VMware finally warming up to EMC

EMC has owned VMware since 2004, but for the most part, the two companies have continued to operate separately. Very separately.

That may be changing.

I was at the New England VMware User Group summer meeting yesterday in Brunswick, Maine. While checking out all the sponsors’ booths, I noticed there were a lot more EMC employees around than at past VMware events. So I asked one of them what was up.

This employee said VMware has historically had stronger partnerships with vendors other than EMC, but that hasn’t been true since Paul Maritz took over as CEO last year. Maritz’s vision is to move VMware from a hypervisor company to an infrastructure company, and more collaboration with EMC is a natural step towards that goal.

The employee talked about the integration of VMware’s vShield Zones and RSA’s DLP product, which was demonstrated as proof-of-concept at the RSA Conference in April. (RSA is EMC’s security division.) That project, which will offer agent-less data protection for an entire cluster of virtual machines, is now in alpha, according to the employee. And more joint offerings are in the works as part of a two-year roadmap VMware has developed, the employee added.

It has probably been good for VMware that EMC hasn’t interfered in its business too much (especially considering last year’s fiasco, when EMC CEO Joe Tucci fired VMware CEO Diane Greene). But if they’re the ones reaching out to EMC, instead of the other way around, it could create new opportunities for both companies.