VMware has launched an offering which it claims will increase the reliability of hosted services and applications for end-user organisations.
On Wednesday, the company launched its Service Provider Program (VSPP), which is aimed at web hosting providers, application providers, telecoms companies, outsourcing companies like IBM Global Services and EDS, and managed services companies.
The solution could help these types of companies to provide virtualised applications and other services to their enterprise customers, according to Reza Malekzadeh, the director of product marketing for VMware in Europe.
"At VMware we know that virtualisation can give better reliability and more flexibility to customers," he told ZDNet.co.uk. "We have seen fast growth but, at the low end, web hosters have seen this growth slow down."
The VSPP service could benefit a company like BT, as it would enable the telco to use virtualisation technologies to improve the performance of its broadband service to customers. BT could also use VSPP to allow its customers to run hosted virtualised environments of their own.
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Running the full range of VMware software costs £20 a month, and £7 a month for the starter pack. The price is per month, per virtual machine.
Unlike traditional hosting services that use dedicated servers and often want customers to commit to long-term agreements, VSPP lets customers of hosted service providers add and remove services as they want. Anybody running a hardware system can introduce a virtual environment and then run it on a hosted basis, only paying for services as they use them.
VMware is going after the utility companies and the telephone companies as potential big users, and lists Telefonica as a large customer, as well as Attenda, Mistral and Interoute as UK users.
While VMware has had success in the market, Malekzadeh believes there are some issues that have not been addressed previously.
"The problem was that our business model did not match what the customers wanted," Malekzadeh said. He believes that the hosting model will prove much more attractive and allow customers to try out new services without having to pay for them up front. "It is so much more flexible," Malekzadeh said.
