VMware revenue up as virtualisation grows

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Virtualisation leader VMware has announced a 35 per cent increase in first quarter revenue over the same period in 2009.

The company’s strong performance was proof that “virtualisation is becoming a cornerstone for customer’s IT strategy”, said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer at VMware, in a statement.

VMware expects total revenues in the second quarter to rise to between $635 and $665 million (£413-433 million), compared to the first quarter figure of $634 million, explained Mark Peek, the company's chief financial officer.

He noted that part of the increased income will derive from the acquisition of Zimbra, which provides open source server software for email and collaboration, as well as assets from EMC, the majority owner of VMware.

A number of positive signs are emerging from the virtualisation market, indicating it is part of the wider IT recovery.

An IDC report has shown that 17.7 per cent of all new servers shipped in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in the fourth quarter of 2009 were virtualised, an increase of 16.31 per cent from the year before.

HP took the top spot for EMEA, taking 50 per cent of the market share of new virtualised server shipments, with Dell in second place.

Despite these positive signs, Robert Epstein, head of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) at Microsoft UK, warned firms about some problems involved with the use of virtual machines.

“Virtualisation of servers has brought about new challenges for IT pros - security being one of them." Epstein told IT PRO.

“If deployed and started, the out-of-date virtual machine might be vulnerable to attack or could be capable of attacking other network resources," he added. "IT groups must take measures to ensure that offline virtual machines remain up-to-date and compliant.”

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