Today at VMworld 2010 Europe,  VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, continued to expand its strategy for modern IT infrastructures, announcing new and enhanced products and programs to help enterprises and service providers achieve the benefits of cloud computing while maintaining the control and freedom of choice they require.

Introduced at VMworld 2010 in San Francisco, IT as a Service is the transformation of IT to a more business-centric approach, focusing on outcomes such as operational efficiency, competitiveness and rapid response.  This means IT will shift from producing IT services to optimizing production and consumption of those services in ways consistent with business requirements.  This will change the role of IT from a cost center to a center of strategic value. 

“The transformation of IT infrastructure to a hybrid cloud model has begun,” said Raghu Raghuram, senior vice president and general manager, Virtualization and Cloud Platforms, VMware. “VMware continues to drive this next generation of IT forward with solutions for enterprises and service providers that promise to redefine IT’s relationship with its business partners and enable IT services to be consumed when and how they best serve the goals of the business.”

The VMware cloud infrastructure and management vision is an evolutionary model of IT infrastructure based on virtualization that unifies hybrid, private and public cloud resource pools with consistent security, compliance, management and quality of service. Building on the VMware vSphere™ foundation, the cloud infrastructure products and services VMware announced in August at VMworld 2010 in San Francisco – VMware vCloud™ Director, the VMware vShield™ product family and VMware vCloud Datacenter Services – introduced  a hybrid cloud model that seamlessly bridges private and public clouds.  Today, VMware continues to build on this model, introducing:

• Enhanced governance and control for hybrid clouds
  VMware today announced VMware vCloud Request Manager, further streamlining the production and consumption of infrastructure services by adding sophisticated, automated approval workflows to the VMware vCloud Director provisioning process.  VMware vCloud Director will change the way IT delivers infrastructure services and the way users access and consume them by extending the resource pooling capabilities of VMware vSphere, enabling IT to create “virtual data centers” (VDCs) and offer them to users through fully automated self-service access. Once a user selects infrastructure services from the VMware vCloud Director service catalog, vCloud Request Manager initiates pre-defined workflows to coordinate approvals, track software license inventories and ensure standardization of cloud partitions according to policy “blueprints.”
  Learn more about VMware vCloud Request Manager

• Advanced storage analytics and visualization purpose-built to manage the capacity of dynamic virtual and cloud environments
  The dynamic nature of modern infrastructures and cloud environments requires a new management paradigm that incorporates real-time analytics and visualization to enable a higher level of automation and the ability to identify the root cause of performance problems. Today, VMware announced VMware vCenter™ CapacityIQ™ 1.5, introducing
  new storage analytics capabilities that will provide enhanced visibility for storage forecasting, and the ability to more accurately pinpoint capacity bottlenecks related to storage. VMware vCenter CapacityIQ 1.5 includes new resource optimization capabilities that improve capacity trending and scenarios in dynamic virtual and cloud environments. With easy-to-understand reports for analysis and trending, VMware vCenter CapacityIQ 1.5 will provide customers with the most critical information related to capacity planning and management of their dynamic virtual and cloud infrastructures.

• New VMware vCloud customers, partners and VSPP enhancements drive hybrid cloud services momentum
  COLT, a leading European provider of business communications and the first VMware vCloud Datacenter Services provider in Europe, today announced that Fidelity Investment Managers and Carphone Warehouse will be its first customers to trial innovative IT initiatives as part of the Colt VMware vCloud Datacenter Services “pilot environment.” Introduced in August at VMworld 2010 in San Francisco, VMware vCloud Datacenter Services are enterprise-class public clouds certified by VMware that will be delivered by leading service providers including BlueLock, COLT, SingTel, Terremark and Verizon.  In addition, VMware announced Elisa Oy, a leading Nordics ICT solutions provider, as its newest VMware vCloud Express partner.

VMware is also expanding its VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP), more than doubling the number of products available to participants and introducing new, simpler pay-for-use bundles and licensing. The addition of VMware vCloud Director, the Zimbra™ Collaboration Suite, the VMware vShield product family, VMware vCenter CapacityIQ, and several other VMware products will allow VSPP service providers to expand their offerings beyond infrastructure services to include platform as a service, desktop as a service, email hosting and many other incremental cloud services.

A cornerstone of the VMware vCloud Initiative, the VSPP provides pay-for-use licensing, market development funding, access to software and other programs to help service providers grow their businesses. Since its launch in 2008, the VSPP has experienced rapid growth with more than 2,900 service providers in the program today and 145 percent growth in the last 12 months.  
Learn more about how VMware is expanding VSPP

• VMware Go™ Pro beta brings cloud management paradigm to small and midsized businesses
  VMware today announced VMware Go™ Pro beta, a comprehensive cloud service that will make it easy for SMBs to consolidate servers, control assets and secure their IT infrastructure. VMware Go Pro, developed in partnership with Shavlik Technologies, will guide customers through the server virtualization process, streamlining patch management and software asset management – all done in the cloud. VMware Go Pro will provide a single pane of glass to manage both virtual and physical infrastructures.
  Learn more about VMware GoPro

Pricing and Availability

• VMware vCloud Request Manager is expected to be available in Q4 2010 and will be licensed per VM with prices starting at $100 per VM
• VMware vCenter CapacityIQ 1.5 is expected to be available in Q4 2010 and will be licensed per VM with prices starting at $75 per VM
• The new VSPP pricing model and products will be available starting in October 2010 through the VMware aggregator (distribution) channel
• VMware Go Pro is currently in public beta and is expected to be generally available in Q4 2010