VMware cloud spin-off reportedly in the works
The supreme cloud provider race is on, and VMware is not going to be left behind
According to a scoop from GigaOm, the EMC-owned virtual infrastructure giant is pooling together its existing cloud services with some new ones for a fully-fledged cloud spin-off platform that would be intended to match Amazon Web Services, the Google Compute Cloud, and Microsoft Cloud Services.
The timing wouldn't be much of a surprise considering the buzz surrounding the Google Compute Cloud, which was announced in June as an Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform with multiple storage options, promising "great connectivity to end users."
Google's Urs Holzle, senior vice president of Google's technical Infrastructure unit, touted at the time that the Google Compute Cloud would deliver up to 50 percent more compute per dollar than other cloud providers.
VMware has a considerable job ahead of itself if it plans to compete with that tagline as well as Amazon Web Services, the de-facto choice in the cloud space -- regardless of a major recent outage that can be fairly attributed to severe storms.
However, based on GigaOm's report, it doesn't look like VMware scrambled all of a sudden to get this together. Rather, it might just make a lot of sense to separate the cloud elements from the other virtualization solutions available to make VMware's push in this field a lot more distinct.
Most of what is supposedly going to be included will be on VMware's Cloud Foundry open Platform-as-a-Service offering that is touted to enable users to deploy and scale applications quickly without being locked down by a provider.
GigaOm also suggests that VMware will be incorporating some of EMC's other properties, such as big data analytics division Greenplum and the EMC-VMware joint Project Rubicon for the Infrastructure-as-a-Service angle.
Furthermore, it's worth pointing out that earlier this month, VMware acquired DynamicOps, which focuses on cloud automation solutions for managing IT services across diverse cloud environments. If the cloud rumor plays out to be true, that unit will definitely be included in the fold.
VMware reports second quarter earnings on Monday, July 23. There is always the chance we could hear about this then. But for a platform boasted to be so big that it could take on Amazon, it's a far better bet that it would be introduced at VMworld in San Francisco at the end of August.