Today at VMworld 2011 Europe, VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, announced VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus and enhancements to its VMware Go Pro service, simplifying IT management for small and midsize businesses (SMBs).
"VMware is dedicated to helping companies of all sizes reduce IT complexity," said Mark Shavlik, vice president and general manager, SMB Management Solutions, VMware. "We continue to innovate to bring SMBs advanced solutions tailored to their needs so that they can increase efficiency and reduce costs regardless of the size or sophistication of their IT organization."
VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus and VMware Go Pro provide SMBs with choice and flexibility, offering a range of capabilities with both on-premise and Software as a Service (SaaS) deployment options.
VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus Brings Enterprise-Class IT Management to SMBs
VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus, formerly Shavlik NetChk Protect, is a complete on-premise management system designed to meet the needs of the SMB. VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus will offer agentless, easy-to-deploy and cost-effective management of physical and virtual machines, software update deployment in 28 languages, asset discovery, configuration, power management, antivirus and endpoint security. New features in VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus will include:
- New scripting capabilities that will drive increased efficiency by allowing customers to manage and execute scripts across machine groups or the entire network. The ITScripts Catalog will be continuously expanded as more scripts are released. Dozens of scripts will be available to automate tasks such as configuration, maintenance, support and network information.
- A remote desktop that will allow users to execute Remote Desktop Protocol from the vCenter Protect Essentials Plus "Machine View," allowing IT administrators remote access to a target machine.
- The vCenter Protect Essentials Plus console will allow multiple administrators to simultaneously perform different tasks at the same time.
- A new "Power Status" scan will discover the power status of machines across the network and can generate reports that customers can submit to any power companies that offer energy savings rebates.
VMware Go Pro: Simple, Cloud-Based IT Management
First launched in January 2011, VMware Go Pro is a cloud service (SaaS) that makes it easy for SMBs to create, manage, monitor and secure their IT infrastructure by providing a single pane of glass to manage both physical and virtual machines. VMware Go Pro also provides patch management, including non-critical Microsoft patches, and asset inventory tracking for SMB IT environments. New capabilities in VMware Go Pro will further simplify IT management for SMBs:
- Introducing the "IT Advisor," which will scan and assess a customer's physical and virtual infrastructure and then provide recommendations, guidance, alerts and actions to help customers optimize their environments, streamline management processes, improve security and expand their virtualized infrastructure. Each time the IT Advisor scans the environment, it will provide new options, recommendations and alerts to help customers quickly identify and solve problems.
- Updated asset and patch management capabilities will allow users to create and label groups of machines and then schedule patch scans and deployment for these groups.
Award-Winning Virtualization and Cloud Computing for SMBs
VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus and VMware Go Pro are part of VMware's comprehensive portfolio of virtualization and cloud computing offerings for businesses of all sizes, which also includes:
- VMware vSphere® Kits for SMBs
VMware provides all-in-one solutions for SMBs of all sizes. VMware vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus Kits enable small offices to consolidate workloads, improve availability, and centrally manage their environments with a low up-front investment. VMware Acceleration Kits provide midsize businesses with a scalable, full-featured virtualization platform, with policy-based automation to help ensure application service levels and the option to add advanced management capabilities such as multi-site failover protection. - VMware vSphere Storage Appliance
The VMware vSphere Storage Appliance brings the rich business continuity and automated resource management capabilities of VMware vSphere to SMBs without the cost and complexity of shared storage. By transforming internal storage from several servers into a protected shared storage resource, the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance extends the benefits of virtualization to all SMBs. - VMware vSphere Hypervisor
VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the easiest way to get started with virtualization—and it's free. Based on VMware ESXi™, the hypervisor architecture that sets the industry standard for reliability, performance and ecosystem support, VMware vSphere Hypervisor allows customers to consolidate applications onto fewer servers and start saving money through reduced hardware, power, cooling and administration costs.
Broadest Virtualization Partner Ecosystem
VMware has the industry’s broadest and most robust virtualization partner ecosystem with more than 25,000 technology partners, solution providers, distributors, service providers and systems integrators, as well as every major global hardware manufacturer. This broad ecosystem provides SMB and Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO) customers with a wide variety of servers, storage devices, networking and applications that interoperate with VMware solutions and are fully supported by each vendor. In addition, VMware vCloud® partners are delivering SMB business continuity and disaster recovery solutions that directly leverage public cloud computing services.
Pricing and Availability
VMware expects to offer VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus through its global network of channel partners in Q4 2011. VMware vCenter Protect Essentials Plus is expected to be available as an annual subscription at $57 per server/per year and $36 per workstation/per year. For more information, visit http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vcenter-protect/overview.html
VMware Go Pro will begin under limited availability on VMware.com in Q4 2011 starting at $12 per managed system/per year. VMware expects to broaden the availability of VMware Go Pro through its global network of channel partners over time. For more information, visit http://www.vmware.com/products/go/support.html