Cisco Integrates VMware

SAN FRANCISCO -- Cisco(R) (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the integration of CiscoVFrame Data Center with VMware Virtual Infrastructure, a key solutionfor the Cisco vision of next generation data centers, called DataCenter 3.0. The solutions and services that support Cisco Data Center3.0 are designed to help customers better utilize their data centerresources, deploy more robust business continuance, and enhance datasecurity. Cisco's integration with VMware Infrastructure 3 offerscustomers enhanced IT automation capabilities, including added VMwareESX Server capacity on demand, as well as orchestrated configurationof network services. Customers will benefit from increased ITagility and flexibility, faster coordinated provisioning of storageand network resources, and improved business continuance.

"Cisco and VMware share a joint vision for driving and supporting aservice-oriented approach for the data center," said KrishRamakrishnan, vice president and general manager, ServerVirtualization Business Unit, Cisco. "Together our efforts supportthe IT collaboration that will be required across organizations tostreamline operations and take advantage of the data centertechnology advancements to come."

Cisco began the technical collaboration with VMware as a result ofcustomer feedback requesting a tighter integration with CiscoCatalyst(R) and MDS technologies to support the scaling of theirVMware Infrastructure deployments. By adding service orchestration,Cisco VFrame DC can provision all the network services forInternet-facing applications running on VMware Infrastructure,including firewalls, content load balancing, switch and servertrunks, and access control lists; all from a single GUI-basedservice template. This integration enables network, storage, andsecurity IT groups to collaborate using a common design interface fordramatic improvements in real-time provisioning agility.

"VMware customers are used to being able to rapidly provision andconfigure virtual infrastructure," said Brian Byun, vice president ofglobal partners and solutions, VMware. "Now, with Cisco's integrationof VFrame DC, customers can also get similar benefits for theirphysical infrastructure. VFrame DC enables coordinated provisioningof physical resources (network, storage and server) to complementtheir virtualized infrastructure."

VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW)Cisco Systems Inc.