Virtual appliances represent a streamlined way to develop, deliver, manage and deploy enterprise software stacks and they have gained a great deal of traction in the market over the past couple of years. VMware's Virtual Appliance Marketplace has grown to 850+ virtual appliances and VMware's products are providing greater access to virtual appliance content with each release. To date, no integration is more substantial then what has been done in the pairing of VI Client with ESX/ESXi 3.5.

Today, any user with access to VMware's free ESXi and VI Client has the ability to directly import a number of OVF-based virtual appliances directly into their environment and power on an enterprise workload within minutes of first boot. The process is simple: Within VI Client go to the File menu in the top left of the UI and follow this path:

File -> Virtual Appliance -> Import -> select "Import from the Virtual Appliance Marketplace" and select your virtual appliance. Its that easy! Complete the download/import and you can power on the VA. Make sure to grab the documentation on the site as well to ensure you can get the product up and running.

To get up and running with virtual appliances today - do the following:

1. Download and install free ESXi: www.vmware.com/products/vi/esx/esxi.html

2. Connect to the ESXi server with a web browser and download VI Client

3. Install the VI Client on a Windows system

Install your products and you will begin to experience just how easy it is to get up and running with enterprise workloads by leveraging VMware Infrastructure and Virtual Appliances.

Ken Schutt, Senior Business Development Manager
VMware