Accelerating business through virtualization

Businesses seem to be migrating into the cloud these days. They can be seen or felt everywhere from day in day out use of Internet and mobile phones, to services like getting one's insurance. However jumping into the cloud computing bandwagon needs preparation, with the right tools and more important, the right partner that will get a business to the cloud through a process called virtualization.

What computer software company VMWare Inc

This is specifically what computer software company VMWare Inc. does. VMWare's expertise on virtualization has made the firm a global leader on cloud infrastructure, according to Nicholas Tan, VMWare's country manager for Singapore and the Philippines.Jon Robertson, general manager of VMWare ASEAN said that "virtualization is the technical foundation for cloud computing, and clients are leveraging our industry-leading products like VMWare vSphere to transform their data centers into simplified cloud computing infrastructures." Tan explained that each organization's information research and business requirements are different and there is simply no one-cloud-fits-all approach.Why virtualize?Companies can reduce their IT infrastructure costs, with as much as 80-percent reduction in power consumption and electricity. Physical servers will as well be significantly reduced, which will mean a 45-percent decrease in server acquisition costs and about 35-percent cut on average maintenance costs. VMWare started from desktop virtualization to cloud virtualization. It is openly listed at the New York Stock Exchange and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 1998 by husband and wife tandem Diane Greene and Mendel Rosenblum, along with Scott Devine, Edward Wang and Edouard Bugnion.It was acquired by EMC Corp. in 2004. In 2007, EMC released 10 percent of the company's shares in VMWare for an IPO. The company has since been operating as a separate software subsidiary, with 2011 earnings posted at $3.77 billion and registering a 25-percent year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2012.VMWare boasts of about 350,000 clients globally and covers 100 percent of the Fortune 100. Robertson said that about 84 percent of all virtualized applications in the world today runs on VMWare.VMWare has been operating in the Philippines, as then as the rest of Asia for eight years now. Tan said some of the biggest companies operating in the Philippines-just as The Philippine American Life and General Insurance Com., Globe Telecom and SM Retail-are part of VMWare's growing clientele.He said most of VMWare's clients start with a desire to increase server efficiency and reduce capital expenses by virtualizing low risk workloads. At the time, as more of their data centers are virtualized, customers can realize more value by implementing management and policy-driven automation. The resulting quality of service improvements accelerate transformation to an agile cloud computing model, which allows customers to accelerate their IT, which in turn accelerates their business.VMWare is very optimistic about its growth in the Philippines. Tan said the firm is now on an aggressive hiring mode to keep up with the increasing demands. That same interest is as well seen around Asia, however Tan observed that Philippine businessmen seemed to be much more open now and very eager to learn about virtualization and the cloud. "I think the entrepreneurs can see that this is an unstoppable bullet train and conclusively they need to equip themselves with the knowledge and the knowhow and who is the best in its class," Tan said. "Our numbers would speak for itself."