IBM to promote VMware with blades

IBM will bundle a six-month evaluation version of VMware's ESX Server product and other software with its blade servers, the companies plan to announce Wednesday. The software lets a single server run multiple operating systems simultaneously in separate software foundations called virtual machines. Other VMware software included in the promotion lets one virtual machine be paused, transferred from one computer to another, then restarted, a handy feature for blade servers, which are grouped together in a shared chassis.

Big Blue is one of the biggest business partners of VMware, an EMC subsidiary. At the same time, though, IBM is supporting development of Xen, an open-source competitor to VMware.