AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwire - Aug 21, 2012) - SolarWinds® Inc. (NYSE: [ SWI ]), a leading provider of powerful and affordable [ IT management software ], today announced its SolarWinds Virtualization Manager [ vExpert NFR ] (Not for Resale) License Program for eligible VMware® vExperts in appreciation for the community's feedback in helping to develop the company's award-winning [ virtualization management software ] solution.

"From environments in the early stages of virtualization to large-scale data center deployments, SolarWinds Virtualization Manager gives IT pros a powerful and affordable foundation for managing and scaling the cloud with unprecedented control and visibility into virtualized environments and resources," said Michael Thompson, director of business strategy, SolarWinds. "The SolarWinds Virtualization Manager vExpert NFR License Program gives vExperts the opportunity to try the product in any sized virtualization environment they're testing."

Cloud Speed, Cloud Scale for Deployments Large and Small
With the rapid adoption of virtualization and cloud technologies, IT organizations of every size are facing new IT management and operations challenges related to the higher rate of change and increased scale of these new environments.

• As businesses of all sizes scale their virtualization environments laying the foundation for a cloud strategy, each will progress through three phases of virtualization maturity:
  • Assuring Availability - This first phase represents the majority of organizations that have virtualized up to 30 percent of their environments. At this stage, users need help identifying: "How many virtual machines (VMs) do I have?" and "What VMs are using which physical storage resources?"
  • Optimizing Performance - Phase two is commonly comprised of a more experienced set of virtualization admins who have virtualized up to 70 percent of their environments. Businesses working through this phase are asking: "What if I add more hosts or VMs?" and "When will I run out of physical storage?"
  • Transforming the Environment - The third phase includes businesses that are over 80 percent virtual and have a solid foundation to implement and manage a cloud strategy. This phase of users needs help answering: "What departments are using what resources?," "Am I ready for chargeback?" and "What is my ability to scale with demand?"
• Deployed by IT pros across all three virtualization phases, SolarWinds Virtualization Manager is an easy-to-use, powerful virtualization management solution that can scale as the virtualization landscape continues to evolve and as environments mature. SolarWinds Virtualization Manager delivers integrated [ VMware and Microsoft® Hyper-V® capacity planning ], [ VM sprawl control ], performance monitoring, [ configuration management ], and [ chargeback automation ], helping to alleviate user pain points around troubleshooting, downtime and resource utilization across server hypervisors.
• The SolarWinds Virtualization Manager NFR license will monitor up to 50 VMs and can only be used for personal, evaluation or demonstration purposes. It does not include maintenance and support.
• thwack®, SolarWinds' online IT pro community, offers [ VMware vExperts ] a new designated space to gather and share virtualization best practices and get peer-to-peer consultation and advice from SolarWinds' virtualization experts.
• Not a VMware vExpert? Interested IT pros may download a fully functional, [ free 30-day trial ] of SolarWinds Virtualization Manager with no VM limit.

SolarWinds and VMworld® San Francisco 2012
SolarWinds will be at the upcoming VMworld conference August 26 to 30 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Join, visit and follow SolarWinds at the following VMworld opportunities:

• Join SolarWinds along with VMblog founder David Marshall, [ vSphere-land ]'s Eric Siebert, TechRepublic's and [ VirtualizationAdmin ]'s Scott D. Lowe, and many other VMware vExperts and top virtualization bloggers for a special vMixer event on August 27 at 5:30 p.m. PDT. [ Register today ].
• SolarWinds will be joining [ recently announced ] partner Acronis®, a leading provider of disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, in the company's VMworld booth #1701. Stop by to meet members of the SolarWinds product team, get a SolarWinds Virtualization Manager demonstration and enter for a chance to [ win a scooter ].
• Visit [ events.vmblog.com ] to follow and receive live updates from VMworld 2012 during the show whether you are able to attend or not.

Additional Resources
Press release: [ SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Wins Best of VMworld - Virtualization Management at VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas ]
Video: [ Visit SolarWinds at VMworld 2012 ]

About SolarWinds
SolarWinds (NYSE: [ SWI ]) provides powerful and affordable IT management software to customers worldwide from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses. In all of our market areas, our approach is consistent. We focus exclusively on IT Pros and strive to eliminate the complexity that they have been forced to accept from traditional enterprise software vendors. SolarWinds delivers on this commitment with unexpected simplicity through products that are easy to find, buy, use and maintain while providing the power to address any IT management problem on any scale. Our solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base, which interacts in our online community, [ thwack ], to solve problems, share technology and best practices, and directly participate in our product development process. Learn more today at [ http://www.solarwinds.com/?CMP=PUB-PR-SWI-PRQ312_NFR-X-SWHP ].

SolarWinds, SolarWinds.com and thwack are registered trademarks of SolarWinds. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification purposes and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.