The agreement looks to bring VMware’s VI3 suite deeper into the Chinese market.VMware is looking to expand the reach of its virtualization
technology deeper into the Chinese IT market, and the virtualization giant has
turned to Lenovo to make that happen.
The two companies announced an agreement April 23 that calls for Lenovo to
support VMware’s Virtual Infrastructure 3 software suite across its line of
servers that the company sells in China.
In addition to distribution, Lenovo also will sell the VI3 platform preinstalled
in its servers.
The
agreement is similar to one Lenovo signed with Citrix in March to integrate
and distribute that company’s XenServer suite with its servers. Citrix entered
the virtualization market in 2007 with its acquisition of XenSource.
For VMware, the deal allows the company, which
detailed its quarterly earnings this week, to bring its virtualization
products deeper into emerging markets. The company, which is mostly owned by
storage giant EMC, announced earlier this
year that it will invest $100
million in India, and the deal with Lenovo will guarantee that its
virtualization technology can compete against both Citrix and Microsoft’s
upcoming Hyper-V technology within these developing economies.
The move also allows VMware to move its product line outside the United
States, where the economy continues to slow,
especially in the financial sector.
In a statement, VMware President Diane Greene said many Chinese firms are
looking at virtualization to help run data centers more efficiently while
cutting costs and improving continuity of services.
“Virtualized architectures are gaining momentum in China
as a better way to run data centers,” Greene said.
The deals with Citrix and VMware also place both virtualization companies in
good positions when Lenovo
begins developing and selling one- and two-socket servers outside of China in
2009. Earlier this year, Lenovo announced a licensing agreement with IBM
that will give it access to IBM technology
to develop these new systems, which will be initially aimed at small businesses
and midmarket companies.
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