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Security In A World of Virtualized IT Infrastructures: Page 2 of 2

In essence, this is the challenge that VMware and EMC's RSA division intend to confront. As such, the pair's efforts are aimed directly at securing enterprise's internal clouds, external clouds hosted by traditional service providers and "private" clouds that blend internal and external IT resources. Almost by definition, this vision of the future of cloud computing (with VMware's vSphere as its foundation) will require highly robust, flexible and scalable security solutions in order to succeed.

That said, is this expanded collaboration worth taking seriously? We believe so. Make no mistake, the effort is definitely in embryonic stages, but VMware's vSphere is likewise a work in progress. Even as the vSphere "cloud OS" continues to grow and mature, we expect to see a similar expansion and maturation of RSA's complementary technologies and solutions. We also expect the pair will experience bumps along the road, in some cases due to the efforts of formidable competitors, including Microsoft and Citrix.

But if VMware and EMC's RSA division can stay focused and deliver on the vision of secure cloud computing, their mutual enterprise clients stand to reap huge benefits. In addition, key EMC and VMware partners, including Dell Computer (which has been ahead of the curve in its commercial cloud efforts) and newcomers like Cisco Systems are likely to play significant roles in helping these solutions find a place in the market. Overall, while the challenges facing VMware and EMC's RSA division are large, we believe the potential opportunities the pair could find in safely securing virtualized and cloud computing infrastructures are enormous.