VMware Launches Software Marketplace

VMware has announced a software marketplace that integrates social networking-style tools to connect VMware users with vendors and developers.

The marketplace, called VMware Solution Exchange, is aimed at businesses of all sizes and targets both private and public cloud deployments.

Centralised market

The exchange draws on a community of more than 2,000 technology partners offering more than 3,500 VMware-compatible applications and 6,000 infrastructure products, VMware said.

For those vendors the marketplace offers a centralised place to promote their wares, while customers get greater simplicity, VMware said.

“For customers, our goal is to empower them to quickly and easily find the resources they need to make purchasing decisions to accelerate their journey to the cloud, while also helping our technology partners deliver and manage joint solutions in a single, self-service location,” said Parag Patel, VMware vice president for global strategic alliances, in a statement.

The site offers social media-style features including user-generated feedback, VMware said.

Vendors can feature particular products or supplement listings with multimedia content such as YouTube videos, product overviews, categories, downloadable trial software, screenshots, whitepapers and blueprints, VMware said.

They can list version compatibility, certification details, and contact information, the company said.

Customer interaction

The marketplace allows customers to interact with partners and developers around licences, software trials and inquiries around technical support and sales issues. They can rate products and post written reviews of their experiences.

VMware’s recent focus has been on tools intended to ease the transition to the cloud, including the launch in October of a cloud Management Portfolio designed to simplify and automate cloud IT management.

VMware, the world’s largest virtualisation software and services provider, popped open at least a few people’s eyes on 23 January when it announced a whopping 67 percent year-over-year net income increase in its fourth-quarter 2011 earnings report.

Continued growth in service and licence revenue to go with larger profit margins helped VMware post quarterly net income of $200 million (46 cents per share) – up from $120 million (28 cents per share), in the same period a year earlier. Overhead for its business remains high, however. Total revenue was reported at $1.06 billion, which was up 27 percent from Q4 2010.

Hot-selling products and services that fit into the cloud computing category, led by the company’s vCenter and vSphere management platforms, were the main reasons for the sales increases.