The ‘New Era’ Of VMware Begins

The “new era” of VMware has officially begun, said CEO Raghu Raghuram in late 2021 after Dell Technologies spun off its majority stake in the virtualization superstar.

This year marks the first year VMware will make decisions and strategic moves as an independent company since 2004. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has new leadership and a vision in 2022 to begin its march towards becoming the hybrid and multi-cloud worldwide leader.

Looking ahead into 2022, VMware will likely form new alliances and make strategic moves unlike anything we’ve seen in years as it’s no longer directly tethered to Dell Technologies.

“If you think about multi-cloud, what we really are saying is that we want to be the Switzerland of the industry. So if you want to be the Switzerland of the industry, then you want to be a standalone independent company, and that’s where we are headed,” Raghuram told CRN in late 2021. “It will allow partners that previously were competitors of Dell to now look at VMware with new life and say, ‘Hey, we can do strategic things with VMware.’ But at the same time, we have a fantastic relationship with Dell who we do tremendous amount of business with.”

Here are the ten most important things VMware channel partners, customers and investors need to watch for in 2022, including just how far VMware will spread its wings from Dell as an independent entity.