VMware, traditionally seen as player in the virtualisation space, is acquiring companies as it strengthens its investment in cloud computing.
Matt Piercy, senior director, VMware northern EMEA, says: “In the past couple of months, we've accelerated acquisitions, and product releases and we have a clear roadmap that we're taking to our customers.
Last week, VMware revealed it will acquire Ionix; an IT company providing high enterprise management tools. According to Piercy, the acquisition means VMware users will have the ability to determine how often applications are used and whether they should be stored on the desktop or server.
VMware also revealed it's working on a cloud computing pilot project called Redwood; which the company hopes to release as a product at some point. Redwood is intended to become a standard infrastructure for the cloud, says Piercy.
According to recent Gartner research, virtualisation, cloud computing and Web 2.0 technologies are the top three priorities for overseas CIOs, yet they haven't gained traction in the South African market as a priority for local CIOs.
VMware regional director for southern Africa, Chris Norton, disagreed with the Gartner 2010 predictions report. “From a South African point of view, I would disagree with that figure as we are seeing more CIOs specifically driving key virtualisation initiatives. Recent power increases are a key initiator for organisations to look at ways to significantly reduce servers in the data centre.”
Norton adds that SA hasn't joined the cloud computing wave to the same extent as Europe, due to bandwidth limitations and the high cost of connectivity. He expects that as the price of international bandwidth comes down, demand will rise and SA will leapfrog seven to 10 years, and will be on equal footing with European counterparts.
Norton points out: “Companies such as Internet Solutions, Telkom Business, MTN Business, Business Connexion, Vodacom Business, are making significant investments in this service provider model.
“We've recently provided a licensing model to license these environments on a regular basis for the VMware service provider programme; which allows them to rent on a pay-per use basis.”
Share