Virtual appliance challenge from VMware

NEW DELHI: VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems, has announced the Ultimate Virtual Appliance Challenge contest with prizes totaling $200,000 to foster continued innovation in developing virtual appliances.

Virtual appliances are pre-built, pre-configured and ready-to-run software applications, all packaged within virtual machines. They can be run using VMware virtualization products, including VMware Player and VMware Server which are both available for free download at http://www.vmware.com/download/.

"Virtual appliances are a better way to distribute and maintain complex software environments. With the introduction of VMware Player and VMware Server, we have seen a tremendous embracing of VMware virtual appliances across the industry. For example, the Browser Appliance, which allows users to securely browse the Internet from within a virtual machine, has been downloaded more than 200,000 times," said Dr. Mendel Rosenblum, co-founder and chief scientist at VMware and chair of the Ultimate Virtual Appliance Challenge judging panel. "The Appliance Challenge gives us a chance to recognize and reward innovation from the community and promote turnkey software experiences through virtualization."

The Ultimate Virtual Appliance Challenge is open to participants worldwide with the first prize of $100,000, second prize of $50,000 and third prize of $25,000. Best Collegiate Appliance, Best Consumer Appliance, Best Developer Appliance, Best Server Appliance and VMTN Community Choice Appliance awards will be given with each winner receiving $5000.

 

The Ultimate Virtual Appliance Challenge judging panel will be led by Dr. Mendel Rosenblum and other distinguished judges.

The Ultimate Virtual Appliance Challenge details and registration information are available at www.vmware.com/challenge. VMware plans to announce the winners on August 14, 2006 at LinuxWorld.

There are currently more than 50 virtual appliances that have been developed by leading software vendors and open source projects, including major software vendors such as BEA Systems, IBM Software, Oracle, PortWise and Zeus and open source communities such as Apache, Asterisk, Debian, FreeBSD, M0n0wall, MySQL, Novell SuSE Linux, OpenBSD, Red Hat Linux, Sguil, Ubuntu Linux and Zimbra, that are available from the VMware Technology Network (VMTN).

Users can download any of these virtual appliances from VMTN at www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/ and run them on VMware virtualization products.