However, by moving to a policy-based approach, cost and complexity can be reduced.

"The changing landscape of applications means that there are new modern frameworks and new application types to deal with, which has led to a shift from macro to micro," Patel said.

VMware sees the new model for this being "Platform-as-a-Service," which is based on an architecture that has ubiquitous service consumption in mind.

The "post-PC era" is also fuelling change at a rapid pace, as was pointed out with the fact that it took 21 years for PCs to go mainstream, while media tablets are expected to achieve the same in four years.

"This has led to a changing work style and a shift from a document-centric approach to work to collaboration-centric one," Patel said.