HP, Dell and Fujitsu answer VMware's USB stick plea

The 32MB shot heard round the world

By Ashlee Vance in Mountain View • Get more from this author

Posted in Servers, 26th February 2008 16:44 GMT

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The Others

IBM plans to offer a single 3i-ready system at some point, while Sun has so far ignored the embedded hypervisor movement.

Fujitsu Siemens beat its larger rivals to the punch by announcing immediate availability of systems with 3i embedded. "Midrange PRIMERGY RX330 S1 and RX300 S4 servers including the integrated virtualization solution start shipping today, with prices starting at EUR 2,300," we were told.

The "I" is for the obvious

It's quite something to watch most of the major server vendors jump for VMware. The software maker readies a thin hypervisor, and everyone arms their USB sticks like obedient virtualization soldiers.

And why not?

You're not getting a revolution here, but you're getting a time saver.

Customers will soon be able to go to web sites and pick from VMware, Citrix, SWsoft and Microsoft hypervisors on their systems. The will pay nothing or very little for the privilege. Then they can boot right into a virtualized state, saving some time and installation hassle. In addition, all of their servers will be ready for full-blown virtualization should the need occur. Just one click with a mouse, and you're there.

"I think it will be great for customers," VMware CEO Diane Greene told us. "They will get their servers with all of this tested and certified. Then, you can boot those servers and have them plug-and-play into an existing virtualized environment." ®

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