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VMware Extends Footprint in Virtualization World

07.11.2008
A provider of virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, VMware is all set to enhance its market share in India. Virtualization landscape is set to change as VMware is well positioned to provide Indian businesses with world-class virtualization solutions. At 'Virtualization Forum 2008' in Mumbai hosted by VMware, the vendor made significant announcements of new product offerings. Raghu Raghuram, Vice President, Product & Solutions Marketing, VMware, said, "With cloud computing emerging as a significant industry trend, we have initiated vCloud initiative for enterprises. VMware will tie up with service providers to offer cloud computing applications. We are also expanding flagship VMware virtual infrastructure suite into a Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS). The visible advantages of virtualization are capital efficiency, operational expenses amongst others for enterprise datacenters as there is a resurgent demand for these offerings in dense urban areas."

"VMware has almost doubled its customer base to 550+ in the past one year in India across various verticals from SMBs to enterprises," said Ganesh Mahabala, Regional Director --India & SAARC, VMware. The company is in talks with hosting partners to offer cloud computing as a SaaS model for enterprises and SMBs.

VMware India today encompasses more than 700 employees with five field offices in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, and Mumbai. Almost 500 employees work at R & D centers at Pune and Bangalore. The continued momentum in India has increased the channel partner strength by about 40 percent since March 2008.

"Apart from Ingram Micro and Select Technologies as distributors, we have more than 230 channel partners across Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III cities. These include resellers, VARs, and, importantly, system integrators," said Mahabala. The addition of most partners are a result of the company's growing footprint in the SME segment. "Most SMEs work with their local channel partners/system integrators for most of their hardware /software requirements. With virtualization tools like VDC-OS, vCloud and vClient, partners can add value to their product portfolio for their installed /new customer base," added Mahabala.

According to Gartner, virtualization will be strategic to most organizations in the next three years. "VMware technology makes a significant impact in today's economic scenario by helping businesses cut costs, complexity as well as their carbon footprint, in keeping with their commitment to Green IT," said Raghuram. VMware is also banking on its strategy to build a new software platform for VDC-OS, which is scalable and compatible with windows, Linux, and other platforms. The business benefits of VDC-OS include infrastructure efficiency, application agility, and business-driven IT. "With our partners, we are building OS for fully virtualized datacenters.VDC-OS creates a local cloud helping enterprises to take advantage of our new offering -- vCloud,"he added.

With maturity of server virtualization, desktop virtualization as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), now as vClient, will offer an ideal PC environment and centralized management with new features for enterprises, according to Mahabala. Apart from OEM partners such as HP and Dell, Tier 1 partners are involved with VMware deployments. "We have increasing number of national system integrators and VARs, apart from resellers who contribute a significant business for us," he added. VMware Advantage Plus Program offering incentives on new deals and other benefits is alluring partners. "With a rich product portfolio of virtualization offerings, partners can leverage a huge playfield with their customer base," said Mahabala.