vmware

It's fair to say desktop virtualization has had a checkered past.

As far back as 2005, VMworld had presentations on the topic of desktop virtualization, also known as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. By 2007, VMworld had developed a desktop virtualization track with a number of deep-dive technical sessions. In June of 2008, IDC issued a report on "The Promise Of Desktop Virtualization" touting how desktop virtualization can help rein in the costs of managing and maintaining PC infrastructures.

In February of 2009, CRN reported Gartner's predictions that by 2013, between 10 percent and 15 percent of enterprise PCs would be virtualized. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--VMware Chief Executive Officer Paul Maritz is racing to turn VMware's products into a platform for Web applications and services. To succeed, Maritz, who once served as the third-highest ranking executive at Microsoft, is pulling pages from his former employer's playbook to fight the battle.

Maritz oversaw Window's ascendancy to operating system dominance in his 14 years at the software giant, before leaving the company in 2000. Microsoft created a beachhead with Windows, then fortified it with a vast developer network and expanded it with successful productivity applications.

"We're thinking the same way," … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Pressing its case that the desktop is moving away from the center of computing, VMware Chief Technology Officer Steve Herrod gave attendees at the annual VMworld conference here today a glimpse at a technology the company is developing that will let workers access Windows applications regardless of the type of device they're using or the operating system it runs.

Herrod built on the post-PC era theme VMware's Chief Executive Paul Maritz laid out in his keynote address at the conference yesterday. Herrod showed off technology from VMware's labs, some of which is being released today, that … Read more

LAS VEGAS--VMware Chief Executive Paul Maritz, who once ran Microsoft's Windows empire, told the 19,000 attendees at the VMworld conference here this afternoon that the computing industry is entering the post-PC era.

Maritz, who in the late 1990s was Microsoft's third most power executive behind Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer and oversaw the company's rise to PC operating system hegemony, embraced the vision of a longtime nemesis of the software giant.

"Steve Jobs likes to say we're entering the post-PC era," Maritz said during his keynote address. "We agree with that."… Read more

As virtualization leader VMware opens its annual VMworld conference in Las Vegas today, it's launched a raft of new products designed to ease managing virtual machine technology for corporations, as well as lined up several new partnerships to help companies find, connect and manage its cloud services.

The leader in virtualization software comes into the conference after a rocky summer, when a new licensing scheme set off a firestorm of protest from customers, leading the company to backtrack. The company has also had to deal with increased pressure from Microsoft, the software giant that trails VMware significantly but continues … Read more

VMware today reported second-quarter earnings of $220 million, or 51 cents a share, on revenue of $921 million, up 37 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 55 cents a share. Wall Street was looking for earnings of 47 cents a share on revenue of $873 million.

The company's second-quarter sales were almost evenly split between U.S. ($450 million) and international revenue ($471 million).

In a statement, VMware CEO Paul Maritz said the company's results indicate "the continued adoption of virtualization."

As for the outlook, VMware projected a strong third quarter. The company projected … Read more

VMware has upgraded its vSphere platform and introduced a complex cloud infrastructure suite to its already burgeoning catalog of virtualization and cloud-computing solutions. Speaking at a media event in San Francisco on Tuesday morning, VMware CEO Paul Maritz spoke broadly about the evolution of virtualization, noting that his company is "taking the next step in the journey to this more ordinated world." However, to continue on this path, Maritz said cloud computing needs to "become easier to manage" and "less costly to operate."

Stephen Herrod, VMware's chief technology officer, added that this is … Read more

It's Monday morning at EMC World 2011 and EMC Chairman Joe Tucci opens the show with 10,000-plus in the audience. On stage with Tucci are big black boxes. What's wrong with this picture? EMC is no longer a company that can be primarily characterized as a maker of big black boxes. Tucci has engineered a transformation of EMC from an enterprise IT storage box vendor to a provider of computing platforms. Let me count them:

Nos. 1, 2, and 3: Foremost among EMC's platforms is VMware. EMC owns approximately 85 percent of it, but unlike his … Read more

The extended outage of Amazon Web Services' EBS storage services in one of their service "regions" the week of April 21st has triggered so much analysis--emotional and otherwise--that I chose to listen rather than speak until now. Events like this are tremendously important, not because they validate or invalidate cloud services, but because they let us see how a complex system responds to negative events.

You see, for almost four years now, I've believed that cloud computing is evolving into a complex adaptive system. Individual services and infrastructure elements within a cloud provider's portfolio are acting … Read more