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VMware promises multi-cloud connection and management products
Virtzilla CEO Gelsinger rates Q2 'good' as it hits $7bn run rate and new products take off
VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger has dropped a very strong hint that the company plans to get into multi-cloud connectivity and management.
In prepared remarks during the company's Q2 earnings call today, Gelsinger said the company plans to offer “unparalleled connectivity, security and visibility across multi cloud IT resources regardless of whether the underlying infrastructure is VMware-based.”
In his closing remarks Gelsinger added that at VMworld in late August the company “will be unveiling new capabilities that will enable our customers to run, manage, secure and connect applications across all clouds and all devices.”
During Q&A Gelsinger also said that VMware believes its software-defined data centre mantra can be extended into public clouds.
The company's finance remain in rude health: US$1.69 billion came through the door in 2016's second quarter, an increase of 6 per cent from non-GAAP revenues for the second quarter of 2015, and an increase of 11 per cent from GAAP revenues for the second quarter of 2015. vSphere licence sales declined slower than the company had predicted, but sales of VMware's designated growth products – anything to do with end-user computing, NSX and VSAN – all grew strongly.
Gelsinger singled out VSAN as the company's “rock star” for the quarter, not least because it added about 1,500 users to crack the 5,000 customer mark. He added that VSAN and NSX are now sufficiently mature to attract interest from mainstream buyers rather than those on the bleeding edge. And seeing as VMware has 80 per cent market share in server virtualisation, it knows where those mainstream buyers live.
The company is also chuffed that customers are buying more stuff from VMware, with standalone vSphere licences continuing to fall and big sales spanning its product portfolio.
Long story short - VMware's leadership team is very happy with these numbers and the fact that their plans for new product lines are working. Reports of vSphere's imminent death have been exaggerated.
The company's great weakness remains public cloud, which threatens to make some of its business less relevant. But we now know there's a plan for that, too. Then there's the Dell transaction, which all involved are talking up as a fine thing because assumes it can only be a good thing for Mike D's World-Girdling Sales Force should help to reach those mainstream buyers mentioned above.
No wonder the company's shares popped about eight per cent today. ®