VMware sees BILLION-DOLLAR upside in Dell buy

VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger has welcomed Dell's purchase of EMC, saying it should add a billion dollars a year to Virtzilla's bottom line “over the next several years”. Speaking on a conference call staged by EMC, Gelsinger said he “could not be more excited about todays announcement” which he rated “very positive”. Which of …

[Ashton Black]

It sure is a roll of the dice.

Could Dell have used the 67 big bucks for other things that would be more profitable, longer term?

This is a risky stratagem, but could pay off. Interesting times.

[Lusty]

Re: It sure is a roll of the dice.

If you can see a strategy here care to share it? Looks like a drunk spending spree/ego trip to me! It's definitely the wrong time to buy VMware given the cloud is about to kill them. Seems an odd time to buy storage given the cloud is about to make them as good as obsolete. Of course these will take a decade to work through the system, but 67Bn would take longer than that to make surely, especially given what will become declining revenues in that decade.

[James Micallef]

Re: It sure is a roll of the dice.

" It's definitely the wrong time to buy VMware given the cloud is about to kill them. Seems an odd time to buy storage given the cloud is about to make them as good as obsolete. "

Erm.... what exactly do you think "the cloud" is made of, then? A cloud provider is essentially an external provider running your data centre. It's implausible to think that cloud providers are running everything off physical servers not virtual ones, so any cloud provider is just a potential client for VMware. And data stored 'in the cloud' is still physically stored somewhere, and given ever-increasing data volumes, it's unlikely that storage providers will become obsolete.

[future research]

Re: It sure is a roll of the dice.

Erm.... what exactly do you think "the cloud" is made of, then? A cloud provider is essentially an external provider running your data centre. It's implausible to think that cloud providers are running everything off physical servers not virtual ones, so any cloud provider is just a potential client for VMware. And data stored 'in the cloud' is still physically stored somewhere, and given ever-increasing data volumes, it's unlikely that storage providers will become obsolete.

I don't think the big cloud providers are going to go to Dell, EMC and VMware for their needs though, The likes of Google, Facebook and I guess Amazon (don't know about Microsoft) design and build their own hardware and cut of the middle men and go straight to Intel, Western Digital, Seagate etc..

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe VMware will start a real cloud service now with the backing of Dell. Their current colo offering is embarassing compared to AWS and Azure which have full cloud functionality.

[Jason 24]

I seem to recall Dell offered some sort of cloud service not to long back either, they were peddling it to our management team when they fell for bought one of the Dell preconfigured vStart racks and Dells cloud was supposed to be available for us to burst into when we needed.

6 month later we got an email saying the cloudy goodness was no more.

[Anonymous Coward]

Like VMware they certainly offered a service with the word "cloud" in the title. I'm pretty certain theirs was a colo with a website as well.

[Lusty]

Ah "cloud bursting" my favourite marketecture term. Sounds so easy in the blurb until you realise how big your data and small your pipes are. It works in some specific scenarios, but most of those are not infrastructure, they are usually web services.

[chivo243]

I'll be waiting to see how this impacts VMWare as it a product my employer has purchased, and therefore, I must manage. I can't put my finger on it, but I have the feeling I've see this scenario play out before. Good product absorbed in a buy/merger and good product is becomes anything but...

[Alan_Peery]

VMWare -- what will the impact be

A crucial difference in this case is that VMWare is publicly traded, and Dell will only be retaining a 28% stake after the purchase.

[Anonymous Coward]

What?

Two assumptions I keep seeing that are being pushed by industry talking heads to spin a positive out of this buyout:

1. "Everything is going to the cloud"...BS.

2. "Hyperconverged" is the future. BS. Very few customers are buying into it currently.

I fail to see any positive results of these two intersecting high-speed garbage trucks, really.

[randommagic]

Re: What?

Private Cloud seems to be an easier move for customers looking to take advantage of cloud.

Hyperconverged is selling well. I sell lots of it and I am happy to keep selling it when it is priced so keenly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mutual Admiration Society!

So please remind me, is this the mutual admiration society where all the participants sit around and play buzzword bingo, drink heavily, slap each other on the back and then stick it to the end user even more than usual by selling a product or service that is already slated for obsolescence and then sell them the "new & improved" version under a different name less than 2 years from now?

No thanks, didn't want any of that.