Why VMware is Spending Billions on Cloud Tech
In a buying spree worth billions of dollars, virtual computer firm VMware is expanding its expertise in several next generation technologies.
The California-based firm has announced the acquisition of cloud-native platform provider Pivotal for $2.7 billion, cybersecurity firm Carbon Black for $2.1 billion, and serverless computing start-up Intrinsic for an unknown sum.
The final deal marks the firm’s sixth acquisition in three months – which are all companies operating in the hottest areas of tech; including AI, cloud, networking and cyber defence.
VMware is thought to be building expertise in these markets in a bid to capitalise on technological synergies and position itself as a complete platform for the secure management of cloud infrastructure.
“These acquisitions address two critical technology priorities of all businesses today – building modern, enterprise-grade applications and protecting enterprise workloads and clients,” said VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger in a statement on the Pivotal and Carbon Black deals. “With these actions we meaningfully accelerate our subscription and SaaS offerings and expand our ability to enable our customers’ digital transformation.”
Though the expertise of the acquired companies is quite broad, the deals can all be drawn back to the common theme of cloud computing.
With a fuller cloud computing stack, VMware will be better able to assist companies with a multcloud strategy consisting of public, private and hybrid clouds, and be well-positioned to contend with IBM and Microsoft as one of the key players in the multi cloud market.
Competencies in technologies like AI, IoT, and blockchain that can be integrated with cloud technology, and cyber defence security tools that offer protection against cloud-specific threats, make VMware’s offering even more appealing to enterprise customers.
This complete service is likely to benefit from rapid growth in cloud computing, which remains one of the most active acquisition markets as enterprises continue to transition to more complex multi-cloud environments.