SAN DIEGO and PALO ALTO, Calif., April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- At Storage Networking World, VMware, Inc., the global leader in software for industry- standard virtualized desktops and servers, today announced that it is expanding its hardware certification program to accommodate the numerous vendors interested in certifying their I/O devices, servers and storage arrays with VMware Infrastructure. As part of the program, two independent testing laboratories, AppLabs Technologies and Cognizant, are now authorized to test products for certification with VMware Infrastructure so that they can be placed on the VMware support matrix, giving customers even greater choice in the hardware they are able to deploy with VMware Infrastructure.

VMware launched its hardware certification program in 2000 to enable VMware and its hardware partners to fully test and optimize their products for VMware Infrastructure. More than 500 hardware models are currently certified.

"As our customers move to run VMware Infrastructure across all of their systems, there's an increased diversity of server and storage platforms on which they prefer to deploy. One of the core benefits of VMware Infrastructure is that it provides customers the ability to choose across a broad and unique array of hardware products," said Brian Byun, vice president of global partners and solutions at VMware. "Today we have expanded our hardware certification program to provide increased choice and innovation to our customers and to support and be responsive to hardware partners of all sizes."

Hardware vendors seeking VMware certification first need to enroll in the VMware Technology Alliance Program. Upon membership, VMware and the vendor will conduct an analysis of the product to ensure it meets basic compatibility criteria. After evaluation, the vendor can submit the product to either AppLabs Technologies or Cognizant to perform tests of the product. These global IT services companies specialize in testing and are authorized by VMware to test eligible hardware for all standard VMware hardware certification categories: I/O devices, x86 server systems and storage arrays including fibre channel SANs, iSCSI SANs and NAS devices. When the chosen lab notifies VMware that the product has successfully completed testing, it will be listed on the VMware support matrix.

Additional information on the VMware hardware certification program is available at http://www.vmware.com/partners/alliances/programs/hardware_certification.html.

About VMware, Inc.
VMware, an EMC company , is the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems. The world's largest companies use VMware solutions to simplify their IT, fully leverage their existing computing investments and respond faster to changing business demands. VMware is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit http://www.vmware.com/ or call 650-475-5000.

NOTE: VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

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