Analyzing VMware’s strategic evolution and the implications of the Broadcom acquisition

This week’s VMware Explore event spotlights a pivotal moment for the computer virtualization pioneer as it reaches its 25th year in business.

During theCUBE’s Explore day 1 kickoff analyst panel in Las Vegas, up for discussion was the future of enterprise computing, innovation in artificial intelligence, the expansive realm of multicloud landscapes and the far-reaching implications of the still-pending Broadcom Inc. acquisition of VMware Inc.

“Jensen [Huang] came on stage, the CEO of Nvidia, I think he kind of called it,” said industry analyst John Furrier (pictured, second from right). “He pointed out that VMware, and this is the real story about the transition, some say the demise of the old VMware and the rise of the new VMware, is that they changed history.”

Furrier was joined by industry analysts Dave Vellante (right), Lisa Martin (second from left) and Rob Strechay (left) at VMware Explore 2023, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. The panel delved into the evolution of VMware, especially in light of the company’s planned acquisition by Broadcom. (* Disclosure below.)

VMware Explore kicked off with three days of live coverage from the Venetian Expo, with theCUBE team diving into the event’s significance. This year marked theCUBE’s 13th consecutive year covering VMware events, tracing back to its origin at EMC World in 2010. The journey through VMware’s history and transformation provides insight into its current trajectory.

“I think everything that was announced was to align with where do they dovetail into Broadcom strategy. That was my going in assumption,” Martin said. “Lot of news, a lot of talk … but my expectation was that what they announced today is going to really driving their dovetailing into Broadcom.”

This year’s event prompted a reflection on the evolution of VMware over the past 25 years. From its inception and acquisition by EMC for a modest $630 million, the company has blossomed into a multi-billion-dollar entity. EMC’s investment paved the way for a thriving enterprise, and the subsequent appointment of Paul Maritz as VMware CEO heralded an era of expansion, ultimately resulting in a far-reaching and diversified portfolio. As the company consolidates its offerings, it presents a unique opportunity for multicloud solutions, emblematic of the dynamic cloud ecosystem, according to theCUBE analysts.

“That created a little bit of a far-flung portfolio, which now they’re consolidating,” Vellante said. “And now you get this opportunity of multicloud. And, of course, as you said, the whole Broadcom acquisition.”

The keynote analysis also shed light on the future of enterprise computing, with Nvidia Corp. CEO Huang, drawing attention to the paradigm shift happening right now. He echoed theCUBE’s sentiment on stage, stating that “the future of enterprise computing is happening now.” This assertion underlines VMware’s ongoing evolution and its role in shaping the tech landscape, according to the analysts.

As the analysis shifted their conversation toward the future, the focus turned to AI and multicloud. The synergy between VMware and Nvidia, particularly in the AI realm, has the potential to create a new paradigm for enterprise computing. However, this pivot to AI presents a multifaceted challenge, from technical integration to forging partnerships with data companies.

Amid these complexities, VMware’s commitment to fostering simplicity with services, such as NSX Enterprise Plus as a SaaS-delivered solution, illustrates the company’s determination to enable a seamless multicloud experience.

“I think this NSX Plus being a SaaS-delivered service and coming, bringing it together has the potential to make it simpler for multicloud. And I think that’s key,” Strechay said.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMware Explore 2023:

(* Disclosure: This is an unsponsored editorial segment. However, theCUBE is a paid media partner for VMware Explore 2023. VMware Inc. and other sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

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VMware brings virtualization to mobile phones

VMware Inc. is bringing virtualization to mobile phones through its new Mobile Virtualization Platform, or MVP.

Built on technology acquired from Trango Virtual Processors in October 2008, VMware MVP will help handset vendors reduce development time and get mobile phones with value-added services to market faster. In addition, the platform will let consumers run multiple profiles -- for example, one for personal use and one for work use -- on the same phone.

"We optimize virtualization for mobile phones, which is the foundation of MVP, giving you the ability to run multiple virtual machines on a single device," said Srinivas Krishnamurti, director of product development for VMware, Palo Alto, CA. "Running multiple environments at the same time has a lot of different benefits."

By abstracting the applications and data from the hardware itself, VMware hopes that virtualization will not only enable handset vendors to accelerate time to market but can also pave the way for innovative applications and services for mobile consumers.

