Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) is upgrading its virtualization software offerings to help data center managers better manage their virtual environments, while VMware Inc., is offering a virtualization capability for Web hosting companies.

HP on Wednesday announced enhancements to its HP Virtual Server Environment software for its Integrity line of servers, which creates a pool of virtual servers that can expand and contract depending on capacity needs.

Virtualization refers to the practice of running multiple software applications on one physical server to enhance utilization. Previously, most servers were dedicated to running only one application, but that kept utilization rates as low as 15 percent to 20 percent. Virtualization increases server utilization, thus reducing the need to buy, power, cool and manage additional servers.

HP also offers a specific software tool, Integrity Essentials Capacity Advisor, for easing the migration of data from Sun Microsystems Inc. servers to HP servers.

Although virtualization improves server utilization, it requires different management tools than in a nonvirtual environment. HP says the Integrity Essentials Global Workload Manager, another feature of Virtual Server Environment, specifies which computer workloads can automatically access available capacity in order to maintain service level agreements for key applications.

The company also announced a new Partner Virtualization Program, which allows independent software vendors (ISVs) to test how their software will work in an HP virtualization environment. Testing and fine-tuning can be done for virtualization using HP ProLiant and Integrity servers, and with a number of operating systems, including HP-Unix, Windows Microsoft, and Novell and Red Hat Linux. The Virtual Server Environment also works with VMware virtualization software.

Meanwhile, VMware announced Wednesday the launch of its VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP), which allows Web hosting services, telecommunications companies and other outsourcing businesses to include virtual infrastructure as a service offering.

Traditional hosting services use dedicated servers for each client, but virtualization makes it possible to run multiple virtual servers, even for different clients, on one physical server. The Web hosting company can then bill clients monthly based on how many virtual machines they use, not physical ones, VMware said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.