SolarWinds (News - Alert) Inc., a provider of IT management software, announced the release of its latest virtualization management free tool, VM-to-Cloud Calculator along with the VM Console and VM Monitor.

In addition to providing cost estimates of running virtual machines (VM) on a cloud service, the tool identifies all the VMs which are running on the user's network. Once the user has decided which VMs need to be moved, the tool then provides estimations and comparative costs from servers such as CloutAmazon EC2, Windows Azure and Rackspace (News - Alert). In the ever-changing virtualized environment, the VM-to-Cloud Calculator is capable of communicating clear estimates which mirror current VM inventory.

In a release, Josh Stephens, SolarWinds' head geek and VP of technology, said that "For IT pros curious about what it would cost to make the big move to the cloud, SolarWinds VM-to-Cloud Calculator is an easy-to-use solution that eliminates tedious number-crunching and offers a quick vendor comparison. With just a few clicks, you're done. VM-to-Cloud Calculator is another great example of how SolarWinds understands the daily challenges our customers are facing as they move through the stages of virtualization maturity, and what we're doing to help make their jobs a little easier."

Key highlights of the VM-to-Cloud Calculator include capabilities to provide automatic inventory of all virtual machines and to capture description, CPU, memory, storage, and count. It provides comparative cost estimates from other cloud servers such as Amazon EC2, Windows Azure and Rackspace. And as the virtualized infrastructure changes, the tool provides up-to-date estimates.

The SolarWinds Virtualization Manager can provide detailed answers to questions such as, Number of VMs required within the current virtualized infrastructure and which ones are being effectively utilized, which are not and which VMs have been configured; what are the problem areas within the virtualized environment; the number of app servers which can be supported within the current virtualized environment and when additional resources will be required. It also informs the user about the kind of resources employed by various departments.

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager has been designed to deliver a number of tasks. Business enterprises using the Virtualization Manager are provided with critical integrated capacity planning, VM sprawl control, accurate monitoring, configuration management, and chargeback automation.

For more information about SolarWinds, please visit http://www.solarwinds.com.