EMC, VMware Poised to Lead Hybrid Cloud Migration in 2011: Tucci

title=EMC Dubs VMware the -Cloud Operating System'} 

EMC has the "right cloud credentials" to help customers move through the cloud, driven primarily through its majority ownership of VMware, said Tucci. The company also recently refreshed and expanded its extensive line of products for information storage, protection, security, management and intelligence-all the things customers would need to implement hybrid clouds, according to Tucci.

Companies will be adding more virtualization to data centers, said Paul Maritz, VMware's CEO. In addition to vSphere, vCenter and vCloud will also play a role in "transforming management" within virtual data centers, he said. Next-generation applications are needed, he said.

The integration of EMC's storage products and VMware's virtualization products makes it easier for customers to deploy storage solutions, Gelsinger said. EMC's storage stack includes file and block storage integrated with vCenter and vStorage, he said. EMC hits all the major requirements in storage, such as unified management, multi-protocol storage, scalability and deduplication and compression technology, he said. The only thing missing was block deduplication technology, but EMC promised it will be part of the product portfolio in the second half of 2011, according to Gelsinger.

EMC has made "big bets in the big data world," Tucci said. Along with its virtual storage capabilities, EMC will be moving aggressively into the low-end storage space with new products, Gelsinger said. EMC will also rely on its $225 billion Isilon acquisition to strengthen scalable network-attached storage business, he said.

There is a "tipping point" in IT and converged infrastructure is expected to be the fastest growing segment in IT infrastructure, said Gelsinger. EMC is aligning its business model to make getting to the cloud easier for customers, he said.

VMware "crossed the chasm" in 2009, when more applications were deployed on virtual infrastructure than physical, Tucci said. EMC considers vSphere, VMware's virtualization platform, as the essential cloud operating system, Tucci said. With the move into hybrid clouds, vSphere will become the data center operating system, he said.

There is even room for virtualization in mobile devices, Maritz said, referring to Tucci's megatrend about mobile devices in the workplace. Employees often use their personal devices to access corporate resources. But their applications and personal data should not be IT's business, he said. VMware is working on a project to create a separate "island" within the device that's "owned and controlled by IT" and separated from other applications, he said.

EMC expects IT spending to grow 5 percent to 7 percent in 2011, Tucci said. David Goulden, EMC's executive vice president and CFO, noted that most analysts are predicting the high end of the range. Gartner is predicting 6.6 percent growth in IT spending, according to Goulden. The bulk of IT spending will focus on server virtualization, security, cloud computing, Windows 7 migration and desktop virtualization, Tucci said.