Sun To Resell VMware Virtualization Software

Sun Microsystems is now the latest hardware vendor to resell virtualization software from VMware.

Officials of the two companies unveiled the relationship at the LinuxWorld Expo, held this week in San Francisco.

Sun joins rivals such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Dell and NEC, all of whom currently resell the company's software.

Sun plans to resell VMware ESX Server, VMware GSX Server and VMware Workstations products to customers and their solution providers who purchase Sun Fire x64 servers or Sun workstations.

Sun's move to resell VMware software fills a void in its product line, said Tom Kuni, president of SSI hub city, a Metuchen, NJ-based Sun solution provider. "They haven't had a competitive product," said Kuni. "For Sun to sign an EMC-owned company at this time, they must have thought it was important."

VMware officials also unveiled plans to support paravirtualized Linux and Solaris x86 operating systems with its VMware ESX Server, VMware GSX Server, and VMware Workstation software in the future. Paravirtualized Linux is an operating system that has been modified to run in a virtualized environment. The company already supports unmodified Linux.