VMware Announces ESX Server 1.5 for Enterprise Server Consolidation

Minimizes the TCO of Server Infrastructure by Increasing Resource Utilization, Expanding Computing Capacity and Maximizing Server Manageability

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 13, 2002 -- VMware, Inc., the leading provider of virtual computing software for industry-standard computers, today announced VMware ESX Server 1.5, the latest release of its virtual machine software for server consolidation.

"Server consolidation is becoming paramount among businesses looking to get the most from their technology investments," said Diane Greene, president and chief executive officer of VMware. "This is especially true as most servers are being used at only 10 percent to 35 percent capacity. VMware server products help businesses manage these investments better than before, enabling them to do more with less."

ESX Server 1.5, ideally suited for data centers, allows enterprises to:

• Implement server consolidation. ESX Server 1.5 consolidates applications and infrastructure services running on diverse operating systems onto fewer highly scalable, reliable enterprise-class servers
• Guarantee service levels. Enterprises can create an Enterprise Service Provider model by delivering guaranteed server resources for CPU, memory, network bandwidth, and disk I/O at optimum performance levels, improving service to internal and external customers
• Deliver cost effective high availability. With support for SCSI reservations, ESX Server 1.5 enables clustering of virtual machines inside the same system for development and test purposes, or between systems for high availability

"ESX Server is proving to be a very versatile investment for National Gypsum. We're running 20 virtual machines on one four-way system, and it's handling everything from CRM applications and security to application development and testing, all of which has saved us huge amounts of time and money in hardware costs," said Alan Thomas, senior technical consultant for National Gypsum. National Gypsum is the second-largest gypsum supplier in the United States.

New and enhanced features in ESX Server 1.5 include:

• Support for up to 64 concurrent virtual machines with adequate memory and storage resources
• Support for the PAE (physical address extension) standard for larger memory on the physical computer and system memory up to 64 GB of RAM
• New resource management capabilities for regulating the amount of disk I/O bandwidth used by each virtual machine
• Improved memory management techniques for configuring and running virtual machines with total memory greater than the amount of physical RAM on the system
• Expanded VMware Management Interface for monitoring and managing server and virtual machines more effectively
• Support for up to 3.6GB of RAM per virtual machine
• Support for additional Gigabit Ethernet network cards
• Support for popular Storage Area Networking configurations

Pricing and Availability

ESX Server 1.5 is available today. Please contact VMware sales at sales@vmware.com or call 1-877-4VMWARE for further information.

About VMware, Inc.

VMware, Inc. is the leading provider of virtual computing software for industry-standard computers. Through its patent-pending technology, VMware brings virtual computing to distributed systems -- from the desktop to the data center. Enterprise customers use VMware software for server consolidation, workload management and application development, testing and deployment. With more than one million registered users, VMware products include ESX Server, GSX Server and Workstation. VMware was founded in 1998 and is based in Palo Alto, Calif. For more information, visit www.vmware.com or call 650-475-5000.

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