Diane Greene, president and chief executive officer of VMware, outlined the agreements with representatives from Dell, HP and IBM at Tuesday's VMworld Europe keynote. Greene said the deal will proliferate virtualization and fast-track customers on the path to a self-managing virtual data center.

With customers able to get VMware configured into a server platform, virtualization came a step closer to fulfilling analyst predictions for installations. IDC has predicted server virtualization will be a $15 billion market worldwide by 2009.

The ESX 3i Advantage

VMware's ESX 3i is based on its core virtualization technology that more than 100,000 customers are already using. At 32MB, it is the industry's smallest hypervisor. ESX 3i is the only OS-independent virtualization platform and, VMware said, the first virtual machine that can operate within minutes of booting a server with optimized configurations.

"ESX 3i is a relatively small piece of code. It doesn't take up an enormous amount of space, so it really creates some interesting opportunities for server vendors to use virtualization to improve system performance," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT . "From a competitive perspective, it is going to make room for VMware to have its system on machines months ahead of Microsoft's own embedded Hyper-V virtualization."

A Prelude to VI3

Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP and IBM servers will also include access to an evaluation of the VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) suite, which delivers a fully managed virtual data center. VI3 is VMware's solution for virtualizing servers, storage , networks, applications and desktops. The technology aims to help make sure IT services are delivered when and where needed, and optimized for cost and energy efficiency .

Customers can upgrade from VMware ESX 3i hypervisor to VMware's data-center suite. According to VMware, VI3 offers automatic load balancing, business continuity and power management, and the ability to move a virtual machine across physical machines to minimize service interruption. VI3 is also compatible with VMware's desktop virtualization and management solutions.

Preparing for a Microsoft Battle

VMware's deal with the server vendors sets the stage for a battle with Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization product. Microsoft could release Hyper-V this summer. The original due date was the first quarter of 2008.

"Exactly how VMware and Microsoft will compete head to head as far as performance and features goes remains to be seen. But having the opportunity to promote VMware inside on all the major server vendors' platforms is a great deal for VMware," King noted. "This deal will help insure that VMware has a place at the table no matter what Microsoft brings to the party."