VMware
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cloud computing, virtualization technologies |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Founder | Diane Greene, Mendel Rosenblum, Scott Devine, Ellen Wang, Edouard Bugnion |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Raghu Raghuram (CEO) |
| Products | VMware Workstation, VMware ESXi, VMware vCloud Hybrid Service (vCloud Air), Horizon desktop virtualization, Workspace ONE UEM device management |
Number of employees | >2800 layoffs mentioned (exact number not specified) |
| Parent | Broadcom Inc. |
| Website | www |
VMware LLC is a United States-based company specializing in cloud computing and virtualization technologies, with its main office located in Palo Alto, California. It holds the distinction of being the pioneering enterprise to successfully virtualize the x86 architecture for commercial use.
The company's desktop virtualization products are compatible with Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS. Its flagship enterprise hypervisor, VMware ESXi, operates as an OS directly on server hardware.
On November 22, 2023, Broadcom Inc. completed the acquisition of VMware through a cash-and-stock transaction valued at US$69 billion. Following this acquisition, VMware’s End-User Computing (EUC) segment was divested to KKR and rebranded as Omnissa.
Founding and Early Development
Established in 1998 by Diane Greene, Mendel Rosenblum, Scott Devine, Ellen Wang, and Edouard Bugnion, VMware’s inception involved Greene and Rosenblum, who were graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley. Bugnion acted as CTO until 2005 before founding Nuova Systems (now integrated into Cisco). Initially operating discreetly with a team of around 20 employees, VMware made its public debut at the DEMO conference in February 1999.
The company launched its inaugural product, VMware Workstation, in May 1999. VMware expanded into the server virtualization market in 2001 with two products: VMware GSX Server (hosted) and VMware ESX Server (bare-metal). By 2003, the product suite grew to include VMware Virtual Center, vMotion, and Virtual Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) technology; 64-bit architecture support was introduced in 2004. These technological advances secured VMware’s leadership position in virtualization and fueled its market expansion.
EMC Acquisition and Subsequent Developments
On January 9, 2004, EMC (currently known as Dell EMC) purchased VMware for US$625 million in a cash transaction. Later, on August 14, 2007, EMC offered 15% of VMware’s shares to the public through an initial public offering, with shares initially priced at , closing at .
Due to underwhelming financial outcomes, on July 8, 2008, VMware’s board replaced co-founder and CEO Diane Greene with Paul Maritz, an ex-Microsoft executive heading EMC’s cloud computing division. Greene had been CEO since the company's founding. Shortly thereafter, on September 10, 2008, co-founder and chief scientist Mendel Rosenblum stepped down.
On September 16, 2008, VMware collaborated with Cisco Systems to create integrated virtualization products, including the Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch designed for VMware environments.
In April 2011, EMC handed over management of the Mozy backup service to VMware. That same month marked the launch of Cloud Foundry, an open-source platform-as-a-service supporting various programming languages and database systems to broaden VMware’s cloud capabilities.
Leadership transitioned again in August 2012 when Pat Gelsinger took over as CEO from Paul Maritz; Maritz moved to lead EMC’s strategy group before heading the Pivotal spin-off.
In March 2013, VMware spun off Pivotal Software, supported by General Electric, transferring many application development tools such as Spring and Cloud Foundry to this new company.
In May 2013, VMware introduced its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform named vCloud Hybrid Service (later rebranded as vCloud Air), headquartered in Palo Alto. This service aimed to extend existing vSphere setups with full compatibility and integrated networking features and launched early access programs in Las Vegas.
By September 2013 at VMworld San Francisco, vCloud Hybrid Service had expanded into several U.S. regions as well as a beta launch in the UK market. In October of that year, VMware further enhanced its cloud portfolio through the acquisition of Desktone.
Acquisition by Dell
In January 2016, prior to Dell's purchase of EMC, VMware announced a workforce reduction plan involving approximately 800 job cuts, which resulted in the exit of several senior executives. The entire U.S.-based development team responsible for VMware Workstation and Fusion was dissolved. Nevertheless, VMware proceeded with releasing maintenance update 12.1.1 in April 2016 and later enhanced Workstation 12.5 and Fusion 8.5 in September 2016 to ensure compatibility with Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016.
