Dell will begin the process of offering VMware ESX 3i hypervisor in all virtualization-certified Dell PowerEdge servers starting in early April. Customers will be able to purchase VMware with a single click easing virtualization planning, deployments and management.

"Virtualization radically simplifies IT - and we're the only vendor delivering it to customers in a single click", stated Brad Anderson, Senior Vice President, Dell Business Product Group. "We're unleashing the potential of virtualization - from servers through storage - and we're making it simple for customers."

"Dell and VMware are delivering on a shared vision for virtualization", stated Diane Greene, president and CEO of VMware. "Dell is virtualization-enabling their servers with the VMware ESX 3i hypervisor, giving the PowerEdge line standalone server consolidation capability. Customers can upgrade from the VMware ESX 3i hypervisor to VMware's data centre virtualization and management suite, VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3). VI3 provides automatic load balancing, business continuity, power management and the ability to move a virtual machine across physical machines with no service interruption."

By making virtualization a mainstream, pervasive datacentre architecture, customers can help reduce capital and operating costs, improve security, ensure business continuity and deploy green IT environments.

Dell PowerEdge servers provide an ideal platform for customers to deploy these environments. The Dell PowerEdge 2950-III and Dell's new PowerEdge M-Series blade solution own the no. 1 scores for servers for virtualization performance in their respective classes. The M-Series also provides lead-free configurations that help customers further minimize their environmental impact.

When combined with the recently announced Dell EqualLogic PS5000 Series storage arrays and Dell Virtualization Readiness Assessment Services, these solutions give customers a complete, simplified and greener end-to-end virtualization-ready data centre.

The VMware ESX 3i hypervisor is based on core VMware virtualization technology in use by more than 100,000 customers. It is the industry’s smallest hypervisor (32MB), enabling high levels of security and reliability, and it is the only OS-independent virtualization platform. VMware ESX 3i hypervisor delivers single-server consolidation with fast and easy deployment - the first virtual machine can operate within minutes of booting a server with pre-configured and optimized hardware configurations.