While browsing through VMware's vast collection of available products on their website, I stumbled upon a new webpage dedicated for the purchase and download of VMware Virtual Appliances.  For those not familiar with this technology, virtual appliances allow VMware users to quickly and easily deploy software and servers by importing a pre-built solution directly into their existing vSphere environment.  VMware has started using virtual appliances at an increasing rate, and other software vendors have picked up this trend.

Now, all of these appliances can be found on a central page by visiting <a title="https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/category_groups/virtual-appliances" href="https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/category_groups/virtual-appliances">https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/category_groups/virtual-appliances</a>.  Personally, I am a big fan of deploying virtual appliances.  I think they greatly simplify the deployment of new solution in a virtual environment, and assure that the software has been properly installed and configured.