Egenera Inc., the data center virtualization company, today announced the Dell PAN System as a key component of Dell's virtualization solutions portfolio (see today's other news release, Dell Unveils Virtualization Blockbuster). Dell and Egenera are partnering to deliver the dynamic data center to customers -- making virtualization and data center automation a reality beyond the blade chassis.

The Dell PAN system is built on proven PowerEdge 1950 and 2950 servers, Dell/EMC storage, and Citrix XenServer -- all factory-integrated as a complete, turn-key solution that virtualizes and pools compute, networking and storage resources into scalable, changeable assets that can be applied and managed based on business requirements. The Dell PAN system delivers rapid server provisioning and re-deployment in minutes, and hardware availability and site recovery at up to 70 percent lower cost than competitive offerings. The fully integrated solution is designed to enable customers to simplify operations by creating a single resource pool for both physical and virtual servers, resulting in rapid response to organizational changes and business agility.

"Combining both virtual and physical workloads is critical for realizing operational savings in the data center," said Robert Kamba, senior vice president and CIO of GXS. "Egenera PAN Manager treats both physical and virtual servers as a single resource pool, helping our IT staff with productivity, which translates into business value for GXS and our customers. We're pleased to see Egenera forge alliances with leaders like Dell for customer benefit."

Infrastructure Virtualization: The Next Wave
The first wave of virtualization focused on consolidating applications onto single servers and reducing capital costs through the application of hypervisor technology. As virtualization extends further into the data center to encompass storage and networking I/O (input/output), the implications and benefits for customers from this next wave of virtualization -- Infrastructure Virtualization -- are even greater.

Egenera PAN Manager software delivers the next phase of virtualization by combining Server Virtualization with network and storage virtualization to transform physical and virtual IT infrastructure into flexible, scalable assets that can be allocated as needed. The result for customers is a dramatic improvement in the flexibility, agility and economics of IT infrastructure through a reduction in data center complexity.

Proven in production for more than six years and deployed at hundreds of customer sites worldwide, PAN Manager software virtualizes compute, storage and networking resources that can be dynamically allocated as business requirements dictate. PAN Manager software extends the value of Server Virtualization by enabling users to create networks of virtual and physical servers, and move individual servers, groups of servers or entire systems from one place to another seamlessly, securely and with disaster recovery and high availability services. The result is dramatic operational cost savings through a dynamic IT infrastructure, which allows customers to adjust compute utilization and rapidly provision new servers on demand.

Egenera solutions extend the value of leading hypervisor technologies by providing:

• Dynamic re-provisioning of virtual machines simply and quickly;
• Reduced complexity and administration of virtual machines through Egenera's I/O virtualization capabilities;
• Simplified management of both virtual machines and physical servers through a single console
• Proven enterprise-class availability and disaster recovery of an entire virtual machine server farm for business-critical applications;
• On-demand capacity for virtualized environments through rapid provisioning

"Citrix and Egenera have always shared the goal to add value to the server virtualization experience," said Simon Crosby, CTO, Virtualization and Management Division, Citrix Systems. "Now that XenServer technology is built into Dell virtualization solutions, including PAN Manager for an integrated Dell enterprise-class dynamic data center, we can jointly deliver an even more secure, higher performance virtualization platform to customers worldwide."

"We are excited to be an integral part of Dell's announced virtualization strategy," said Mike Thompson, president and CEO of Egenera. "Dell and Egenera share a common mission to simplify IT and the positive feedback we're getting from our customers is an indication of the value we intend to bring to the market together."