Summary Bullets:
- VMware’s VMworld was a hit again, pulling in partners and customers alike
- The buzz around VMware is about much more than simple virtualization software
I did not attend last week’s VMworld in Las Vegas, hosted of course by VMware, the virtualization software market leader. I wish I had, though. While timing and location prevented my own pilgrimage, Current Analysis was very well represented as were a who’s who of technology-market partners and a robust contingent of IT executives and managers. The reason why this event has become so important for so many is simple, but also profound: Certainly VMware caught lightning in a bottle with its virtualization software, but the company is also leveraging this rather arcane solution as a platform to help solve myriad other IT problems, both with and without partner support.
VMware is insinuating itself into cloud architecture, network management and orchestration, desktop virtualization, application delivery and management (and, therefore, mobility), application development platforms, and collaboration platforms—just to hit the high-level points. As IT managers will already know, VMware has become a key part of many solutions. This status is still based on the core virtualization technology, of course, but increasingly is being gained on involvement in the things that are virtualized, as well.
It is noteworthy, therefore, that while not that long ago VMware was a company dependent in many ways on tagging along with others in IT shops, it is becoming in an increasing number of cases the other way around.
The rationale and strategy behind this is indicative of the future for key drivers in IT. We are in the process of phasing out of buying technologies and piecing them together, to buying solutions to problems that happen to have technologies associated with them, or cloud-based service offerings as the case may be. The central supplier battleground to watch, then, becomes the one for the essential, crucial architectural building blocks upon which IT strategies and initiatives are built.
VMware knows this and is attempting to seize the high ground. All the other top technology suppliers know it, as well.
IT Connection 