VMware, one of the leading providers of virtualisation solutions from the desktop to the data centre, has announced that VMware Stage Manager, a product for accelerating and automating the delivery of applications from staging to production, is now available for order. Joining VMware's suite of management and automation products for the datacentre, VMware Stage Manager automates the process of transitioning application environments in the virtual datacentre through the stages of the release process — from integration to testing to staging and to user acceptance — before being released into production.

IT managers using VMware Stage Manager will be able to automate the application release process, so changes and updates are automatically managed and controlled. This simplifies management, minimises errors, and speeds application delivery. The release and update process for applications, such as Oracle E-Business or SAP, is highly structured and requires many phases, which almost always include integration, testing, staging, user acceptance and production. Traditionally, each phase has required its own infrastructure, resulting not only in server sprawl but also in management overhead for repetitive provisioning and testing cycles, slowing application delivery, and increasing the chance for errors.

VMware Stage Manager leverages VMware Infrastructure to provide flexible pools of resources for each of the phases of the release process, eliminating server sprawl and simplifying access for the application administrators conducting the testing and staging. "VMware infrastructure provides a new and better way to run applications because of the ability to pool server, network and storage resources, and move live virtual machines across physical resources with zero user impact," says Raghu Raghuram, vice president of products and solutions, VMware.