VMware

There have been rumors and speculation. There have been whispers and rumblings. But this week VMware is expected to release details about its plans to launch a public cloud offering, the central part of its new hybrid cloud strategy.

The virtualization giant adds project management and secure messaging capabilities to its enterprise social networking and collaboration platform in an effort to break down information silos and centralize workflow.

Perhaps the biggest selling point for VMware's newly announced hybrid cloud strategy -- and the reason it could be a game changer in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market -- is because of the common platform VMware customers will now have between their private cloud internal systems and this new VMware-operated public cloud.

VMware today announced it will integrate software-defined networking (SDN) technology it acquired from Nicira into its vCloud suite, while also unveiling plans for a new hybrid cloud service that in reality will provide customers with a VMware-powered public cloud.

VMware is rounding out its new "software-defined data center" strategy with the acquisition of virtual storage company Virsto Software.

The date is coming soon: VMware will stop supporting its Lab Manager product in May, and where VMware is leaving a hole in the market, other vendors are looking to step in.

VMware has issued a patch for its VMware View product that fixes a security vulnerability that could allow an unauthorized user to access system files.

VMware and EMC today confirmed rumors that have been circulating for weeks that it would spin out its big data and platform as a service (PaaS) cloud products into a new division within the company named Pivotal Initiative, which will be led by former VMware chief Paul Maritz.

Which is cheaper: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 or VMware vSphere 5.1? Well, that depends on who's doing the math.

Palo Alto Networks Tuesday unveiled the first virtualized version of its next-generation firewall, server-based software intended to run on the VMware platform to allow security managers to set up firewall application-layer controls in virtual machines (VM).

EMC today unveiled upgrades across its Documentum content management and Captiva document capture product lines.

Seeking to firm its position in the budding application data management space, VMware today released the latest upgrade to its vFabric GemFire product that enhances administrative controls, provides a new interface and aims to make it easier for applications to handle larger amounts of data faster than previous versions.