VMware will today release a scaled-down version of its VMware Server virtualisation product. The package boasts a simple user interface for IT professionals unfamiliar with virtualisation.

The release is aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises with up to 1,000 staff and 200 servers. It includes three Virtual Centre agents and two telephone support incidents for $1,500 (£763 + VAT).

“This will bring management capabilities like monitoring virtual server performance and configuring templates to the SME market at around a third of the cost of the high-end platform,” said VMware’s director of international market development, Reza Malekzadeh.

According to Gartner research published last year, 40 percent of medium-sized firms aim to use virtualisation to reduce the number of physical servers they run by at least 20 percent before the end of this year.

Clive Longbottom, head of research at analyst firm Quocirca, said VMware’s announcement is a sign that it is feeling the heat from rivals. He noted that Microsoft has dropped the cost of its Virtual Server product, while a new free, open-source enterprise virtualisation tool is expected to emerge from work by Microsoft, Novell and XenSource.

“The main barrier to server virtualisation remains confusion,” Longbottom argued. “If you go into IT testing environments they ask what sort of virtualisation you mean – database, storage, application, network or whatever. When you go into a business, they ask you what the hell you are talking about.”