VMware, Inc., incorporated on February 10, 1998, is an information technology (IT) company. The Company is engaged in development and application of virtualization technologies with x86 server-based computing, separating application software from the underlying hardware. The Company offers various products, which allow organizations to manage IT resources across private clouds and multi-cloud, multi-device environments by leveraging synergies across three product categories: Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC), Hybrid Cloud Computing and End-User Computing (EUC). The SDDC is designed to transform and modernize the data center into an on-demand service that addresses application requirements by abstracting, pooling and automating the services that are required from the underlying hardware. The Company provides storage and availability products to offer data storage and protection options to all applications running on the vSphere platform. It also offers various services to its customers, including modernizing data centers, integrating public clouds, empowering digital workspaces and transforming security. It provides virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to transform the way they build, deliver and consume IT resources.
Software-Defined Data Center
The SDDC architecture consists of four main product categories: compute, storage and availability, network and security, and management and automation. vSphere, the Company’s data center platform, provides the fundamental compute layer for VMware environments. A hypervisor is a layer of software that resides between the operating system and system hardware to enable compute virtualization. Users deploy the vSphere hypervisor when they purchase vSphere, Cloud Foundation or suite versions that include vSphere, such as VMware vCloud Suites and vSphere with Operations Management (vSOM). The Company’s VMware vSphere integrated containers solution that allows customers to deploy containerized and traditional applications side-by-side on a common platform, without re-architecting their existing infrastructure. In addition, its OpenStack solution, VMware Integrated OpenStack, is an OpenStack distribution that enables organizations to provide developers with open, cloud-style application program interfaces (APIs) to access VMware’s enterprise-class infrastructure. VMware also introduced a new developer ready, cloud native application solution, Photon Platform, which is focused on modern application development and container frameworks like Pivotal Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes, Photon Platform leverages VMware SDDC technologies to help enterprise customers meet their digital transformation objectives.
Storage and Availability
The Company’s storage and availability products serve as hyper-converged infrastructure solutions designed to enable customers to deploy a range of hardware solutions. Hyper-converged infrastructure solutions in this area include vSAN, provides clusters server disks to create shared storage designed for virtual machines; VxRail, an integrated and pre-configured Dell EMC Appliance powered by vSAN and vSphere software that extends the VMware environment; vSphere Replication, which provides a way to manage replication, and vCenter Site Recovery Manager, which leverages vSphere and vSphere Replication to protect applications against site failures and to streamline planned migrations.
Network and Security
The Company’s Network and Security products provide Network virtualization, which abstracts physical networks. The Network and Security products manage the provisioning and consumption of networking resources.
Management and Automation
The Company’s management and automation products move beyond core compute infrastructure to manage and automate overarching IT processes involved in provisioning IT services and resources to users from initial infrastructure deployment to retirement. These IT processes manage virtualized and non-virtualized infrastructure resources and private and public cloud infrastructures, including hybrid cloud services. Its management and automation product portfolio includes vRealize Operations, which provides performance, capacity and configuration management for virtual or physical infrastructure; vRealize Automation, enables customers to rapidly deploy and provision cloud services, and vRealize Business, provides transparency and control over the costs and quality of IT services.
Software-Defined Data Center Suites
The Company’s SDDC suites include VMware vCloud Suite, vSOM and VMware vRealize Suite. VMware vCloud Suite pools industry-standard hardware and runs compute and management functions in the data center as software-defined services. vSOM allows users to optimize capacity and monitor the workload performance of their vSphere environments. VMware vRealize Suite is a cloud management platform that extends vCloud Suite capabilities beyond a vSphere private cloud environment to both heterogeneous and hybrid cloud environments.
The Company’s SDDC products can also be delivered through unified platform called Cloud Foundation. Its primary solution includes On-Premises, which is available through all compatible hardware solutions, such as VxRack and HPE ProLiant. VxRack is a tested and pre-configured Dell EMC rack-scale system, powered by Cloud Foundation for VMware-centric data centers, or by vSphere for traditional architectures.
Hybrid Cloud Computing
The Company’s cloud strategy has various components, which include continue to expand beyond compute virtualization in the private cloud, extend the private cloud into the public cloud, and connect and secure endpoints across a range of public clouds. Its cloud strategy is designed to provide organizations with solutions that work across various clouds and devices. The Company offers VMware vCloud Air Network Service Providers (vCAN) and VMware vCloud Air (vCloud Air). Its vCAN program is directed at hosting and cloud computing vendors, enabling organizations to choose between running applications in virtual machines on their own private clouds inside their data center or on public clouds hosted by a service provider. vCloud Air enables customers to extend the same skills, tools, networking and security models across both on-premise and off-premise environments.
End-User Computing
The Company’s EUC portfolio enables customers to securely deliver access to applications and data for their end users from any device of the user’s choice, empowering digital workspaces. The Company’s EUC solutions are designed to optimize simplicity and choice for end users, while providing security and control to corporate IT organizations. EUC solution consists of VMware Workspace ONE (Workspace ONE), its digital workspace platform, which includes VMware AirWatch (AirWatch) unified endpoint management and VMware Horizon (Horizon) application and desktop virtualization. The Company’s AirWatch provides an enterprise mobility platform built to manage and secure endpoints from a single platform, enabling deployment of native, Web or remote applications through an application catalog across every device with built-in single sign-on. Horizon provides a streamlined approach to delivering, protecting and managing virtual desktops and applications from one digital workspace, while containing costs and allowing end users to work anytime, anywhere and across any device