Virtualisation and cloud infrastructure provider, VMware, is set to embark on an aggressive investment plan in the EMEA region.
This was revealed by Chris Norton, regional director for southern Africa at VMware, addressing the press during the VMware Forum, in Midrand, yesterday.
According to Norton, VMware has witnessed continuous growth in southern Africa over the past five years.
“We have seen a 40% increase in the workforce and now we have over 1 000 partners in the region,” he pointed out. “We are also now operating in more than 30 countries.”
He noted that the company will be focusing more on the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market. “The SME market is an important sector in the region; it is going to be the battleground of the future.”
He added that SMEs are investing substantially in virtualisation, with this continuing to be an IT spend priority.
“According to new research, the acceleration of virtualisation adoption will see twice as many SMEs become more than 80% virtualised by 2014, as they look to drive efficiencies and embrace a move towards cloud computing,” Norton said.
He added that the research, conducted by Canalys among 350 channel partners serving SMEs across EMEA, found that of SMEs that have adopted virtualisation, 48% have virtualised the basic IT infrastructure of their businesses.
“Over the next two years, however, 75% of SMEs are expected to expand their virtualisation programmes to include business-critical applications and more. In fact, channel partners predict that 38% of these companies will have more than 80% of their businesses virtualised, as they move towards IT as a service, up from 20% of companies today.”
In order to grow its market share in EMEA, Norton said VMware will be “evangelising” its products and helping businesses to understand the advantages of virtualisation and cloud computing.
“We also want to bring worldwide expertise to the market, for example advisory services,” said Norton.
To promote the SME market, Norton also revealed that VMware is launching a competition across the EMEA region, giving SMEs the opportunity to 'Think Big' for their business.
Entrants must explain, in no more than 200 words, how they would use VMware virtualisation and cloud technology to move beyond cost savings and help transform their businesses.
The 'Thinking Big For Your Business' competition will award one SME $20 000 worth of VMware software and services.
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