Fujitsu Starts Shipping Primergy Servers With Embedded VMware ESX 3i Virtualization

Fujitsu Siemens Computers and VMware jointly announced the market availability of its newest server offering in the Primergy family, that comes with factory installed VMware ESX 3i virtualization software. Virtualization is possible since the server is first started up.

The new partnership between Fujitsu-Siemens and VMware is intended to offer virtualization to small and medium businesses. Virtualization offers more stable server environments and dramatically cuts down the total ownership costs, yet it is still accessible only to enterprise-level companies, given its high price and deployment complexity. Companies using virtualization are able to reduce the number of servers and implicitly, the energy consumption.

"The benefits of virtualization for small- and medium-size businesses are clear. Fujitsu Siemens Computers and VMware have a shared vision on cost saving through the consolidation of server infrastructure. ESX 3i enhances VMware's product offering by simplifying the set-up and management of a virtualized VMware server environment," said Jens-Peter Seick, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Server Business at Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

The first batch of Primergy servers has been delivered to automotive specialist Walter Mauser, and the Austria-based Breitenau company is also upgrading from its current VMware Server-based environment to Fujitsu-Siemens Primergy machines.

"Companies of all sizes have the same needs. They must reduce capital and operating expenses, and run their software so that it is always available and responsive in the most cost, power, and management efficient way. That is what virtualization achieves. We have a long standing collaboration with Fujitsu Siemens Computers and are very pleased to be taking this next joint step together of virtualization-enabling PRIMERGY servers," claimed Diane Greene, President and Chief Executive Officer of VMware.

The new server offering from Fujitsu-Siemens is available immediately. Midrange Primergy RX330 S1 and RX300 S4 servers including the integrated virtualization solution are already shipping, with prices starting at EUR 2,300.