Contact: John Abbott
With just 25 employees, CloudVolumes is a relatively small purchase for VMware, but one with big implications. By grabbing CloudVolumes, the virtualization vendor seeks an immediate boost to its desktop virtualization efforts and help in fending off a long-term threat from Docker.
The first version of its VMware View desktop virtualization software (a successor to VMware VDM) was introduced in 2008, but has taken longer than expected to gain momentum. VMware has made a handful of tuck-in acquisitions to bolster its desktop virtualization capabilities, including Desktone, Wanova and RTO Software. CloudVolumes provides a more efficient, cost-effective and easier to manage means of providing users with persistent virtual desktops.
While VMware is clearly keen to keep one step ahead of its direct competition, one of the biggest motivations behind this particular purchase may have been the huge rise of interest in Docker, the open source engine that automates the deployment of applications in lightweight, portable containers. Adding CloudVolumes, which virtualizes everything above the operating system (not just apps but also data, settings, libraries and user profiles), gets VMware similar capabilities.
We’ll have a more detailed look at this acquisition in tomorrow’s 451 Market Insight.
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