Program Designed to Speed Deployment of Applications in VMware
Environments on Intel Xeon-based Servers and to Strengthen
Collaboration between Intel and VMware on Optimizing Intel Platform
Support for Virtualization PALO ALTO, Calif., June 21 /PRNewswire/
-- Intel Corporation and VMware, Inc. announced the launch of the
Intel-VMware Virtualize ASAP, a global program to further
accelerate IT customer deployment of applications in virtual
environments using VMware Infrastructure on Intel(R) Xeon(R)
processor-based platforms. The program also strengthens the
collaboration between Intel and VMware around optimizing Intel
platform support for virtualization. Virtualize ASAP benefits
customers by enabling software vendors to develop best practices
for optimized application deployment for VMware Infrastructure on
Intel-based server platforms. Through this engagement with leading
software vendors, Intel and VMware will jointly drive tuning,
feedback and technical optimization for VMware virtualization
software on Intel processor technologies. Over the long-term,
Virtualize ASAP will help direct continued improvements in support
for VMware software on Intel's platforms and processors. "We
created Virtualize ASAP with VMware to accelerate and simplify the
process of customer solutions deployment of VMware environments on
Intel Xeon-based server platforms and to strengthen our joint
technical collaboration," said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president
and general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. "Giving IT
professionals well prescribed deployment guidelines for
applications will serve as a strong catalyst for them to migrate
their data centers to VMware Infrastructure on Intel Xeon- based
server platforms. Working with VMware on the workloads will allow
both companies to further optimize virtualization workload support
on a longer term basis." "Virtualize ASAP gives a broad set of ISV
partners a set of technical resources to accelerate the creation of
best practices and reference configurations of VMware
Infrastructure for servers using Intel's dual-core Xeon
processors," said Diane Greene, president of VMware. "This will be
very helpful to customers for both planning and ongoing deployment
in their virtual infrastructure. The program will also provide
valuable input to the ongoing technical collaboration to optimize
VMware Infrastructure on Intel architecture." Virtualize ASAP
provides multiple resources for engaged software vendors including
a dedicated solution testing facility and resources. The program
will deliver the hardware, software and technical expertise to help
software vendors establish best practice reference configurations,
and application- sizing guides for their software using VMware
Infrastructure and Intel Xeon processor-based server platforms. The
program will also provide education and support to software vendors
who wish to take advantage of latest advances from Intel and
VMware, including the forthcoming energy-efficient performance of
Intel(R) Core(TM) Microarchitecture server processors and the newly
released VMware Infrastructure 3 software suite, including
availability, dynamic resource management and resiliency
capabilities. Leading original equipment manufacturers, including
Dell, HP and IBM, are also driving Virtualize ASAP in support of
software vendors with the contribution of new hardware platforms
and technical resources. Software vendors who are initial
participants in Virtualize ASAP include: Altiris, BEA, CA, Cassatt,
Citrix, CommuniGate Systems, DataSynapse, Hyperion, Interwoven,
LANDesk, McKesson, MySQL, NetIQ, Open Country, Platform Computing,
SAP, SAS, SyAM, Sybase, Symantec, Tangosol and UGS. Benefits
offered to participating software vendors through Virtualize ASAP
include: -- Education on VMware Virtual Infrastructure, Intel
Platforms and Best Practice Development: Participants will have
access to training, a repository of best practices, case studies,
technical white papers and more. In addition, Virtualize ASAP
participants gain access to ASAP tools that guide them through the
development of their own best practices, reference configurations
and benchmarks for their software running on Intel and VMware
platforms. -- Virtual Appliances: VMware and Intel will assist
software vendors with their pre-assembled virtual appliances, which
deliver simplified customer evaluation and deployment of complex
software environments, by providing leading server platforms and
technical expertise. A virtual appliance is a fully pre-installed
and pre-configured application and operating system environment
that runs on a standard x86 desktop or server in a self-contained,
isolated environment known as a virtual machine. -- 24x7 Online
Access to Virtualize ASAP Center: The specialized online center
jointly developed by Intel and VMware gives ISVs the ability to
pre-schedule and utilize technical documentation, pre-configured
system and software resources remotely 24 x 7. Located in Dupont,
Wash., the center is now open and operational for participating
ISVs. The center is equipped with the latest Intel Xeon
processor-based server platforms provided by program sponsors Dell,
HP and IBM running VMware Infrastructure software. The center
provides web-based support with live technical assistance from
technical and solution experts from/trained by Intel and VMware who
are available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. PDT. For more
information: http://www.virtualizeasap.com/ About Intel Corporation
Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops
technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how
people work and live. Additional information about Intel is
available at http://www.intel.com/pressroom. About VMware VMware,
an EMC company, 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, Calif. For more
information, visit http://www.vmware.com/ or call 650-475-5000.
