Last month virtualization.info unveiled that VMware is about to announce a new version of its flagship product ESX Server just for OEMs. Dell, IBM, HP and others are working with VMware to deliver hardware appliances with hypervisor pre-installed in Solid State Disks (SDD).
Such announcement is expected for next week, when VMware will open its VMworld conference in San Francisco, but new virtualization giant Citrix/XenSource beaten VMware on time:
XenSource, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class virtualization solutions based on the high-performance open source Xen hypervisor, today announced XenExpress OEM Edition, a new embedded virtualization platform targeted at server vendors and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
XenExpress OEM Edition enables OEMs to include a full virtualization platform as an integrated component of every server, pre-installed in system flash or on the hard disk.
The new product enables the server to boot with multiple BIOS partitions at system power-on, making it ready to install and manage virtual machines. XenExpress OEM Edition offers flexible management interfaces, and full interoperability with both the Microsoft and VMware virtual machine formats.
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XenExpress OEM Edition is fully compatible and upgradeable to the new advanced management features in XenSource’s flagship virtual infrastructure product, XenEnterprise v4.
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XenExpress OEM Edition will also provide future support for migration to the virtualization capabilities in Microsoft Windows Server 2008.
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XenExpress OEM Edition is available today to OEMs who wish to integrate the product into their solutions…
Hardware appliances for virtualization will easily become the most important selling point for SMBs. And it’s likely every virtualization vendor will offer its hypervisor in OEM version in near future, including Microsoft.
If VMware counted on this option to conquer the SMB market (besides aggressive discounts), it may have a harder time than expected.