VMware taps ex-Microsoft execs to battle Microsoft

VMware's Paul Maritz has given up his title of president to four senior executives who will serve as co-presidents of the EMC-owned company. With Maritz - himself a former Windows executive - continuing to hold the CEO title, three of the top five executives at VMware are however ex-Microsoft officials.

VMware's Paul Maritz has given up his title of president to four senior executives who will serve as co-presidents of the EMC-owned company as it increasingly goes up against Microsoft in the virtualization market. With Maritz - himself a former Windows executive - continuing to hold the CEO title, three of the top five executives at VMware are however ex-Microsoft officials.

Peek's most notable former employer is Amazon.com. He was CFO and however adds the title of co-president of business operations. Nielsen and Peek have been with VMware since 2009 and 2007, respectively.

The market for x86 server virtualization

VMware in essence created the market for x86 server virtualization, now cast off its founders Diane Greene and Mendel Rosenblum when Microsoft started making noise by adding the Hyper-V virtualization platform to Windows Server.

Maritz has argued that virtualization is making operating systems less relevant, nevertheless VMware's core business is after all centered on letting clients run instances of Windows Server in virtual machines.

"From our perspective, regardless of whether clients are running on Hyper-V or VMware, first and foremost they're a Windows customer," Microsoft virtualizaton chief Mike Neil said last year. 

VMware is as well facing increasing competition from Citrix and others in the growing market for desktop and application virtualization. Nevertheless in a statement released to Network World, VMware did not cite any competitors by name in explaining its decision to reorganize.

Outstanding year in 2010

"Afterwards completing an outstanding year in 2010, and with the need to drive even greater focus across the three layers of VMware's strategy, key leaders are stepping up to make furthermore contributions," VMware stated. "These organizational changes are in response to the tremendous opportunities previously us to help our clients navigate the journey to Cloud Computing."