By April 2016, VMware’s president and COO Carl Eschenbach departed to join Sequoia Capital, while Martin Casado, General Manager of Networking and Security, moved to Andreessen Horowitz. Industry analysts highlighted cultural disparities among Dell, EMC, and VMware, anticipating staff turnover due to overlapping product lines and integration difficulties. CEO Pat Gelsinger publicly refuted speculation about his resignation.
In August 2016, VMware introduced the VMware Cloud Provider website as part of its strategy to broaden cloud service offerings. Following the Dell-EMC merger, the Mozy business unit was transferred to Dell in 2016. Then, during the second quarter of 2017, VMware divested its vCloud Air operation to the French cloud services firm OVH.
According to Glassdoor rankings in April 2017, VMware was positioned as the third highest-paying employer in the United States.
On January 13, 2021, CEO Pat Gelsinger announced his decision to leave VMware to assume the role of Intel’s CEO, returning to the company where he had a three-decade tenure and served as its inaugural CTO. Meanwhile, CFO Zane Rowe took on the role of interim CEO while a permanent successor was sought.
Spinoff from Dell
On April 15, 2021, Dell declared plans to divest its remaining stake in VMware by distributing shares directly to Dell shareholders, with both entities continuing as independent companies for a minimum of five years. This spinoff was finalized on November 1, 2021. Subsequently, on May 12, 2021, Raghu Raghuram was appointed as VMware’s new CEO. In May 2022, VMware formed a partnership with McLaren Racing aimed at strengthening its market presence.
Acquisition by Broadcom
Broadcom revealed on May 26, 2022, its intention to acquire VMware for roughly $61 billion in cash and stock combined with $8 billion in net debt. Following this transaction, Broadcom Software Group adopted the VMware brand name. In November 2022, the UK Competition and Markets Authority initiated an inquiry into potential antitrust issues related to the acquisition.
After overcoming regulatory obstacles—including conditions imposed by Chinese regulators mandating that VMware's server software maintain compatibility with third-party hardware—the deal closed on November 22, 2023. Post-acquisition restructuring by Broadcom divided VMware into four segments: VMware Cloud Foundation, Tanzu, Software-Defined Edge, and Application Networking and Security. This reorganization led to layoffs exceeding 2,800 employees. Additionally, Broadcom relocated its headquarters to VMware’s campus in Palo Alto.
On December 13, 2023, VMware ended sales of perpetual licenses such as vSphere and Cloud Foundation and transitioned exclusively to subscription-based offerings—a strategic initiative that had been planned prior to Broadcom’s takeover.
In February 2024, private equity firm KKR agreed to purchase Broadcom’s End-User Computing (EUC) division—formerly part of VMware—for approximately $4 billion. This unit was rebranded as Omnissa and includes products like Horizon desktop virtualization and Workspace ONE UEM device management.
On May 14, 2024, VMware made Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro available free for personal use; by November 2024 this offer expanded to include commercial users as well, thereby increasing accessibility and broadening market reach.
Acquisitions
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Asset Optimization Group | Focused on capacity planning solutions. | ||
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Akimbi Systems | Specialized in laboratory management technologies. | ||
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Propero | Virtual Desktop Infrastructure provider based in London. | ||
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Dunes Technologies | Virtualization management firm headquartered in Switzerland. | ||
| October 2007 | Sciant | Outsourcing services company located in Bulgaria. | ||
| January 2, 2008 | Foedus | Professional services organization from New Hampshire. | ||
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B-hive Networks | Israeli startup whose acquisition established VMware’s R&D center in Israel. | ||
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Trango Virtual Processors | Developer of ARM hypervisor technology based in Grenoble. | ||
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Blue Lane Technologies | Provider of virtual firewall solutions integrated into vCloud networking. | ||
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Tungsten Graphics | Specialists in 3D graphics driver development. | ||
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SpringSource | Originator of the Spring Java framework; enhanced VMware’s educational offerings; later became part of Pivotal Software after spin-off. | ||
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Zimbra (software) | Open source email platform acquired from Yahoo; divested in 2013. | ||
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GemStone Systems | Distributed in-memory database system; its Java product evolved into Apache Geode. | ||
| Jan 2011 | NeoAccel | Integrated into the NSX network virtualization solution. | ||
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SlideRocket | SaaS platform for business presentations; sold to ClearSlide in 2013. | ||
| Socialcast | Enterprise social networking and collaboration tool. |
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PacketMotion Startup focused on user activity monitoring; product discontinued by late 2012.
