Vyatta, the leader in Linux-based networking, today announced that its open-source networking software has received VMware Virtual Appliance Certification, thereby providing customers with a solution that has been optimized for a production-ready VMware environment. The company also announced it has joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) Program. As a member of TAP, Vyatta will offer its solutions via the TAP program website. With the Vyatta virtual appliance for VMware environments, organizations can now include Vyatta’s router, firewall and VPN functions as part of their virtualized infrastructure.

Vyatta combines enterprise-class routing and security capabilities into an integrated, reliable and commercially supported software solution, delivering twice the performance of proprietary network solutions at half the price. Running Vyatta software as virtual appliances gives customers many more options for scaling their data centers and consolidating infrastructure in branch offices, while controlling hardware, real estate and power costs. Virtual appliances are preconfigured installations of software in virtual machine format. Using virtual appliances, users can simply add files to the appropriate hardware and open the virtual appliance in VMware to create a running instance of the application. No other proprietary vendor is able to virtualize networking infrastructure in this way.

“We’re pleased to be recognized by VMware with Certified Virtual Appliance status,” said Dave Roberts, vice-president of strategy at Vyatta. “Vyatta is the most flexible networking solution in the market, built for deployment on standalone hardware systems, on blade servers and in virtualized environments. In working with VMware to certify the Vyatta virtual appliance we have guaranteed our customers compatibility with the full line of VMware products and a simplified user experience.”

The VMware Certified Virtual Appliance Program includes a battery of quality assurance tests, conducted by the VMware Certification Lab, letting customers know that these virtual appliances are ready to run best-in-class solutions.