Earlier this month sources in the channel leaked that EMC and VMware will make a move to align their data center software agendas by integrating the storage vendor’s Avamar DR software with the 5.1 release of vSphere, and today the rumors were confirmed.

The two companies released a joint announcement that includes some more details about the collaboration. Avamar is replacing vSphere Data Recovery, and the new component is getting a name of its own: vSphere Data Protection.

The unnamed insiders reported that what’s being embedded into vSphere is Avamar Virtual Edition, but that ought not be case. EMC pegs Data Solution as an “all-new backup and recovery solution “that’s indeed based on Avamar technology, but hasn’t been available on the market at any point. Features include variable-length deduplication, full support of Changed Block Tracking and single-step restores. EMC and VMware say that vSphere Data Protection was designed with SMBs and department-scale deployments in mind, and that it can be leveraged to realize higher storage utilization and reduce backup windows.

On top of everything else it’s also very notable that with this move, VMware managed to figure out a way to avoid turning its back on the channel. Vendors such as Symantec already offer backup software for vSphere (the firm even launched new recovery solutions earlier today,) and the virtualization giant chose to provide APIs for its rivaling product instead of just outright compete with some of its biggest partners.

“In addition to VMware vSphere Data Protection, VMware continues to foster innovation in the backup for virtual environments supporting a broad partner community. VMware plans to continue investment in the vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection to enable seamless integration of third-party backup and recovery with the VMware vSphere platform.”