"We are pleased to see the addition of HP products and services optimized for VMware virtualization, further expanding HP’s comprehensive IT portfolio,” said Brian Byun, VMware's VP of Global Partners and Solutions, as HP today announced new products, services and solutions to help customers simplify their virtualized environments to realize business benefits from the data center to the desktop.

Announced at VMworld 2008, HP’s new offerings provide support for VMware technologies in four key areas: management software, virtualization services, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and server and storage infrastructures.

“Customers look to HP to implement virtualization projects and strategies that lower operational costs and reduce pressure on data center real estate,” said Mark Linesch, vice president, Infrastructure Software, HP. “As a leading VMware partner, HP is advancing the state of virtualization to help our joint customers drive continued growth, manage operations and reduce enterprise-wide risk.”

Byun added: “VMware and HP have a long history of collaboration to help support customers’ data center needs, spanning servers, desktops, storage and services.”

HP Data Protector software simplifies and centralizes automated data protection and recovery operations. This includes increased availability of critical applications with Zero Downtime Backup and Instant Recovery capabilities.

Now available for VMware environments, HP Data Protector Zero Downtime Backup and Instant Recovery tightly integrate with HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Arrays, giving customers zero-impact backup of mission-critical application data residing on virtual machines.

This integration also provides the recovery of both the virtual machine and critical data in seconds or minutes instead of hours.

“We are thrilled with HP Data Protector and VMware solutions to manage our data protection needs,” said Peter Molbæk, IT operations manager, VIA University College, the third-largest educational institution in Denmark. “You cannot ask for a better solution than what HP has provided.”

New HP Virtual Exchange Infrastructure (VEI) Services supporting VMware help customers better understand and maximize their VMware and Microsoft Exchange 2007 investments.

HP planning, quick-start and implementation services lead customers through the consolidation and migration of existing messaging systems to Microsoft Exchange 2007 on VMware Infrastructure without affecting day-to-day operations. This improves data protection by moving the message stores to the data center from remote locations.

HP VDI for VMware virtualization – new services and thin client support

New HP VDI Services supporting VMware virtualization allow customers to better utilize their HP VDI and VMware technologies. HP VDI is a desktop replacement solution that provides security for data and applications on a desktop and lowers the cost of desktop life cycle management, while providing users with the experience of a standard desktop.

These planning, quick-start and implementation services help customers understand their VDI options, develop a roadmap that matches their business strategies, assess the business value of VDI and implement the right solution. The results include better control over – and more cost-effective management of – desktops, installations, upgrades, patches and backups.

HP’s industry-leading thin client portfolio has been certified for VMware Virtual Desktop Manager, VMware’s next-generation connection broker. This certification ensures HP customers receive a superior out-of-the-box experience with smooth and easy deployment of VMware VDI with any HP thin client (http://www.hp.com/go/thinclient).

Designed for global enterprise desktop customers, VMware Virtual Desktop Manager is a key component of VMware VDI, connecting HP thin clients to centralized virtual desktops that can be accessed securely from nearly any location. Using Virtual Desktop Manager, IT administrators can quickly automate the process of assigning virtual desktop resources to end users.

HP and VMware have worked together to develop an integrated, simple and automated disaster recovery solution for virtual environments. This offering combines VMware Site Recovery Manager, HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Arrays (EVA) and HP Continuous Access Replication EVA Software.

Whether due to complexity or cost, research by Info-Tech Research Group indicates 60 percent of North American businesses do not have a basic plan to mediate the effects of a natural disaster or unplanned downtime.

HP’s support for VMware Site Recovery Manager provides customers of all sizes with cost-effective, reliable disaster recovery technology to protect their business-critical applications at all times. The HP EVA’s dual-redundant hardware architecture with replication software also ensures maximum uptime by eliminating any single points of failure.

The HP StorageWorks 2000 Modular Smart Array (MSA2000fc and MSA2000i) also supports VMware VMotion; the MSA2000sa is expected to begin supporting the solution in October. When combined with array-based snapshots, this allows small to midsize businesses to have a robust, entry-level SAS, iSCSI or Fibre Channel storage solution for their virtualization deployments.