VMware Launches vCenter Server Heartbeat

CANNES, France -- Today at VMworld Europe 2009, VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, announced vCenter Server Heartbeat, a new product that monitors and manages the automatic failover of VMware vCenter Server. VMware vCenter Server is the industry-leading virtualization management product used by more than 130,000 customers around the world to centrally manage, control and automate the virtual datacenter. VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat, licensed from VMware partner Neverfail, protects the VMware vCenter Server against a broad range of downtime risks by replicating the server configuration and data to a passive standby server.

With more customers than ever running business critical applications on VMware Infrastructure to gain the benefits of virtualization flexibility, cost-efficiency, and reliability– the resilience of application and infrastructure management is critical. Now VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat monitors the vCenter Server connectivity and components, including the license server and VMware vCenter Update Manager, and can restart the entire vCenter Server on the passive server. This can help ensure a consistent, reliable operation of VMware vCenter Server if it is threatened by unplanned or planned downtime, and it provides a broad range of protection against operator errors, operating system or hardware failure, or external events.

"Neverfail's proven technology is deployed globally by large enterprises to protect business-critical applications, including Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server and Blackberry Enterprise Server,” said Nick Harmer, vice president of strategic alliances for Neverfail. “The same level of protection will be available for vCenter Server with VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat. Neverfail is excited to provide its leading application availability solution to power VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat as part of VMware's product portfolio."

VMware Inc.