Free Edition of Conversion Tool to Be Offered at General Availability

VMware Converter 3 is designed from the ground up to provide high levels of scalability, reliability and usability. VMware Converter 3 creates VMware virtual machines from sources such as physical machines, other VMware virtual machine formats and third-party image formats. It combines the functionality of two existing VMware products – VMware P2V Assistant and VMware Virtual Machine Importer – into one integrated offering aimed at simplifying the process of converting physical and virtual machines into VMware virtual machines. VMware P2V Assistant takes a snapshot of an existing physical system and transforms it into a VMware virtual machine, eliminating the need to reinstall and reconfigure complex application environments. VMware Virtual Machine Importer is a freely available utility that takes virtual machines from a variety of source formats and converts them into most VMware product destinations.

VMware Converter 3 helps IT professionals successfully create new virtual environments by letting them:

• Create VMware virtual machines from physical machines running these Windows operating systems: Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (including 64-bit versions of these), as well as Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4 SP4+
• Import older VMware virtual machine formats to new VMware virtual machine formats
• Convert VMware virtual machines from third-party formats including Microsoft Virtual Server and Virtual PC and Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery
• Move virtual machines across different development, test and production environments
• Populate new virtual machine environments quickly from a large directory of virtual machine appliances available at www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances
  

VMware Converter 3 introduces new functionality:

• Zero-downtime conversion enables users to convert a physical machine to a virtual machine while the source machine continues to operate, without disruption to end-user service
• Remote cloning allows machines to be cloned from a remote console without manually using a boot CD or physically being in front of the source machine
• Improved usability with a new, easy-to-use user interface that allows customers to convert physical machines in the fewest possible steps
• Better performance with significantly improved cloning speed
• Broad support for new and legacy hardware and software running on the source server
  

Pricing and Availability
VMware Converter 3 is currently in beta testing and expected to be generally available within the next six months. For more information, visit www.vmware.com/converterbeta

About VMware, Inc.
VMware, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC), 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 www.vmware.com or call 650-475-5000.

News Source: VMware Press Release