NOTE: Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United
States and other countries. VMware is a trademark and/or registered
trademark 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. Software Vendor
Support The Virtualize ASAP has earned the support of independent
software vendors across the virtualization ecosystem, from
management and security solutions to enterprise applications. At
today's launch, more than 20 software providers confirmed their
participation in the program in order to advance their offerings
and to promote broader adoption of virtualization solutions using
VMware Infrastructure 3 on Intel Xeon platforms. Altiris "We are
working closely with Intel and VMware to provide efficiently
managed virtual and physical computing platforms. Virtualization at
all levels of IT requires integrated manageability to help maximize
the infrastructure utilization while decreasing operating costs,"
said Dwain Kinghorn, Altiris CTO. "As part of the Virtualize ASAP
program, we will accelerate IT deployment of Altiris software
virtualization, which when combined with operating system and
hardware virtualization, provides a comprehensive virtual stack.
Altiris delivers automated IT operations to help control and deploy
each of these types of virtualization from a single management
console." BEA "Virtualization offers enterprises the flexibility
and reusability of a Service-oriented Architecture approach and is
a key foundational element for a successful SOA deployment," said
Guy Churchward, vice president of the Java Runtime Products Group
at BEA Systems. "Virtualize ASAP provides BEA with technical
resources and enablement to help drive customer adoption of BEA's
unified SOA platform for business transformation and optimization
combined with VMware Infrastructure. Intel and VMware's efforts
will make a significant contribution to building greater momentum
for the virtualization market." CA "By building support for VMware
Infrastructure on Intel-based servers across our product line, CA
will enable our customers to take full advantage of virtualization
without disrupting their current IT operations," said Vince Re,
senior vice president of Development at CA. "CA is working closely
with Intel and VMware on the Virtualize ASAP initiative to help our
customers benefit from low-pain/high-gain virtualization
deployments." Cassatt "Implementing virtualization technologies is
an important step toward creating and running a dynamic
infrastructure to support a customer's data center operations.
Cassatt extends the benefits of virtualization by providing
automated management of physical and virtual data center resources
to match policies that customers have set. The VMware ASAP program
helps Cassatt work with the latest technology from VMware and Intel
to provide our customers with proven best practices and guidelines
for implementing joint Cassatt-Intel-VMware solutions," said Gamiel
Gran, vice president of Worldwide Channels at Cassatt Corporation.
"With the help of this program, Cassatt customers can be sure the
virtualized portion of their application infrastructure is rock
solid, and that Cassatt Collage is making best use of that
environment as one way to help automatically deliver the service
levels that customers require from their applications." Citrix "Our
customers have told us that they will be leveraging all types of
virtualization and need guidance in implementing and integrating
Citrix Application virtualization with other virtualization
solutions," said Nabeel Youakim, vice president and product line
executive for the Virtualized Systems Group at Citrix. "With
Virtualize ASAP, we look forward to working with Intel and VMware
to provide our mutual customers with the information they require
when considering a virtualized hardware environment for their
Citrix application virtualization implementations." DataSynapse
"Virtualize ASAP is certain to accelerate the adoption of
virtualization among VMware Infrastructure and Intel Xeon-based
platform users, helping achieve even greater scalability and
performance gains through the use of existing resources. We applaud
and support this effort," said Kelly Vizzini, DataSynapse CMO.
"DataSynapse solutions combined with Virtualize ASAP will be an
important component of customers' virtualization strategies."
LANDesk "We are excited to participate in the VMware-Intel
Virtualize ASAP program. The resources provided through this
program will help LANDesk provide best-known methods for
implementing LANDesk Management Solutions in a virtualized server
environment," said Dave R Taylor, vice president of Worldwide
Marketing at LANDesk "This helps customers by providing the
knowledge and support needed to accelerate their deployment of
applications in the enterprise." McKesson "McKesson's document
management solutions deliver outstanding value to healthcare
providers, and we see tremendous solution reliability, flexibility
and infrastructure efficiency from deploying in a virtualized
environment," said Bing Teng, group general manager at McKesson.
"The Virtualize ASAP program using VMware Infrastructure on Intel
Xeon-based Servers will further accelerate deployment of our
industry leading solutions." MySQL "We look forward to building
upon our partnerships by joining the Virtualize ASAP program and
providing best practices and reference configurations of MySQL
running in VMware Infrastructure on Intel's Woodcrest platform,"
said Zack Urlocker, executive vice president of products for MySQL
AB. "For IT users interested in the benefits of an open source
database, MySQL's price/performance on dual-core Woodcrest servers
will be augmented by the cost-savings of increased server
utilization with VMware Infrastructure." NetIQ "NetIQ looks forward
to working with Intel and VMware on this ground- breaking
initiative and partnership. Organizations today have significant
challenges associated with scalability and managing the enterprise
data center," said Rob Reiner, NetIQ CTO. "Virtualize ASAP will
help NetIQ develop and deliver customer-focused best practices for
using NetIQ's system and security management solutions along with
VMware Infrastructure." Open Country "Open Country is pleased to
participate in the Intel-VMware Virtualize ASAP program. Open
Country's Universal Systems Management solution, OCM 3.0, enables
organizations to manage their infrastructure and systems, virtual
or otherwise with a single web-based console," said Michael Grove,
Open Country CEO. "Open Country provides open source customers the
necessary management solution to rapidly provision, deploy,
monitor, discover and manage in virtual environments on VMware
Infrastructure running on Intel Xeon-based servers, allowing
organizations to leverage virtualization in a managed, scalable
fashion." Platform Computing "We're pleased to be an early member
in the Virtualize ASAP program," said Chris Purpura, vice president
of New Ventures and Strategic Alliances at Platform Computing. "As
one of the providers in enterprise grid computing, the ability to
orchestrate a wider range of applications across clusters and grids
by using virtual containers will yield tremendous efficiencies to
our customers. The widespread availability of VMware Infrastructure
and multi-core Intel Xeon processors will radically accelerate the
adoption of virtualization and grid technologies in the market."
