Palo Alto, California – (The Hosting News) – June 1, 2009 – Virtualization solutions from the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, VMware, Inc., has expanded its VMware Ready program to partners that provide data protection solutions for VMware vSphere 4.

Parag Patel, vice president, alliances, VMware noted, ”Customers have told us that business continuity, disaster recovery, and especially data protection are top of mind, particularly as we look to the future where IT decision makers are continually asked to do more with less. VMware Ready Optimized data protection solutions will be validated for production datacenter use, helping to lay the foundation for cloud computing and assure customers that their mission-critical data is protected through a validated end-to-end solution.”

VMware vSphere 4, which is now generally available, helps customers transform IT into a dynamic, flexible service while dramatically lowering costs.
As part of the VMware Ready Data Protection program, participating partners will get full access to a rich set of functionality and integration interfaces to make their solutions ”VMware Ready Optimized” for VMware vSphere 4, as well as receive best practices and use of the VMware Ready Optimized logo. VMware Ready Optimized solutions will accelerate implementation of qualified data protection solutions to help customers reduce IT expenses as they move toward cloud computing.

The VMware Ready Data Protection program enables partners to integrate new and existing solutions with VMware vSphere 4 using certain VMware vStorage APIs and integration technologies that simplify protection of virtualized workloads. The program adds qualification criteria for data protection products to help validate that partner solutions have passed VMware-specified integration or interoperability criteria and are technically ready for optimal use with VMware vSphere 4. Key data protection vendors are expected to validate their products for VMware vSphere 4 including CA, CommVault, EMC, Symantec and Vizioncore.

The VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection included in VMware vSphere 4 are the enabling framework for data protection partners to develop integrated solutions for centralized virtual machine backup. This enables customers to perform rapid backup without disrupting applications or the end user experience. VMware will continue to support existing implementations of the previous generation of its data protection framework (called VMware Consolidated Backup) as well as a non-disruptive upgrade to the new VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection.

As part of the program, VMware will recommend solutions for essential data protection processes such as backup and restore that are VMware Ready Optimized-meaning these solutions adhere to more stringent integration guidelines and pass a technical validation. Partner products passing this qualification will be allowed to use the VMware Ready Optimized logo, where ”Optimized” signifies that the qualifying products provide optimized levels of integration, functionality, or performance. Qualified partners in the program will have access to VMware technologies to develop and deliver solutions that interoperate with and are optimized for VMware vSphere 4. VMware Ready Optimized data protection solutions will also be featured as ‘VMware Ready’ in the VMware Partner Product Catalog.

VMware is a global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter bringing cloud computing to businesses of all sizes. Customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 130,000 customers and more than 24,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC).

For more information on the VMware Ready Program, please visit: http://www.vmware.com/partners/vmware-ready/index.html.

To read what leading data protection vendors are saying about the VMware Ready Program, please visit: www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-ready-dp-partner.html

For more information about VMware, please visit: www.vmware.com.

Be Sociable, Share!

•