Available through company's fully-automated customer portal, the new service can be added to any dedicated server.

SoftLayer, a provider of virtual data center services, today announced that it has added VMware ESX for server virtualization to its portfolio of software services. The company states that the new service can be added to any dedicated server and is available through it fully-automated customer portal.

It explains that 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 avers that this provides companies of all sizes with a powerful foundation for building a high-performance, cost-efficient, and reliable IT infrastructure by:

• Pooling resources, decreasing power, cooling, and floor space requirements
• Increasing server utilization rates
• Running multiple operating systems on a single physical server

It further states that with hypervisor-based virtualization, 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 that are fully independent and secure. Unlike with hosted virtualization, hypervisor-managed virtual servers can all run different operating systems, adds the company.

"At SoftLayer we offer our customers the latest in software and services," said Nathan Day, SoftLayer Chief Technology Officer. "VMware ESX offers industry-leading virtualization. Anyone with an IT infrastructure that includes servers and that has to support multiple OS's will benefit from its increased server utilization capabilities and the related cost advantages."