Virtualization Draws Record Crowd to VMworld 2010

by Chris Preimesberger

The first thing attendees saw as they obtained their credentials and headed off for the bag room was this ’50s-style rest stop.

New VMware backpacks loaded with goodies, including the usual T-shirts and memory sticks, were to be had here for people with credentials.

The world’s largest chipmaker, Intel, probably portrayed the cloud computing idea best with this large mural at its information booth.

Staff members of the California-based utility storage maker, which has been the object of a multibillion-dollar bidding war between Hewlett-Packard and Dell, were eagerly awaiting news as to which company would ultimately end up owning it. They would have to wait for the winning HP $2.4 billion to come in on Sept. 2, Day 4.

Storage controller maker Emulex had one of the most interesting booths, with this high-powered off-road bike gaining a lot of attention.

Dell exhibited several of its new solid-state servers at the show.

Host VMware showed off its shiny, extra-long 18-wheel touring truck at the show. The trailer is rigged with a living-room style layout for VMware staff members, who travel around North American doing demonstrations of the company’s latest technology.

Here’s a view of the other side of the big truck, which was a popular place to visit all day long.

F5 Networks’ simple message: Use us to control your virtualization deployment.

Compellent, which makes virtualized storage systems for midrange and small businesses, went with the easy-chair, living-room style booth.

Compellent CEO Phil Soran (second from right), VMware COO Tod Neilsen (right) and two executives from Heineken Netherlands describe the multinational beer brewers new virtualized storage deployment at a live press conference in the main lobby of Moscone South.

Quest Software, which announced a day earlier that it is serious about entering the virtualization optimization and management space—despite a lot of high-profile competition—was a busy location each day of the show.

Wyse, which makes virtual desktop and thin client deployment software, also had a huge crowd at its booth for the entire show.

That honor went to upstart Kaviza, which has been winning awards quite often lately. The VDI category at VMworld had the largest pool of entrants (about 35) of all categories. From left are Senior Engineer Lars Ehlers, Sales Manager Eulisha James, COO Krishna Subramanian, and CEO Kumar Goswani.