In what is being called a watershed moment, IBM announced that the number of customers, who are using IBM's data virtualization software, now stands at 1,000. Customers such as IKON Office Solutions, Oakwood Healthcare System and the City of Saskatoon in Canada have helped increase their system utilization rates with IBM Virtualization Engine technology for storage. IBM now has customers in more than 40 countries and 20 different industries.

Cisco Systems, a leading provider of networking technology solutions for the Internet, is the landmark 1,000th customer to select IBM's storage virtualization software. Cisco will deploy IBM storage virtualization software in conjunction with the Cisco MDS 9500 Series of Multilayer Directors. The synergy offered by the combined technologies will allow Cisco IT to more efficiently manage pools of storage and multiple SAN fabrics.

Storage virtualization helps simplify infrastructures by managing the complexities of the underlying storage environments and is designed to help dramatically reduce costs associated with IT management using techniques such as creating a single virtual pool of information across the enterprise. Storage virtualization is a key component of IBM's Information On Demand strategy which is helping clients to integrate their business processes to better meet core functional requirements.

IBM is delivering virtualization at every level of the system, providing a holistic, end-to-end approach. IBM offers the industry's broadest range of storage virtualization capabilities from software to disk to tape solutions, said Andy Monshaw, general manager, IBM Storage Systems. No other vendor can match IBM's heritage in virtualization or unique approaches to simplifying our clients' infrastructures. Building on our broad set of Virtualization Engine technologies for servers, today's announcement marks a milestone in delivering innovation that matters for our clients and the industry.