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Wanova Provider of intelligent desktop management solutions.
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DynamicOps Cloud management platform; rebranded as vRealize Automation and incorporated into VMware Aria Suite.
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Nicira Developer of network virtualization software, rebranded as VMware NSX; acquired for $1.2 billion.
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Virsto Software enhancing virtual storage performance.
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Desktone Provider of Desktop-as-a-Service solutions.
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AirWatch and Wandering WiFi Mobile device management and security platforms; acquired for $1.54 billion.
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ThirdSky ITIL and ITSM consulting services firm.
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CloudVolumes (formerly SnapVolumes) Real-time application delivery and virtualization for virtual desktop environments.
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Continuent Software specializing in database clustering and replication. MomentumSI Austin, Texas-based firm providing cloud migration and DevOps consulting services. Arkin Net Platform for application security and network optimization within vRealize Network Insight. Wavefront Cloud-native metrics and monitoring service, now part of VMware Tanzu Wavefront Observability. Apteligent Monitoring solution for mobile application performance. VeloCloud Networks Provider of software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) technology. CloudCoreo Solutions for cloud configuration management. CloudVelox Automation and orchestration software for hybrid cloud environments. E8 Security Software protecting employee devices from cyber threats. | Bracket Computing | Technology focused on security virtualization. | -
Litigation
In March 2015, the Software Freedom Conservancy supported legal action initiated by Christoph Hellwig in Hamburg against VMware, alleging copyright infringement concerning its ESXi product. Hellwig argued that ESXi constituted a derivative work of the GPLv2-licensed Linux kernel version 2.4, claiming VMware violated the GPLv2 terms by not releasing ESXi’s source code. VMware contested these allegations, maintaining that ESXi is not based on Linux and asserting compliance with GPLv2 through the publication of source code related to Linux device drivers utilized by ESXi.
The court dismissed the case in July 2016, after which Hellwig intended to file an appeal. However, the appeal was rejected in February 2019 due to procedural deficiencies related to the plaintiff’s responsibility for providing evidence.
In May 2023, VMware was mandated to pay $84.5 million following a ruling of patent infringement involving two patents held by the Canadian software firm Densify.
Current products
VMware’s core products revolve around its hypervisor technology, beginning with the innovative type 2 hypervisor VMware Workstation. This foundation branched into two primary categories: type 1 hypervisors operating directly on physical hardware (ESX/ESXi) and the now-obsolete hosted type 2 hypervisors (GSX).
The virtualization software from VMware emulates hardware components such as graphics adapters, network interfaces, and disk controllers, facilitating highly portable virtual machines that can be transferred seamlessly between hosts. System administrators have the ability to suspend a virtual machine on one host and resume it on another without disruption. For enterprise environments, VMware’s vMotion technology enables live migration of running virtual machines across compatible hosts sharing storage infrastructure, with vMotion Storage extending this capability to different storage arrays. These migrations occur without user-visible interruptions.
In contrast to many competitors, VMware’s hypervisors do not mandate CPUs with virtualization extensions but utilize them when present. For older processors lacking these features, VMware employs binary translation techniques to dynamically modify code segments that cannot execute natively, preserving high performance—often exceeding 80% of direct execution speed. VMware reports that its ESX Server experiences minimal performance degradation (between 0 and 6%) compared to native operation, underscoring its efficiency advantage in virtualization.
Desktop software
- VMware Workstation, introduced in 1999 as VMware’s inaugural product, allows multiple x86 or x86-64 operating systems to run concurrently on a single personal computer. Version 17.0 was released on November 17, 2022. Initially commercial software, it became available as freeware in December 2024.
