VMware outlines strategy for displacing traditional OS

VMware wants to displace Windows by developing a subscription-based, hosted service that makes it possible for cloud-based applications to be delivered to any user device, reports Jon Brodkin at IDG News Service. The idea is that the technology, known as Project Horizon, would replace the need for the traditional operating system.

As Brodkin points out, virtualization technologies and traditional operating systems are not mutually exclusive and co-exist on systems such as IBM mainframes. Still, it is interesting to see VMware move beyond virtualizing operating systems to try to offer "the broader operating frameworks for data centers and desktops," he writes. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) offers virtual desktop technology within Windows for PCs, viewing virtualization as just one element of the OS.

VMware's announcement--made at its annual VMWorld conference this week--came amid the news that it just purchased two companies to bolster its cloud computing strategy. One of the company's main themes is the value of a hybrid cloud infrastructure, in which customers use a combination of private clouds and public software-as-a-service offerings, reports eWeek's John Pallatto.

VMware CEO Paul Maritz touted the hybrid cloud model at the conference, predicting that virtualization software will operate an increasing portion of the data center, reports Charles Babcock at InformationWeek. In Martiz' vision, companies that implement virtualization technologies will run future application on a private cloud, and the workload will move fluidly between the enterprise's own environment and the cloud partner's environment.  

For more:
- see Jon Brodkin's article at Computerworld
- see John Pallatto's article at eWeek
- see Charles Babcock's article at InformationWeek

Related Articles:
Law firm uses virtualization to ease expansion
Riverbed unveils virtual WAN optimization appliances
VMware ups the ante with vSphere 4.1