VMware Unveils vSphere 4 Product Editions For SMBs

VMware today unveiled VMware vSphere 4 with new features and product editions that deliver ‘Always On IT’ for small and midsized businesses (SMBs) and remote and branch office (ROBO) IT environments. VMware vSphere 4 will deliver zero-downtime application availability and enterprise-class data protection managed under a single pane of glass.

Introducing an ‘Always On IT’ Virtualisation Solution

VMware vSphere 4 delivers ‘Always On IT’ that meets the most critical needs of SMB and ROBO customers.

- VMware Fault Tolerance and High Availability provides continuous availability for infrastructure and applications to further enhance service continuity, enabling critical applications to run with zero downtime or data loss due to hardware failures.

- VMware VMotion reduces planned downtime from server maintenance activities by enabling the live migration of running virtual machines from one server to another with no disruption or downtime.

- VMware Data Recovery provides automated backup and recovery for all applications and data, with complete integration with VMware’s management client for simple deployment and operation.

- VMware vShield Zones secures applications and data inside a dynamic firewall that maintains complete protection across the physical and virtual environment with point-and-click ease.

SMB Offerings

VMware will introduce three new VMware vSphere 4 product editions for SMBs that deliver cost-effective server consolidation, high availability and data protection to enable ‘Always On IT’. Small businesses can deploy a server consolidation and management solution for only $166 per processor with VMware vSphere 4 Essentials and get higher application uptime with VMware vSphere 4 Essentials Plus (only $499 per processor)—these are features that are otherwise out of reach for most small companies.

- VMware vSphere 4 Essentials provides an all-in-one solution for small offices to consolidate and manage many application workloads while reducing hardware and operating costs.

- VMware vSphere 4 Essentials Plus adds VMware High Availability and VMware Data Recovery for a complete server consolidation and business continuity solution for the small office IT environment.

- VMware vSphere 4 Advanced for mid-sized businesses is a scalable, strategic consolidation and availability solution that includes VMware VMotion, VMware Fault Tolerance, VMware Data Recovery and VMware vShield Zones.

Availability and Pricing

VMware Fault Tolerance, VMware Data Recovery and VMware vShield Zones are expected to be generally available with VMware vSphere 4 Advanced later in the second quarter of 2009.

VMware vSphere 4 Essentials (list price $995 for an all-in-one solution including central management for up to three server hosts with up to two processors each – equivalent to $166 per processor), VMware vSphere 4 Essentials Plus (list price $2,995 for an all-in-one solution including central management for up to three server hosts – equivalent to $499 per processor), and VMware vSphere 4 Advanced (list price $2,245 per processor licence) are expected to be generally available from VMware and its network of OEM and channel partners later in the second quarter of 2009.