Pat Gelsinger kicks off VMworld Europe
CEO danced on the grave of vRAM while claiming a renewed commitment to its partners
VMware's head honcho renewed his commitment to partners in his opening keynote at the VMworld Europe event.
Pat Gelsinger (pictured), who took over from Paul Maritz in September, outlined a number of product enhancements, as well as emphasising the vendor's commitment to the "multi-cloud" world during his speech in Barcelona.
The series of product-based announcements included an updated vCloud Suite, which VMware claims is the "first solution to deliver the software-defined datacentre," as well as announcing the vCloud Automation centre 5.1, which it claims can help users govern the provision of its IT services better.
Gelsinger also reminded delegates of the decision to kill off the vRAM licence structure, which was announced at VMworld in the US in August.
He said that vRAM is now a "dirty four-letter word" which has been "struck out of the VMware dictionary", which was met with applause and cheering from the audience.
The chief executive also claimed that a "new environment for IT is emerging before our eyes", as he announced the vCloud Suite 5.1, which VMware claims is unmatched by its rivals.
He said: "[This] is first integrated vCloud Suite to deliver to the software-defined datacentre, and the first for the cloud infrastructure of today. It is unmatched in the marketplace... it is the complete offering in the market, with the highest performance and least latency."
Taking the stage after the chief executive, Dr Steve Herrord, chief technology officer, unveiled a promotion to its partners.
He said: [After vRAM], we wanted to make everything easier to consume. We are offering an important upgrade promotion, where if you are an enterprise customer, you can move to standard vCloud suite for free, enabling you to take advantage of the new tools to deliver the cloud model everyone is looking for."
The vendor gave further hints as to how recent acquisitions Nicira and DynamicOps will fit into the company, with Kit Colbert, a VMware engineer, outlining a new self-provisioning vCloud automation centre.
He explained that the automated provisioning means lengthy admin can be removed from the provisioning process.
Gelsinger added that the $1.26bn (£787m) Nicira acquisition shows that VMware is "committed to the multi-cloud world."
He concluded by renewing his commitment to VMware partners.
He said: "At Intel, there was a similar partner community, and I am deeply committed to delivering that sort of partner ecosystem with all of you."