ESX Server 3i
VMware’s next generation thin hypervisor integrated into the hardware that sets the standard for rapid, easy deployment and ongoing management
Makes configuration as easy as setting up a home router appliance and allows users to be up and running with virtual machines in a matter of minutes
Enables IT professionals to scale out virtual infrastructure on the fly through point-and-click addition of ESX Server hardware hosts to existing resource pools

Guided Consolidation
Enhancement to VirtualCenter intended for use in smaller environments
Guides new virtualization users through the consolidation process in a wizard-based, tutorial-like fashion
Allows first time virtualization users to get started and achieve the benefits of server consolidation faster than ever before
Leverages capacity planning capabilities to discover physical servers, analyze their performance and trigger the conversion of these physical systems into virtual machines and intelligently places them on the most appropriate VMware ESX Server or VMware Server hosts

VMware Update Manager
Automates patch and update management for ESX Server hosts and select Microsoft and Linux virtual machines
Addresses one of the most significant pain points for every IT department - tracking patch levels and manually applying the latest security/bug fixes
Integrates with DRS to ensure zero-downtime ESX Server host patching capabilities
Enforces higher levels of compliance to patch standards than physical environments by securely patching offline virtual machines

VMware Distributed Power Management (Experimental)
Reduces power consumption in the datacenter through intelligent workload balancing
Automatically powers off servers not currently needed in order to meet service levels, and automatically powers on servers as demand for compute resources increases

ESX Server 3i
The first and only commercially available hypervisor that does not incorporate or depend on a large “parent partition” or a special purpose virtual machine that runs a full OS image and has privileged access to all other virtual machines.
Minimizes surface area for potential security attacks, making it the most secure and reliable hypervisor

VMware Storage VMotion
Enables live migration of virtual machine disks from one datastore to another with no disruption or downtime
Allows IT administrators to minimize service disruption due to planned storage downtime previously incurred for rebalancing or retiring storage arrays
Simplifies array migration and or/upgrade tasks, and reduces I/O bottlenecks by moving virtual machines to the best available storage resource in your environment

VMware Site Recovery Manager
Provides industry-leading capabilities for fully automating the entire disaster recovery process
Integrates with VMware VirtualCenter and guides users through the process of creating, automating, and testing disaster recovery plans for their virtual infrastructure
Transforms disaster recovery into a dramatically simpler, faster, and more reliable process that adapts to today’s dynamic datacenters

ESX Server Performance Optimizations
Support for large memory pages(2MB) for ESX Server as well as processor assists for memory virtualization
Support for paravirt-ops standard incorporated in linux kernels 2.6.21
Support for networking performance optimizations such as TCP Segment Offload and jumbo frames that reduce the overhead associated with processing network i/o.
Support for NPIV enabling assignment of individual virtual HBAs to each virtual machine and QoS analysis by virtual machine.

ESX Server Scalability Enhancements
Support for 64GB of RAM in virtual machines
Support for physical machines with up to 256GB of RAM.

Expanded Storage and Networking Choices
Support for local SATA storage
Support for 10 GigE
Support for Infiniband