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Tuesday 26th February 2008

VMware steals Microsoft's thunder with server deals 5:21PM, Tuesday 26th February 2008

VMware has penned a deal with server giants Dell, HP, IBM and Fujitsu Siemens to embed the ESX 3i hypervisor into their server products.

The manufacturers will start shipping hardware loaded with VMware's virtualisation software within the next 60 days, and the companies are hoping the deal will help speed the adoption of virtualisation technology among businesses.

ESX Server 3i strips the service console from ESX Server, bringing the install down from 2GB to around 32MB. The software allows servers to act like multiple machines,

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each with its own operating system and software.

The companies have not revealed the financial details of the deals, and are not saying whether the inclusion of ESX 3i will bump up the price of their offerings. However, the deal should help to reassure investors getting jittery after VMware warned of slowed growth in 2008.

The announcement comes on the eve of Microsoft's roll out of Windows Server 2008, and is no doubt timed to overshadow what Microsoft has been describing as the "biggest enterprise product launch in its history".

Microsoft's own virtualisation technology, dubbed Hyper-V, will be available three months after the launch of Windows Server 2008.

Stuart Turton

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