VMware Looks to Cloud With vSphere 4

In an unusual coming out party for the formerly nonhyperbolic VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW), CEO Paul Maritz called VMware's vSphere 4 a "revolutionary" product set that could remake the data center.

In a celebratory outdoor event at VMware's headquarters, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) CEO John Chambers, Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) senior VP Pat Gelsinger, and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) senior VP James Mouton agreed.

The announcement featured not only Silicon Valley's best supporting cast, but also several hundred VMware employees, sitting on blankets on the lawn, watching a big screen and applauding wildly as each computer executive took the stage. Looking at the outdoor crowd, a sober wire service writer said, "Just like Woodstock, but without the drugs."

VMware's unveiling of VMware vSphere 4 could have been a normal product upgrade; basically, vSphere 4 is the renaming and updating of its well established Virtual Infrastructure 3 for managing large sets of virtual machines.

But VMware is trying to make a point. Its virtualization software isn't just about running more than one operating system on a workstation or consolidating groups of servers. VSphere 4 is meant to change balky, isolated systems that underutilize their individual resources into a more efficient and streamlined whole.To read on, see the full story on InformationWeek.com