SoftLayer offers VMware ESX hypervisor

Claims to help companies build high-performance IT infrastructure

SoftLayer said that it has begun offering VMware ESX for server virtualisation to its comprehensive portfolio of software services. The new service can be added to any server and is available through the company's automated customer portal.

VMware ESX is a bare-metal hypervisor that abstracts processor, memory, storage, and networking resources to create multiple virtual machines (VM) from a single physical machine. Each VM can run separate operating systems and applications.

The company claims that the service provides companies with a foundation for building a high-performance IT infrastructure by pooling server resources; decreasing power, cooling, and floor space requirements; increasing server utilisation rates; and running multiple operating systems on a single physical server.

VMware ESX can be utilised within the VMware vSphere platform for building cloud infrastructures. With hypervisor-based virtualisation, a level of software (which is the hypervisor) sits on top of the physical server. The hypervisor allocates portions of the physical server’s hardware resources to create multiple virtual servers; and the hypervisor-managed virtual servers can all run different operating systems, SoftLayer said.

Nathan Day, chief technology officer of SoftLayer, said: “At SoftLayer we offer our customers the latest in software and services. VMware ESX offers industry-leading virtualisation with a focus on enterprise customers. Anyone with an IT infrastructure that includes servers and that has to support multiple OS’s will benefit from its increased server utilisation capabilities and the related cost advantages.”

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