SAN FRANCISCO — In August, virtualization vendor VMware held its largest ever VMworld user conference as over 21,000 attendees descended on the Moscone Center to talk about solutions for virtualization and the software-defined data centre. In this VMworld slideshow, we take a closer look at the show and some of the key news highlights at this year’s event.
This year marked the 10th anniversary of the VMworld event; having grown from just over 1,600 attendees in 2004 to over 21,000 in 2013, requiring all three buildings of the cavernous Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, and spilling over into neighbouring hotel convention space as well.
Virtualization has come a long way.
VMware has brought in a lot of outside channel talent in recent years to bolster its partner organization. And at the helm is former Cisco executive Dave O’Callaghan, who came onboard in May as senior vice-president of global channels and alliances. he formerly ran worldwide distribution and commercial sales for Cisco.
During the channel keynote before VMworld kicked off, VMware president and COO Carl Eschenbach told partners that the software-defined data centre isn’t future-speak; it’s here today. He touted the vendor’s customer-centric go to market model (though the channel). And, as is mandatory at a partner keynote, he thanked channel partners.
Eschenbach told partners that VMware sees a US$50 billion total addressable market opportunity for the vendor and its partners by 2016, and another US$41 billion in related professional services. “The software-defined data centre will defy convention,” he said. “We’re not talking about something that’s three, four, five years out. We’re going to show it.”
According to Eschenbach, VMware sees its solutions falling into three broad buckets: end user computing, hybrid cloud, and the software-defined data centre. The unifying vision? IT as a service.
“The new role is IT as a service,” he told partners.
O’Callaghan told partners that significant changes are coming to VMworld’s channel program. The revamp is still in the works, and more details will likely be available at Partner Exchange in the new year. The goal, though, is simplification, with common tiers and requirements across partner types.
VMware and its parent company, EMC Corp., announced plans to collaborate on new server-based storage infrastructure with an initial focus on VDI, test & dev and disaster recovery in small and medium-sized business environments. The collaboration will include joint R&D as well as bringing together existing solutions around the new ways applications are consuming storage in virtualized environments.
Networking solutions vendor Brocade was at VMworld with a demonstration of what it touted as the first partner-integrated live demo for NSX. Announced by VMworld at the conference, NSX is an offering VMware calls the platform for network virtualization, and allows users to virtualize the network layer and related services, such as security.
Security vendor Symantec was on the show floor at VMworld and fully bought into VMware’s messaging, touting itself as the best choice for protecting the software-defined data centre. According to Symantec, it’s the only vendor with integrated solutions for security, compliance and business continuity.
IBM was at VMworld to showcase PureSystems. Launched by Big Blue last year, PureSystems are IBM’s line of expert integrared data centre solutions designed to tackle specific use cases, such as big data, with integrated hardware and software solutions that have been tested and validated.
HP is also partnering with VMware around its NSX solution for virtualizing the network layer. The two vendors announced plans to federate the HP Virtual Application Networks SDN Controller with the VMware NSX network virtualization platform, giving customers with an integrated approach to automating their physical and virtual network infrastructure.
Dell dropped a lot of news at Vmworld, with a number of new cloud and virtualization solutions. It expanded its S-series portfolio with the new S6000, a high-density 1RU 10/40GbE switching platform for highly-virtualized data centres. Other announcements included fault resilient memory, storage integration with vSphere 5.5, and OpenManage Integration for vCenter.
On the streets of San Francisco, competitor Microsoft was offering M&Ms and trying to lure VMworlders down the street to its Custard Truck for treats and talk of Hyper-V. They were even giving away some of the warehouse full of Surface RT tablets they have stockpiled. Come for the custard, stay for the virtualization.
VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and president and COO Carl Eschenbach meet the press at VMworld, and don’t seem too impressed with the questions. For our full coverage of VMworld 2013, please see below.
- Existing customer base the focus as VMware drives virtualization deeper
- RackForce and Mitel offer cloud-based communications solution
- VMware Canada’s channel strategy will be clearer next quarter: Gales
- EMC and VMware collaborate on server-based storage infrastructure
