VMware

A week after VMware launched its much anticipated vCloud Hybrid Service (vCHS) at its annual VMworld conference, experts have now had time to reflect on the company's cloud strategy and now have some questions. Perhaps the biggest is: Does the offering pack enough punch to take on the heavyweights in the industry, most notably Amazon Web Services?

VMware says enterprises migrating to Microsoft Windows 7 can save a bundle by using virtual-desktop infrastructure technology rather than standalone PCs.

For about the last decade VMware has been one of the pre-eminent companies ushering in a new era of computing related to server virtualization. Now, the company is hoping to extend the shift beyond just server virtualization to include the cloud, plus network and storage virtualization. The vision is encapsulated in what VMware executives call its Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) strategy, which will be on full display at the company's annual VMworld conference next week in San Francisco.

As a top executive at Intel and EMC, Pat Gelsinger helped build the data centers of today. Now, as CEO of VMware, he's promising to deliver the data centers of tomorrow. In this installment of the IDG Enterprise CEO Interview Series, Gelsinger spoke with Chief Content Officer John Gallant and Network World Senior Writer Brandon Butler about what he's accomplished one year into his tenure, and why the company is uniquely positioned to deliver on the vision of software-defined data centers. Gelsinger detailed the company's plans for its upcoming infrastructure-as-a-service offerings and how it will out-duel early leader Amazon in that market. He also discussed VMware's plans to simplify mobility and explained how, rather than threatening the company, OpenStack is widening VMware's market. (Oh, one other thing about OpenStack: He doesn't see it gaining traction in the enterprise.) Gelsinger also shared thoughts on VMware's competitors and discussed how he'll work with former VMware CEO Paul Maritz's new Pivotal spin off.

BYOD adds complexity to hosted VDI implementations.

VMware today announced advancements that will allow vSphere to manage Hadoop clusters.

Monitoring virtual servers for availability, performance, health, and workload capacity has never been easy, but Operations Manager goes a long way toward that goal.

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.

VMware takes virtualization higher and deeper with rich storage automation and more advanced virtual networking tools

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.