VMware Introduces Enhanced Offerings for Small and Midsize Businesses

VMware has unveiled new VMware vSphere 5.1 solutions to help small and midsize businesses (SMBs) simplify and protect IT with industry-leading virtualization, business continuity and automated management.

Virtualization is now mainstream amongst SMBs, with companies increasingly focused on extending the benefits of virtualization to improve IT availability and backup / recovery. Recent studies by Spiceworks found that 77 percent of SMBs are either using or planning to use virtualization software by the second half of 2012, and that of those who have already virtualized, more than 75 percent have chosen VMware vSphere as their virtualization solution.

“The core demands on modern IT – keeping business up and running, balancing IT supply with IT demand, and being able to respond quickly to business needs – are the same regardless of the size of your business,” said Russ Stockdale, vice president and general manager, SMB Solutions, VMware. “The challenge SMBs face is to do it all with a small team of IT pros. VMware’s SMB solutions make enterprise-class business continuity and management accessible to smaller IT teams and single practitioners by reducing the complexity of deploying, operating and securing these systems.”

VMware vSphere is the most trusted, most widely deployed virtualization platform in the world. Built on the industry’s most proven and reliable hypervisor architecture, VMware vSphere delivers application performance and availability for the most demanding business-critical applications. Announced today, VMware vSphere 5.1 will include more than 100 enhancements and new features that can increase efficiency, reduce IT operations costs by as much as 30 percent and guarantee application service levels.

“Our business demands 24/7 uptime – there is no room for compromise,” said Mark Haden, vice president, Engineering and IT, MLB Network. “VMware provides us with the software infrastructure we need to make it happen for both the broadcast and the back office sides of our business. When we were looking for a technology that is flexible, resilient and could provide the ability to work effectively even with a small team of IT pros, VMware was the best choice for us.”

VMware vSphere 5.1 Essentials Plus – Advanced virtualization in a simple package
With the release of VMware vSphere 5.1, VMware will significantly extend the capabilities of VMware vSphere Essentials Plus to include:

• VMware vSphere Storage Appliance 5.1 – Delivering High Availability at low cost. VMware vSphere 5.1 will include an updated VMware vSphere Storage Appliance for Essentials Plus, which transforms servers’ internal storage into a shared storage resource, enabling customers to use advanced VMware vSphere business continuity features such as VMware vMotion and High Availability without shared storage hardware. Enhancements will make it easy for customers to extend these benefits to existing VMware vSphere and Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) environments and reduce infrastructure costs by running VMware vCenter Server in a VM within a VMware vSphere Storage Appliance cluster.  VMware vSphere Storage Appliance 5.1 will support RAID 5, 6, and 10 and also makes it easy for customers to add storage capacity online to keep pace with data growth.

• VMware vSphere Data Protection – Providing reliable virtual machine backup and recovery.  VMware vSphere 5.1 will include new backup and recovery capabilities which enable users to quickly set backup policies within VMware vSphere.  VMware vSphere Data Protection will leverage proven production expertise to reduce cost and management overhead by enabling agentless backups with built-in de-duplication.

• VMware vSphere Replication – Simplifying disaster recovery for all applications. Replication is a key component of any disaster recovery plan, and VMware vSphere 5.1 will include array-agnostic replication capabilities.  VMware vSphere Replication will allow customers to replicate virtual machine data over the LAN or WAN for efficient, simple disaster protection. For those customers that want to simplify and automate disaster recovery, VMware is introducing a new version of VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager that will include support for VMware vSphere 5.1 Essentials Plus.  VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1 will be supported by an expanding ecosystem of service providers offering “disaster recovery to the cloud” services that allow customers to failover to a service provider’s datacenter, eliminating the need for a dedicated disaster recovery site.

• VMware vShield Endpoint – Securing virtual machines. VMware vSphere 5.1 will include vShield Endpoint, which delivers proven endpoint security to any workload with an approach that is simplified, efficient and cloud-aware.  VMware vShield Endpoint will eliminate the need for antivirus agents inside virtual machines by enabling the offloading of antivirus and anti-malware functions to hardened, tamper-proof virtual machines delivered by VMware’s partners. 

Introducing VMware vSphere 5.1 Standard with Operations Management
To help simplify and automate IT management, VMware is introducing a new VMware vSphere edition which combines the industry’s leading virtualization platform with the capabilities organizations need to simplify IT management and lower operational costs. VMware vSphere Standard with Operations Management will include:

• VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite – automates performance and capacity management to help customers proactively ensure the performance of their business critical applications while optimizing efficiency.

• VMware vCenter Protect – provides centralized patch management and asset inventory management to protect virtual and legacy physical systems.

New release of VMware Go Pro further simplifies deployment and management
VMware Go Pro is a cloud-based virtualization and IT management solution built specifically for SMBs.  VMware Go Pro will help customers virtualize from any Web browser with wizard-based installation guides. Customers can manage and monitor their virtual infrastructure from anywhere using a web based interface. Customers can also use VMware Go Pro to simplify and automate patch management for hundreds of third-party applications including those from Microsoft.

For a limited time, VMware will include VMware Go Pro free with VMware vSphere 5.1 Essentials and Essentials Plus purchases.

Expanding Virtualization Partner Community
With more than 55,000 technology partners, solution providers, distributors, service providers, systems integrators, and every major global hardware manufacturer, VMware features the broadest and most robust virtualization partner ecosystem in the industry.

This growing network offers SMBs and ROBO customers a broad range of applications, networking, servers and storage devices that work 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
VMware vSphere 5.1 and VMware vSphere Storage Appliance 5.1 are expected to be generally available on September 11, 2012. VMware vSphere pricing starts around $83 per processor with no core, vRAM or number of VM limits.  VMware vSphere Essentials is $495, and VMware vSphere Essentials Plus is $4,495.  All VMware vSphere Essentials Kits includes licensing for 6 CPUs on up to 3 hosts.

VMware Go Pro is expected to be available directly to customers and through VMware’s network of channel partners in Q3 2012 with prices starting at $12 per managed system. For a limited time, VMware will include VMware Go Pro free with VMware vSphere 5.1 Essentials and Essentials Plus purchases.

VMware also offers several Acceleration Kits that provide midsize businesses with a scalable, full-featured virtualization platform that utilizes policy-based automation to help ensure application service levels and the option to add advanced management capabilities. Acceleration Kits start at $6,995, include licensing for 6 CPUs of VMware vSphere and one instance of VMware vCenter Server Standard, and one instance of VMware vSphere Storage Appliance.