Study Shows IT and Business Professionals Are Finding Business Advantages in Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - Oct 31, 2012) - VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced new research findings that demonstrate public cloud adoption has moved beyond test and development in many companies. The study, commissioned by VMware and conducted by analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), found 67 percent of the mid-market and enterprise companies surveyed are running what they view as mission-critical workloads on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). 

"The study demonstrates that IaaS from cloud service providers is seeing broad adoption by mainstream business for business-critical applications and data, moving beyond test and development," said Mathew Lodge, vice president, cloud services, VMware. "As IaaS adoption grows, so does the importance of strong customer service and support as well as the quality of the underlying technology. Compatibility with existing virtualized datacenters and private clouds was also key."

Other Key Findings

• IaaS is in production -- More than 80 percent of IaaS customers surveyed are currently running production workloads on IaaS.
• Storage, on-demand compute and disaster recovery services top the list -- Seventy percent of current IaaS customers use cloud storage services, followed by 58 percent using cloud servers, and 53 percent leveraging disaster recovery services.
• Customers want support and TCO -- Service and support topped a list of criteria for selecting cloud service providers with 80 percent of respondents citing it as important. A quarter of the respondents indicated total cost of ownership (TCO) was the single most important criteria for service provider selection.
• Importance of compatibility -- Seventy-eight percent of respondents reported that it was also important that their cloud service providers' infrastructure technologies were compatible with their internal private cloud / virtualized datacenter.
• Underlying technology matters -- Eighty-three percent of respondents indicated the underlying technology used to deliver IaaS was of some level of importance to them, with nearly half citing it as a very important or critical factor when considering IaaS.

VMware Service Provider Program and vCloud Services
The VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) is for service providers offering cloud computing and hosted IT services built on VMware software. There are over 9,400 service providers in more than 60 countries in the VSPP today.

VMware vCloud® Services offer a broad array of VMware-compatible infrastructure clouds built on a secure platform and delivered by vCloud service providers, enabling customers to easily extend, manage and scale their datacenter workloads to a public cloud. With more than 180 certified VMware vCloud Services in 29 countries, VMware and VSPP partners together form the number two public cloud ecosystem in the world.

About the Research
ESG, an integrated IT research, analysis, and strategy firm that is world-renowned for providing actionable insight and intelligence to the global IT community, conducted the study during July 23 - August 13, 2012. The research included data from 243 IT and business professionals whose organizations are currently using public cloud services, specifically IaaS. These respondents were from midmarket (100 to 999 employees) and enterprise-class (1,000+ employees) companies in North America (US and Canada) and Western Europe (France, UK, Germany and Netherlands).

Additional Resources

• Learn more about how customers are using VMware vCloud on Another VMware Cloud
• Learn more about the vCloud ecosystem
• Get your own vCloud IaaS service in minutes: http://vcloud.vmware.com/evaluate-cloud
• Read the VMware vCloud Blog for the latest information on VMware vCloud
• Follow VMware vCloud on Twitter @vCloud

About VMware
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 400,000 customers and 55,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

VMware and VMware vCloud are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding expectations for the growth of IaaS and public cloud services and the potential benefits to businesses of the VMware VSPP program. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to (i) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) priorities, delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iii) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors into the IaaS and cloud computing markets, and new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors; (iv) our customers' ability to develop, and to transition to, new products and computing strategies such as cloud computing and IaaS; (v) the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology; (vi) rapid technological and market changes in IaaS; (vii) changes to product development timelines; (viii) VMware's ability to protect its proprietary technology; and (ix) VMware's ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees.. These forward looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K that we may file from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release