Those organizations lack the budget, staff and expertise of larger enterprises, says Russ Stockdale, VP and general manager of small and midsize business at VMware, which means they need products that streamline deployment and management of the technology, and do so economically, using skills that may be available in-house.

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He says that SMBs tend to be pragmatic in their purchases because of their resource restrictions, but once they are convinced that virtualization can help, they jump in more fully than larger businesses that might pick and choose where they deploy the technology.

While VMware itself is tight-lipped about what it is announcing Monday, some vendors who are exhibiting at the conference indicate what might be in store.

Startup Simplivity is showing off its recently announced data-center-in-a-box technology called OmniCube for SMBs, and a competitor called Scale Computing is expected to launch its similar product called HC3 that is aimed at smaller businesses.