Virtualization in the mobile space as a very promising and potentially a fast-emerging market.Gartner predicts that by 2012, more than 50 percent of new smartphones shipped will be virtualized.

Virtualization can enable enterprises and consumers to manage and secure their phones and it can also help handset vendors reduce bills of materials and shorten development cycles to allow for faster releases.

There is a growing demand for virtualization technologies from both the designers and consumers of next-generation mobile devices using the ARM Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processors.

VMware MVP is a thin layer of software that will be embedded on a mobile phone that decouples the applications and data from the underlying hardware.

It will be optimized to run on low-power-consuming and memory-constrained mobile phones.

The MVP is planned to enable handset vendors to bring phones to market faster and make them easier to manage.

The benefits to handset manufacturers include accelerated time to market and easier migration to rich operating systems.

Today, handset vendors spend significant time and effort getting new phones to market due to the use of multiple chipsets, operating systems and device drivers across their product families.

The same software stack does not work across all the phones and, therefore, must be ported separately for each platform.

This process is slow and expensive and ultimately slows time to market.

VMware MVP will virtualize the hardware, enabling handset vendors to develop a software stack with an operating system and a set of applications that is not tied to the underlying hardware.

This will enable the vendors to deploy the same software stack on a wide variety of phones without worrying about the underlying hardware differences.

At the same time, by isolating the device drivers from the operating system, handset vendors can further reduce porting costs because they can now use the same drivers irrespective of the operating system deployed on the phone.

Increasingly, handset vendors and carriers are looking to migrate from proprietary operating systems to rich, open operating systems to enable their customers to access the widest selection of applications.

With this transition to open operating systems, protection of trusted services such as digital rights management, authentication and billing is becoming an increasing concern.

VMware MVP will allow vendors to isolate these services from the open operating system and run them in isolated and tamper-proof virtual machines, so that even if the open environment is compromised, the sensitive services are not impacted.

The benefits to businesses and consumers multiple profiles and "persona on the go."

Companies are under increasing pressure from employees to support employee-owned mobile devices.

Choice, however, brings with it complexity in managing a wide variety of devices in terms of both cost and security.

It also brings increased risk in securing and managing employee-owned devices, especially if they contain confidential information.

VMware MVP will let IT organizations deploy a corporate phone personality that can run alongside the employee's personal phone on the same physical device.

Smartphones are becoming a combination of a PC and a wallet rolled into one package.

A person's phone persona -- an individuals' collection of applications, pictures, videos, music, emails, bank info, credit card information and PIM -- is becoming much richer and more valuable.

Consequently, the ability to protect and migrate personas will become an important purchasing decision.

VMware MVP will save the persona as a set of files so that all the applications and data on the phone can be managed as a collection of files.

People can then move their persona to a new device, making the upgrade to a new phone more convenient.

VMware specializes in virtualization services from the desktop to the datacenter.

With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 120,000 customers and more than 20,000 partners, VMware claims to be one of the fastest growing public software companies.

"The notion of having multiple virtual personalities is interesting," Mr. Krishnamurti said. "I don't want to run my personal stuff on my corporate phone, so instead of having two phones, I have a work profile and a personal profile running right next to each other on the same phone.

"As they look at smartphones, they're not just a communications device, they're a computing device, a combination of a PC and wallet now that people can swipe their cellphone to make payments," he said. "Customers want to run mobile payments apps in secure containers, because they don't want them to be compromised, and virtualization is a key enabler for that as well.

"If you lose your handset or upgrade, wouldn't it be nice to take your entire persona with you onto your new device, reinstalling apps, copying data, copying those files onto your new device and your entire persona appears automatically."

Straight Talk on Oracle on VMware Licensing

VMware is committed to encouraging each customer to correctly license their Oracle environments while optimizing their architecture. In the interest of that effort, VMware, in partnership with DBTA and the IOUG, has invited the world's most recognizable experts in this subject to join us on a webinar for a frank and direct conversation about how to properly adhere to existing contracts, as they exist presently and are available publicly, to correctly license virtualized infrastructure for Oracle.

Please join us as Don Sullivan moderates a discussion on this subject with globally renowned subject matter experts Dave Welch of "House Of Brick" and Daniel Hesselink of "License Consulting."

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