Did VMWare save EMC? Looking back at the last decade, the acquisition that stands out is that of VMWare by EMC. An acquisition so important that I suggest that it saved EMC. Did EMC need saving? At the point it bought VMWare probably not but if EMC had not bought VMWare, I suspect it would have been in dire straights or at least not the company it is today. I'd go as far as to propose that it would have been bought itself by now.
Acquiring VMWare changed EMC from a storage company into a company which wants to be a lot more; it brought ambition and ideas into EMC. VMWare opened EMC eyes' to a new way of thinking for it; it has driven more innovation into EMC than any other acquisition. Without the experience that VMWare brought into it, I doubt that EMC would be trying as hard to innovate in Cloud Computing; they'd just be another 'me too'.
So what will the defining acquisition of the next decade be? And will it be made by a storage company? Or will be by someone acquiring a storage company? Actually I'm going to make a bold prediction, it'll involve Cisco but I'm not sure whether Cisco will be the purchaser or the purchased. There's something to think about and no-one will remember if I was wrong anyway.
You’re dead wrong, Glassborow.
No, not about the prediction – I agree with that! But about no one remembering. I’ll remember, and I’ll be there 10 years from today to ridicule you whether you’re right or wrong. Mark my words!
(or forget them in 10 years…)
Cheers Stephen…glad to know that someone will remember me in 10 years time anyway!!
Interesting post, as always.
For me, the speculation isn’t complete unless we consider what might have happened if VMware were acquired by someone else *instead* of EMC.
They were going to get acquired at the time, the question was — who? Microsoft? Veritas? IBM? Maybe even Oracle or Sun?
Think through what VMware might look like today had one of those events came to pass.
Interesting speculation, no?
— Chuck
I’ve thought about that as well in the past Chuck…EMC were an extremely good custodian of VMWare and as they didn’t have an operating system or hardware platform agenda; arguably they were the right company to buy VMWare.
If IBM or HP had acquired VMWare, it would have been simply subsumed into the morass which is their ecosphere. And perhaps x86 virtualisation wouldn’t have happened in such a big way. Or perhaps it might not simply be as far advanced yet.
Microsoft, well…would we have seen as much Linux in the Enterprise without the value that virtualised Linux instances bring. Although VMWare is used to virtualise Windows a lot; I would yet again suggest that tools like VMWare workstation allowed people to experiment with Linux in stealth mode.
Veritas, might have been a very interesting partner…but Veritas/Symantec is a dying company these days.
Sun, their record on successful acquisition speaks for itself 😉
Oracle…how much for a license?
All in all, it was best for all round that EMC acquired VMWare at that time.
I agree with Chuck & Martin- EMC has done an excellent job with VMware- leveraging it to transform a large portion of their offerings, but at the same time not ruining what makes VMware great. Most EMC acquisitions are about ‘assimilation’but kudos to EMC for realizing VMW was different and handling it as such.
As far as predictions go, Martin I believe you have the right player. Cisco introducing servers I believe will spark the acqusition of the two remaining large storage players- EMC and NTAP. HP and Cisco are in a staring contest to see who blinks first- I believe HP will blink first and acquire NTAP, leaving Cisco no choice but to buy EMC.