Company to work as a participating organization with the Council to evolve the PCI Data Security Standard and payment card data protection standard.

VMware, a provider of virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, today announced that it is joining the PCI Security Standards Council. The company states that as a participating organization, it will work with the council to evolve the PCI Data Security Standard and other payment card data protection standards.

It avers that this will help its customers in the retail industry who are required to meet these standards to remain compliant while leveraging VMware virtualization. The company states that it has also launched the VMware Compliance Center web site, an initiative to help educate merchants and auditors about how to achieve, maintain and demonstrate compliance in virtual environments to meet a number of industry standards, including the PCI DSS.

''VMware recognizes the importance of compliance to our customers,'' said Shekar Ayyar, vice president of infrastructure alliances, VMware. ''We are pleased to join the council in order to help customer's virtualized environments comply with the PCI DSS and other security standards. By working with the council, we are enabling our retail customers to fully leverage the business benefits of virtualization. These include lower capital and operating costs, increased business continuity, strengthened security and improved energy efficiencies, which can all be achieved while enforcing current compliance standards.''

''The PCI Security Standards Council is committed to helping everyone involved in the payment chain protect consumer payment data,'' said Bob Russo, general manager of the PCI Security Standards Council. ''By participating in the standards setting process, VMware demonstrates it is playing an active part in this important end goal.''