SAP "SAP is excited about virtualization opportunities for
enterprise customers," said Horst-Udo Schulte, vice president of
Global Technology Partners at SAP AG. "Rapid provisioning of
resources as loads get more resource hungry and increased
consistency on test and deployment systems using the same
infrastructure provide greater agility for businesses and reduced
operational costs. VMware on Xeon servers is an SAP supported
infrastructure and customers benefit from this solution today." SAS
"The VMware-Intel Virtualize ASAP program offers today's dynamic,
competitive corporation the ability and confidence to accelerate
server virtualization deployment in the enterprise," said Keith
Collins, SAS Senior Vice President and CTO. "Combining this program
and SAS Business Intelligence empowers customers to get Better
Answers Faster with data integration, predictive analytics and
information delivery to leap ahead of the competition." SyAM "SyAM
Software is pleased to support the Virtualize ASAP initiative as
there are excellent synergies between the VMware platform, Intel's
architectures and SyAM Software's Central Management capabilities,"
said Nick Thickins, SyAM Software CEO. "SyAM Software is uniquely
qualified to support this initiative because of the feature set of
our product line. Organizations who choose to adopt SyAM Software's
products for managing virtualized machines will find their cost of
operations will go down, the performance of their machines will go
up, and the risk of unforeseen catastrophic failures will be
heavily reduced." Sybase "The technical expertise that Intel and
VMware have put behind Virtualize ASAP will make a significant
contribution to building greater momentum for the virtualization
market," said Mark Westover, vice president of Corporate
Development and Marketing at Sybase. "Combined with Sybase'
expertise in information management and mobility, it will make a
compelling proposition for our existing and potential customer
base." Symantec "This concerted effort of applying virtualization
technology to applications in the data center will help drive down
costs while increasing application flexibility," said Matt
Fairbanks, senior director of Product Management in the Data Center
Management Group at Symantec Corp. "Symantec has worked closely
with both Intel and VMware on recent virtualization initiatives,
and by bringing its security and availability solutions to virtual
environments and participating in Virtualize ASAP, Symantec hopes
to further ease customer transition." Tangosol "As our customers
extend their initial grid implementations, virtualization is a
critical implementation model," said Cameron Purdy, Tangosol
President and CEO. "Our support and use of this Intel and VMware
program will help provide customers with technical solutions and
best practices for the combination of virtualization and data
grids." Original Equipment Manufacturer Support Dell, HP and IBM
are the original equipment manufacturers that have committed to
participate in Virtualize ASAP upon its launch today. The companies
will contribute hardware platforms and technical resources as part
of their commitment to Virtualize ASAP and promoting broader
adoption of virtualization solutions on the Intel and VMware
platform. Dell "Virtualization is an integral part of Dell's
Scalable Enterprise Architecture, a framework for a highly
efficient data center infrastructure," said Neil Hand, vice
president of Worldwide Enterprise Marketing Dell Product Group. "By
teaming up with Intel, VMware and leading software vendors in the
Virtualize ASAP program, we will be able to easily introduce our
customers to compelling virtualization solutions and simplify the
integration of virtualization into their IT infrastructure." HP "As
a leading provider in offering customers virtualization innovations
through our ProLiant Essentials Virtualization Management Software
to virtualizing I/O with our new Virtual Connect technology in our
BladeSystem c- Class, HP is helping customers drive down costs and
improve service levels while building toward an automated and
virtualized, 24x7, lights-out computing environment," said Rick
Becker, vice president and general manager of the BladeSystem
Division and Volume Software at HP. "Today's Virtualize ASAP
program from Intel and VMware moves the virtualization needle even
further providing customers greater speed, confidence and best
practices to deploy virtualized ISV and server environments
throughout their IT infrastructure." IBM "IBM is pleased to join
the Virtualize ASAP program to ensure broader software exploitation
of IBM System X servers with Xeon-processors running VMware
Infrastructure," said Kevin Leahy, director of Strategy of IBM
Virtualization. "This program with Intel and VMware complements
IBM's Ready for Virtualization initiative that helps customers
identify and deploy virtualized partner solutions across our
servers and storage systems." DATASOURCE: VMware, Inc. CONTACT:
Nick Knupffer of Intel Corporation, +1-408-250-7265, or ; or Amber
Rowland of VMware, Inc., +1-650-842-9519, or Web site:
http://www.vmware.com/
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