VMware is starting in a new direction after a year of crazy price increases and a shakeup at the top of their corporate ladder. In late July, Paul Martiz confirmed he would be stepping down as the CEO of VMware and would be replaced by Pat Gelsinger the current COO of EMC. The storage giant is the majority shareholder of VMware’s stock so it makes sense they would want more influence on the company direction.
There was obviously some strategy to this move as VMware made some its biggest announcements of the year weeks later at VMworld. They have finally seen the errors of their ways and eliminated the vRAM pricing for vSphere with the 5.1 update. This will save companies thousands of dollars and slow down the exodus to cheaper virtualization solutions. Furthermore, they have begun to embrace more open source virtualization solutions at Silicon Valley startup known as Nirica.
Why do all this now I wonder? Cheaper competitors, such as Microsoft’s Hyper-V, are equally functional for many people and I feel VMware is in fear of losing its market dominance. Totally free solutions, such as OpenStack, are also gaining momentum and adding to the competitive landscape. What does this mean for the IT world? It means more competition and cheaper pricing from the world’s leader in virtualization and the potential to move to other platforms that can increase ROI and your organizations bottom line.
