HP announced it is expanding its strategic collaboration with VMware to introduce new integrated software offerings that help customers seamlessly automate the management of heterogeneous environments.

New integrations of HP business technology optimization (BTO) software for the VMware virtualization platform will allow customers to seamlessly manage across both physical and virtual environments.

These offerings include:

• HP Business Service Management
• HP Discovery and Dependency Mapping and HP Universal CMDB
• HP Business Service Automation

"Virtual environments require the same process and discipline as physical infrastructures - from deployment and monitoring to securing, compliance and change management," said Ben Horowitz, vice president and general manager, Business Technology Optimization, Software, HP. "We're expanding our relationship with VMware to jointly develop solutions that provide customers with comprehensive management of virtualized business applications running on the VMware platform."

HP also announced that its VMware Authorized Training Center (VATC) is the first to train more than 10,000 students on VMware certifying courses required for the VMware Certified Professional exam. All VATCs offer education programs using VMware-certified instructors and course materials. With the combination of HP's global presence, remote training delivery infrastructure and expertise with the VMware platform, HP Education Services offers effective education programs for the broad range of VMware products.

"VMware and HP are working together to make virtual environments easier to manage and to get more professionals trained to implement our joint solutions," said Brian Byun, vice president, Global Partners and Solutions, VMware. "We're embracing and extending management and automation products from both companies to provide comprehensive solutions for managing the reality of customer environments with a mix of both virtual and physical systems. By collaborating with HP, we hope to bring to market additional management solutions that simplify these environments for our customers."

HP delivers production-ready virtualization offerings, from remote client solutions on the desktop to server-based and infrastructure management solutions. HP's extensive collaboration with partners offers customers of all sizes a broad virtualization portfolio for specific business needs.