Virtual Iron Announces New VMware Upgrade Program

Limited Time Offer Enables VMware Server and VMware ESX 2.5 Customers to Get All the Benefits of Virtual Infrastructure Management Simply and Inexpensively

Lowell, MA, March 13, 2007 – Virtual Iron Software (www.virtualiron.com), a provider of enterprise-class software solutions for server virtualization and virtual infrastructure management, today announced a new program for VMware users that enables them to quickly and easily upgrade from VMware Server and VMware ESX 2.5 to Virtual Iron at a fraction of what it would cost to upgrade to VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3. The program includes seamless virtual machine migration from VMware to Virtual Iron using PlateSpin’s PowerConvert platform.

Many users of VMware Server (formerly GSX) and VMware 2.5 (formerly ESX) want to take advantage of the benefits of virtual infrastructure management and transparent workload migration to enable advanced use cases such as high availability / business continuity and utility computing. However, they do not want to pay the hefty fees required to upgrade to VMware’s current offering. In addition, their significant existing investments in ESX licenses and maintenance do not earn them any pricing discounts. Other users are also concerned about the complexities of migrating to VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.

With this program, Virtual Iron provides VMware users a simple way to upgrade their virtual environment to get all the advanced virtual infrastructure management capabilities they need, including automated policy management and transparent workload migration, at a fraction of the cost. The program will be fulfilled through Virtual Iron’s Channel One reseller partners and is limited to the first 100 customers.

“Many of our virtualization customers want to take the next step to virtual infrastructure management, but find it cost-prohibitive,” said Steven Reed, CTO of virtualization solution provider and reseller Virtual Ngenuity. “With this upgrade program, Virtual Iron enables all the benefits of these advanced virtualization capabilities to a segment of the market that would have been shut out otherwise. As a result, Virtual Ngenuity can help its customers take their virtualization initiative to the next level and realize the dramatic ROI that comes with it.”

According to industry experts, the next wave of virtualization solutions have the potential to deliver on the full promise of server virtualization and support advanced use cases including high availability / disaster recovery, capacity management and utility computing. These use cases are enabled by advanced, transparent workload migration and virtual server management capabilities. However, the two biggest hurdles to the adoption of these capabilities are cost and complexity.

Virtual Iron and VMware are the only two virtualization vendors with these advanced capabilities, but Virtual Iron costs just one-fifth the price of comparable VMware offerings. The Virtual Iron solution combines an open source hypervisor with advanced virtualization services and policy-based management. It also fully leverages new hardware–assisted virtualization (AMD-V and Intel VT) to deliver near native performance and simultaneous support for unmodified 32 and 64-bit Windows and Linux operating systems. Virtual Iron also includes advanced capabilities such as large memory support (up to 96 GB), large SMP capabilities (up to 8 simultaneous CPUs per virtual server) and the ability to virtualize server platforms with up to 32 physical CPUs. Additionally, Virtual Iron supports iSCSI for easy access to cost-effective shared storage and requires no installation or management of virtualization services on physical servers, further streamlining data center operations and costs. The software delivers all the capabilities and benefits of primary virtualization use cases including: server consolidation; development and test; rapid provisioning; high availability and disaster recovery; and capacity management. VMware customers can now get the advanced virtualization and management capabilities that they want at less then the cost of an annual maintenance contract for VMware’s Enterprise Edition.

“Cost and complexity remain the two biggest obstacles to mainstream adoption of server virtualization,” said Mike Grandinetti, Chief Marketing Officer at Virtual Iron Software. “This program is just one more way that Virtual Iron is helping users overcome these challenges so that they can take full advantage of enterprise-class virtualization and management and the significant operational and economic benefits that come with it.”

Virtual Iron is offering the VMware Upgrade Program in three different product bundles. Each bundle includes:

• Perpetual License for Virtual Iron Software
• One (1) yr. of Virtual Iron Support at Gold Level
• PlateSpin Power Convert V2V Migration & Support
• Additional V2V migrations are available at special discount pricing upon request

Upgrade Program Bundles and Pricing

All promotions will be fulfilled by Virtual Iron’s Channel One Reseller Partners. Professional services support is also available from Virtual Iron’s Channel One Reseller Partners.

More information on the VMware Upgrade Program is available at http://www.virtualiron.com/vmware.


About Virtual Iron Software, Inc.
Virtual Iron provides enterprise-class software for server virtualization and virtual infrastructure management at one-fifth the cost of comparable alternatives. Its solutions enable companies to dramatically reduce the complexity and cost of managing and operating their data center. Virtual Iron delivers advanced virtualization capabilities that exploit industry standards, open source economics and built-in hardware-assisted acceleration. It is available for free download at http://www.virtualiron.com/free. Organizations use Virtual Iron for server consolidation, rapid provisioning, business continuity, capacity management and policy-based automation to deliver significant improvements in utilization, manageability and agility. The company is privately held and based in Lowell, Massachusetts. For more information, visit http://www.virtualiron.com or email info@virtualiron.com.

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