The world according to VMware, Analyst Day 1

VMware hosted an analyst track at its VMworld bash in Las Vegas. A number of the company's heavy hitters were there to present to a room full of skeptical analysts. Here is the line up:

• Rick Jackson, VMware CMO, welcomed the analysts and restated some of the points Paul Maritz made (see VMworld Keynote - Paul Maritz looks into the crystal ball for more information.)
• Carl Eschenbach, VMware Co-President, Customer Operations, then presented how VMware intended to go to market with products designed to fit the vision presented by Paul Maritz.
• Tod Nielsen, VMware Co-President Application Platform, then took the analysts on a trip into VMware's plans for a cloud-based application framework and why we should care about it.
• Raghu Raghuran, VMware Sr. VP and General Manager, Cloud Infrastructure and Management, gave the analysts an overview of what his group was doing to support the vision.
  
• Chris Young, VP and General Manager, End User Computing, did his best to present how VMware sees the "Post PC era."
• Paul Maritz, VMware CEO, then joined the anlaysts for a question and answer session.

While I agree with some of the vision presented, I'm not sure that I buy the idea that mainframes, midrange systems running UNIX or some single vendor operating system, and PCs are dead. There is simply too much investment in those platforms and organizations just don't walk away from that level of investment. That being said, I thought that it is clear that VMware believes that its vision is correct and is investing heavily in bring the needed tools, frameworks, and infrastructure software to market to support that vision.

Paul Maritz's session was absolutely refreshing. He demonstrated an amazing depth of knowledge about the history of IT and a strong belief that the vision he presented is on the near horizon and he is organizing the company to be a winner when it does arrive.

All in all, it was a very interesting session.