IBM Intros New Virtualization Technology for SMBsIBM Intros New Virtualization Technology for SMBs

IBM has unveiled PowerVM Express, a new virtualization platform designed to help SMBs reduce energy costs and lower overall IT costs.Combined with Power6-powered System p servers and BladeCenter servers, the software lets customers create up to 160 virtual partitions or server images in a single system. Doing so helps ?clients build more efficient businesses by saving time, space and money,? said Scott Handy, vice president of marketing and strategy of IBM Power Systems, during a conference call.

Spending on virtualization software and services is expected to exceed $15 billion worldwide by 2011, up from $6.5 billion in 2006, according to IDC. Meanwhile, Forrester Research said that awareness of server virtualization by companies with 500 to 999 employees jumped from 60 percent to 86 percent in one year.

Big Blue is also polishing off a handful of new offerings that could prove attractive to SMBs, including:

the BladeCenter JS22 Express and JS21 Express blade servers, which can be delivered customized and preinstalled in a BladeCenter S chassis; entry-level System p 520 Express and System p 550 Express Power6-based Unix servers, which are designed to compete with offerings from HP, Sun and Microsoft; and a new release of the i5/OS operating system that supports the BladeCenter Power6-based JS22 blade server.Internet.com, eChannelLine