Egenera, Dell Partner on Data Center Virtualization

Back in October Egenera said it would make its data center virtualization software available on other vendors' hardware platforms. The company's PAN Manager software had previously been available only on Egenera's BladeFrame hardware.

That strategy took a big step forward yesterday, when Egenera and Dell said the two companies intend to combine Dell's PowerEdge servers and Infrastructure Consulting Services and Egenera's PAN Manager data center virtualization software. The solution is designed to enable customers to simplify operations by creating and managing a single resource pool for both physical and virtualized servers.

"The Dell-Egenera relationship was driven by customer need for simple, agile and cost-effective solutions that virtualize and unify data center assets beyond a single server," said Mike Thompson, president and CEO, Egenera. "We're driving to provide customers with a powerful, integrated way to manage server, network and storage assets, with lower operational costs, increased resource utilization and uptime."

The Dell partnership is Egenera's second agreement with an OEM. Fujitsu Siemens Computers intends to integrate Egenera PAN Manager software with its PRIMERGY server line as a key component of its FlexFrame Infrastructure offerings.

PAN Manager is Egenera's core software, using a Processing Area Network (PAN) architecture to combine server virtualization with network and storage virtualization. Egenera PAN Manager creates networks of virtual and physical servers, and can move individual servers, groups of servers or entire systems from one place to another seamlessly.

Egenera executives said Dell can bring PAN Manager to a larger audience through its global distribution channel. "This is not your standard 'add another partner to our website' agreement," Egenera CTO Pete Manca wrote on his blog. "It's strategic for both companies and will bring real benefits to customers. Let's face it, when it comes to delivering cost effective, industry standard servers to the market, no one is better than Dell."

Egenera has raised more than $150 million in VC money since 2000. It has posted an FAQ about the Dell relationship on its web site.