VMware offers free web virtualisation tool for SMBs

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VMware has launched the beta of a new web-based management tool for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) using its free hypervisor.

VMware Go automates the installation and configuration of the VMware ESXi hypervisor, letting users run multiple operating systems or applications on a single server.

VMware's hypervisor ESXi has been downloaded half a million times, but the company has little idea exactly how it's being used, according to chief executive Paul Martiz, speaking at the VMworld 2009 conference in San Francisco today. "We'd desperately like to know what those half a million downloads are doing," he said.

"Go is an experiment about how to learn about customers in other ways," said Maritz, adding his firm hopes to build up a community around the users.

"VMware Go is really us starting to think seriously that more and more customers are not going to buy infrastructure... [they're] going to use it as a service," Maritz said, adding that VMware doesn't see itself as a hypervisor business anymore. The virtualisation giant started giving away its hypervisor for free after Microsoft set its free last year.

The VMware Go beta is available to download immediately, while a final version is expected by the end of the year.

Click here for more news from VMworld 2009.

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