PALO ALTO, Calif. -- VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual machine software for Intel-based systems, today announced that IBM has selected VMware ESX Server to be the platform for its new Virtual eServer xSeries(R) Managed Hosted offering. With the new offering, customers deploy single or multiple applications or services within a VMware virtual machine running on an IBM eServer xSeries(R) server in a secure hosting environment, paying only for the computing power and capacity they require. "Businesses are demanding increased flexibility in their environments for deploying applications," said Michael Riegel, marketing executive, IBM e-business Hosting. "Together, VMware and IBM will be able to provide customers with a comprehensive, scalable service to help them reduce costs and achieve greater agility." IBM Virtual eServer xSeries(R) provides customers with a secure, scalable, virtualized server platform to deploy Microsoft(R) Windows(R)-based applications or services. IBM supplies and manages the physical server(s) and the infrastructure that comprise the virtual server environment, using VMware ESX Server to implement a customer's virtual environment. Customers share the infrastructure and each customer's virtual environments are isolated and independent of other virtual environments. "The combination of IBM eServer xSeries performance and manageability with VMware ESX Server has been a winning combination for thousands of our joint customers," said Diane Greene, president and CEO, VMware. "Now, we're pleased to team with IBM once more to bring cost-effective flexible computing to IBM's eServer xSeries Managed Hosting customers."