VMware by Broadcom‘s recent annual user event Explore in Las Vegas was like no other I can remember in recent history. The most notable change was the crowd size. Since acquiring VMware Inc., Broadcom Inc. has clarified that the focus is on the top 5,000 customers, which created a limited audience. That had a ripple effect on the event as the lack of audience created an Expo Hall that was a virtual ghost town, particularly for the sponsors.
Unlike previous VMware Explore/VMWorld events, which are typically filled with product announcements, this year’s VMware by Broadcom’s user event, Explore 2024, was very light on the news. The most notable announcement at the event in Las Vegas was the unveiling of VMware Cloud Foundation 9 and the company’s mission to be the leader in helping companies build out private clouds.
Private cloud infrastructure company SoftIron, in a move to try to displace VMware’s vSphere suite, just announced its VM Squared virtualization platform. Recently, I discussed this development with Jason Van der Schyff, Chief Operating Officer at SoftIron. “Our raison d’être has been to deliver a new type of on-premises infrastructure, which we call True Private Cloud,” he told me.
In my VMware Explore wrap-up post, one of my key takeaways was that the edge is the next big frontier for the company. Given that, I thought examining VMware Inc.’s vision of the edge a bit more closely made sense.
VMware Inc.’s user event last week in Las Vegas, Explore, formerly known as VMWorld, offered a cornucopia of news, with multicloud and artificial intelligence the overarching themes.