VMware tackles IT service management, disaster recovery

The software virtualisation vendor has announced two new management and automation bundles, including disaster recovery automation and application testing and configuration.

VMware also today announced two new bundles of its portfolio of data centre management and automation products.

The VMware IT service delivery bundle is designed to provide all the tools for automating the lifecycle of IT services, from initial request to final retirement, and avoid virtual machine sprawl. The bundle includes VMware Lifecycle Manager and either VMware Lab Manager or VMware Stage Manager.

The vendor said the bundle would allow end users to self-provision virtual machines at the same as giving IT departments control of virtual machine environments. Application owners would also benefit from more risk-averse application release management capabilities.

The VMware management and automation bundle is designed to provide a single package for addressing both IT service delivery and business continuity. It includes VMware Lifecycle Manager, VMware Lab Manager, VMware Stage Manager and its disaster recovery product, VMware Site Recovery Manager, as unveiled earlier this year.

Raghu Raghuram, VMware vice president of products, said: "With our broadening range of management and automation products and new bundles, our customers are now able to automate data centre processes in ways that just aren't possible with physical infrastructure, resulting in dynamic IT that's more efficient and agile."

In addition to the new bundles, VMware today is also now offering VMware Stage Manager to accelerate and automate the delivery of applications from staging to production available for order.

Stage Manager is designed to enhance its existing management and provisioning toolset. It does this by automating the process of virtualising enterprise applications, such as SAP or Oracle's E-business suite, from integration to testing, staging and user acceptance, before they are released into production.

Chris Wolf, senior analyst for data centre strategies at Burton Group, said: "As applications become more distributed and complex, the process of releasing these systems into production slows down and becomes more challenging to manage, often resulting in project delays and budget overruns."

He added the development of this new VMware stage management tool would allow IT organisations to accelerate release processes, allowing enterprises to be more responsive to changing business conditions yet minimising the risk of systems failure or downtime.

VMware's IT service delivery bundle is priced at $2,995 (1,538) per two processors and the management and automation bundle is priced at $3,995 (2,051) per two processors. The bundles will be available from 19 May.