Availability

The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance is expected to be generally available in Q3 2011 for $5,995.  In Q3 VMware also will introduce a limited-time promotional offering for SMBs, bundling VMware vSphere 5 Essentials Plus and the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance for $7,995, which represents a 40 percent discount on the list price of the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance.

Additional Resources

About VMware

VMware delivers virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes.  With the industry leading virtualization platform – VMware vSphere® – customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve agility, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2010 revenues of $2.9 billion, more than 250,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization, which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com


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VMware, VMware vSphere, VMware vSphere Storage Appliance, vMotion, vCloud, Distributed Resource Scheduler, ESXi, VMware Go 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:

This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, the expected availability of VMware vSphere Storage Appliance, statements regarding the features that are expected to be available in VMware vSphere Storage Appliance, the expected benefits of VMware vSphere Storage Appliance, the growth of virtualization among small and midsized businesses, expectations for small and midsized business investments in IT and the expected evolution of IT. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 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 and government subsidies; (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 and computing strategies, (v) the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology; (vi) rapid technological and market changes in virtualization software and platforms for cloud and desktop computing; (vii) changes to product development timelines; (viii) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; (ix) our ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; and (x) the successful integration of acquired companies and assets into VMware. 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 our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K that we may file from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

¹ 1. Gartner, Inc., "User Survey Analysis: Next Steps for Server Virtualization in the Midmarket," James A. Browning and Alan Dayley, 21 October 2010.