- VMware Fusion provides equivalent virtualization capabilities for Intel and Apple Silicon Mac platforms and maintains full compatibility with VMware virtual machines. Like Workstation, it transitioned from paid software to freeware in December 2024.
Server software
- VMware ESXi is a high-performance enterprise "bare-metal" hypervisor installed directly on server hardware, offering superior efficiency compared to VMware Server by minimizing overhead. It works in conjunction with VMware vCenter to deliver advanced management functionality.
Cloud management software
- VMware vRealize Suite serves as a platform for managing hybrid cloud environments. VMware previously acquired vRealize Hyperic from SpringSource; however, support for this product ended in 2020.
- VMware Go is an online utility designed to facilitate the setup and configuration of VMware vSphere Hypervisor, catering to users regardless of their technical expertise.
- VMware Cloud Foundation offers an integrated software-defined data center (SDDC) solution that simplifies the deployment and management of private clouds.
- vSphere+ and vSAN+ enable hybrid cloud functionalities tailored for essential on-premises workloads, including IT disaster recovery and ransomware defense, improving operational workflows through centralized infrastructure oversight.
Application management
- VMware Workspace Portal functioned as a self-service application marketplace for managing workspace resources.
- PlateSpin delivered solutions focused on user provisioning.
Storage and availability
VMware’s offerings in storage and availability concentrate on two primary products:
- VMware vSAN is a software-defined storage solution embedded within the ESXi hypervisor, facilitating hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) deployment on standard x86 servers that meet Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) requirements. Initially released in March 2014 (version 5.5), its sixth iteration (6.6), launched in April 2017, introduced features such as native encryption for data at rest, local protection mechanisms for stretched clusters, analytics capabilities, and enhanced SSD performance. The subsequent version 6.7 was made available in April 2018.
- VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) automates the failover and failback processes of virtual machines between primary and secondary locations by leveraging policy-driven management, thereby strengthening disaster recovery strategies.
Networking and security products
- VMware NSX represents VMware’s network virtualization solution, positioned within its software-defined data center (SDDC) framework. Originating from the 2012 Nicira acquisition, NSX enables Software Defined Networking (SDN) by implementing consolidated Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies that regulate access to applications and data via a unified infrastructure, bolstering security across networks and systems.
Other products
- The VIX (Virtual Infrastructure eXtension) API facilitates automation of virtual environment management across VMware platforms including vSphere, Workstation, Player, and Fusion. It supports programming interfaces for languages such as C, Perl, Visual Basic, VBScript, and C#, enabling scripting and integration within enterprise virtualization workflows.
- Herald is a communication protocol developed by VMware designed to improve Bluetooth performance regarding reliability and range on mobile devices. Released as open-source software, Herald was incorporated into the Australian Government’s COVIDSafe application in December 2020 to enhance contact tracing effectiveness.
Desktop software
- VMware Workstation Player (now discontinued) was available free of charge for personal use and commercially with authorization. It did not include some advanced capabilities found in VMware Workstation, such as support for UEFI Secure Boot, snapshot functionality, or encrypted virtual machines.
Cloud management software
- VMware Horizon View, a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution, was included in the UEC division that was sold to KKR and subsequently rebranded as Omnissa.
Other products
- Workspace ONE UEM provided mobile users with secure access to applications and data. This product was also part of the UEC division divested to KKR and renamed Omnissa.
Incidents
Beginning in January 2022, attackers exploited the Log4Shell vulnerability on VMware servers lacking applied patches, resulting in unauthorized backdoor installations and cryptocurrency mining activities on client systems. The Lazarus Group, associated with North Korea, actively leveraged Log4Shell to deploy information-stealing backdoors on VMware Horizon servers.
CVE-2025-22230 represents an authentication bypass vulnerability within VMWare Tools for Microsoft Windows, potentially allowing escape from virtual machines. This security issue, assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8, was disclosed by Broadcom on March 25, 2025, affecting the security integrity of VMware’s Windows tools package.
See also
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