VMware announced Service Provider Program (VSPP)

VMware, Inc., the global leader in software for industry-standard virtualized desktops and servers, announced the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP), which allows hosting providers such as Web hosting services, telecommunications companies and outsourcing businesses to bring to market new virtual infrastructure as service offerings.

The VSPP incorporates a new licensing model that makes the industry-leading VMware Infrastructure suite available to hosting providers on a per-virtual machine, per-month basis. With this new program, hosting providers can easily develop their own customized virtual infrastructure as service offerings that “rent” VMware virtual machine capacity to end customers.

Hosting providers can choose to license either VMware Infrastructure Enterprise or Starter, enabling them to provide a broad range of utility computing packages for various customer needs, from high-end managed services to individual Web site hosting. Additional benefits of the VSPP include:

• High availability: In addition to hosting fully isolated virtual machines, VMware Infrastructure includes VMware High Availability (HA), which automatically restarts a virtual machine affected by hardware failure on a different physical server, ensuring minimal downtime for end users.
• Resource optimization: VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), another component of VMware Infrastructure, load-balances virtual machines across the pool of physical servers, in order to accommodate increased customer demand while ensuring the stability of physical hardware.
• Scalability: VMware Infrastructure enables new capacity to be easily added and removed based on fluctuating customer needs. This is useful for customers that have seasonal increases in computing demand, such as during holiday or tax seasons, because they can increase computing resources without the time and expense required to provision new hardware.
• Serviceability: VMware VMotion technology enables non-disruptive migrations of virtual machines from one physical server to another, ensuring that hardware can be serviced without any service interruption.
• Cost savings: Virtualization enables significant increases in resource utilization while preserving customization for the customer. This allows hosting providers to avoid hardware costs, enabling them to provide higher value to their customers.

Original release notes available here.

More information about the VSPP is available at www.vmware.com/go/hosting.