EMC 2008 Annual Report Download - page 9

Table of Contents
In 2008, EMC formed EMC Consulting to help organizations better succeed in a knowledge economy by getting more value from their information,
leverage information in new ways to navigate challenging market conditions and compete more effectively. By offering broad consulting expertise across
organizations' business, applications and infrastructure architectures, as well as industry expertise in Financial Services, Life Sciences, Communications/
Media/Entertainment, and Retail, EMC Consulting delivers the transformational thinking and execution required to turn the potential of information into
actionable strategies and business results.
VMware Virtual Infrastructure Segment
VMware is the leading provider of virtualization solutions from the desktop to the data center. VMware virtualization solutions represent a pioneering
approach to computing that separates application software from the underlying hardware to achieve significant improvements in efficiency, availability,
flexibility and manageability. Its broad and proven suite of virtualization solutions addresses a range of complex IT problems that include cost and operational
inefficiencies, business continuity, software lifecycle management and desktop management.
VMware server virtualization technology is categorized as a virtual data center operating system ("VDC-OS"). A VDC-OS decouples the entire software
environment from its underlying hardware infrastructure and enables the aggregation of multiple servers, storage infrastructure and networks into shared pools
of resources that can be delivered dynamically, securely and reliably to applications as needed. This approach enables organizations to build a computing
infrastructure with high levels of utilization, availability, automation and flexibility using building blocks of inexpensive industry-standard servers. In addition
to providing abstraction from the underlying hardware, a VDC-OS is also able to deliver services to applications running inside virtual machines, in an
operating system and application agnostic manner. This not only increases operational efficiency but also allows mixed element, multi-OS applications to get
standard service levels delivered by the infrastructure, broadening customer deployment choices. A VDC-OS effectively creates "internal clouds" of resources
which are able to be shared by many applications, with applications moving across resources without disruption or downtime to ensure the right quality of
service to every application dynamically. This enables service level guarantees from the infrastructure to applications.
In 2008, VMware announced its vCloud initiative in order to leverage VMware's platform to allow enterprises with internal clouds to easily access
external cloud capacity on demand, without the need to customize or change their applications. The objective of the vCloud initiative is to enable hosting and
cloud computing vendors to deliver enterprise-class cloud computing by federating on demand compute capacity between virtual data centers and cloud
service providers on a common VMware platform.
VMware desktop virtualization technology is categorized as a universal client solution that decouples the entire desktop environment from its underlying
device, enabling customers to create user-centric instead of device-centric desktop environments. There are two main approaches to desktop virtualization:
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) where the desktop virtual machine runs on a server and is accessed remotely using a display protocol and client-hosted
virtual desktops where a desktop virtual machine runs locally on a computer and is able to use the local hardware and peripherals. VMware has products in
both of these categories, as well as offerings that combine both approaches.
In 2008, VMware announced its vClient initiative, which consists of both product and partnering efforts aimed at delivering universal clients – desktops
that follow users to any end point – that are secure, cost effective and easy for IT to manage. VMware's vClient partnering efforts involves a network of
hardware, systems, and software partners to deliver a complete universal client virtualization solution to customers.
VMware has implemented a broad services strategy that leverages the professional services organizations of its partners. VMware has also established its
own services offerings to complement its partners' services offerings and to ensure customer satisfaction, drive additional sales and promote renewals and
upgrades. VMware services offerings include customized solutions and onsite support that enable VMware and its channel partners to provide a positive
overall customer experience.
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