VMware Looks To SMBs With ‘Go’ Virtualisation Solution

VMware has released ‘VMware Go‘, a web-based service designed to help small to medium businesses (SMBs) to virtualise their servers and to easily create functioning virtual machines.

The company positions Go as an on-ramp for SMBs virtualising their applications by automating the installation and configuration of the hypervisor VMware ESXi, which allows midmarket companies to run multiple operating systems on a single server and reduce hardware costs.

VMware said Go has already created more than 3,000 virtual machines for more than 1,000 beta testers and together with VMware ESXi provides companies with a faster way to reduce overhead and simplify business operations by running multiple operating systems and applications on a single server, resulting in spending less money on hardware, power and cooling, and server administration.

“With VMware Go, we are eliminating the skill barrier for getting started with virtualisation, so companies who are concerned about not having the IT resources or expertise, especially SMBs, can now more quickly and easily enjoy the many benefits of virtualisation,” said Dan Chu, vice president of emerging products and markets for VMware. “Both VMware Go and VMware ESXi are free offerings that can provide instant cost-savings with improved server utilisation, reduced energy use and centralised management of the data centre so IT can focus more on innovation and less on maintenance.”

Chu said Go simplifies and accelerates virtualisation in three steps: Initial ESXi server setup, through a web-browser interface and intuitive wizard guides that accelerates installation and setup process and built in hardware compatibility check that automates the process of selecting physical server environments; virtual machine creation that helps SMBs utilise existing physical server configuration, install a prebuilt virtual appliance, or start with a new, clean virtual machine; and lastly, manage ESXi servers and virtual machines with a centralised management interface that simplifies changes to a virtual environment, the ability to monitor virtual machines for basic performance and resource utilisation and scan and update virtual machines from a central console.

“As I talk to IT admins in the SMB market, what I have learned is that as their business grows, IT maintenance and the need for more servers grows even faster,” said David Davis, vExpert, VCP, and VMware video training author at computer training provider Train Signal. “With VMware Go and VMware ESXi, these same SMB IT centres can handle large influxes of server growth or perform virtual consolidation while saving time, money and resources in the process.”