News

VMware, HP Expand Virtualization Pact

• By Rutrell Yasin
• December 11, 2008

The companies plan to offer integrated physical and virtual datacenter management and automation software solutions that rely on technologies in HP's Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software, VMware officials said.

The new tools will bring even greater management capabilities to the emerging concept of a virtual datacenter operating system (VDC-OS), they said. The agreement expands on the integrated software offerings the companies announced earlier this year, which let datacenter operators automate the management of heterogeneous environments.

As a first step, VMware will work with HP to integrate HP's BTO software with VMware vCenter Lab Manager, which provides self-service access to a library of preconfigured, virtualized applications. Users access applications on demand while the information technology staff maintains administrative control.

With vCenter Lab Manager, organizations can reduce hardware costs, automate manual provisioning tasks, and accelerate application development and test cycles, VMware officials said.

VMware and HP will also develop and market enhanced virtualization management offerings for VMware vCenter Lab Manager and HP BTO users based on HP Discovery and Dependency Mapping software. The approach will help users better manage their VDC-OS environments.

A VDC-OS is designed to help organizations pool all types of hardware resources -- including servers, storage tools and networks -- into an internal enterprise cloud that acts like a single, giant computer. A VDC-OS can also safely and automatically move workloads to external clouds when additional capacity is needed.

Such a system should be highly elastic, self-managing and self-healing, and it should help businesses and government agencies benefit from the flexibility and efficiency of remotely monitored data centers, VMware officials said.