VMware prepares to enter the cloud computing market

In January 2006 virtualization.info published a post titled Virtualization is the first step of a long walk called Grid Computing, stating that VMware could move its virtualization offering to a higher level and go for grid computing.
Over two years later it seems that the time has come.

Diane Greene, President and Co-Founder, at JP Morgan Technology Conference in May 21 and Reza Malekzadeh, Senior Director of Products and Marketing, at Nordic Virtualization Conference in June 2 started to introduce a new VMware mantra.

Both executives presented a five stage vision where virtualization is used first for test and development, then for server consolidation, then for infrastructure on demand, then for data center automation and finally for cloud computing.

VMware_cloudcomputing

In the last year and a half with its EC2 service Amazon demonstrated that there is enough interest for this market and a huge opportunity to innovate. And after Amazon other companies like Desktone (for VDI) and Skytap (for Virtual Lab Automation) are pushing virtualization for cloud computing.
So doesn’t surprise much that VMware is preparing to enter the space.

It must be seen anyway when and how the company will make its move.