According to the AMD virtualization blog Oracle is offering its customers VMs with some of its applications already installed. The virtual appliances will come fully supported by Oracle.
“Oracle is leveraging virtualization as part of a broader strategy to make your entire data center better. Oracle distributes an enterprise-class operating system with Oracle Enterprise Linux along with the broadest portfolio of enterprise software available, all of which is officially certified and supported on
Oracle VM server virtualization and management software. This means all of it can be distributed to users packaged as pre-configured virtual machines. We call these Oracle VM Templates and they are packaged and licensed for use in the production enterprise today, not just proof-of-concept VMs comprised of limited functionality components. How would you like to be up and running with a Siebel CRM instance or an Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) in about an hour after you download the Template? And how would you feel knowing you were deploying software installed and configured by the experts at Oracle so you know it is complete and reliable (but that you can still fully customize it and save it as an updated Template)? And finally, how would you feel knowing it is all officially supported by a single call to the largest enterprise software company in the world and not simply by a collection of miscellaneous vendors and user forums? A better way to get going faster, easier, and with low risk.
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