Gelsinger: Half of IT 100 will disappear

VMware CEO says Dell-EMC deal part of 'tectonic shift' that will see over 50 per cent of IT top 100 vanish

VMware chief executive Pat Gelsinger (pictured) has delivered a stark warning to the IT industry, claiming the Dell-EMC deal is part of a wave of change that will see "50-plus per cent of the IT 100 disappear".

Speaking on day two of this year's VMworld in Barcelona, Gelsinger said the advantages of the old players are decreasing and the IT industry must evolve with changing technology trends.

"A study by the University of Washington says that 40 per cent of the S&P 500 will not exist in 10 years' time: merged, extinct, changed," he said. "My prediction for this in the IT industry will be even more severe.

"50-plus per cent of the IT 100 will disappear. The announcement on Monday of EMC and Dell is just the next step that has fallen in this regard. Companies will merge, there will be change, there will be upstarts that come along and the implications for us as an industry are enormous. We too must be moving more rapidly to understand and embrace these trends. The benefits of incumbency are declining."

Gelsinger added that IT companies must take risks to survive and, "inaction becomes the greatest risk that businesses face today".

He said the Dell deal for EMC is a "historic industry-shaping event".

"Tectonic shifts are under way, and the Dell-EMC merger is just a piece of that," he added.

In speech littered with sweeping references to the pace of change in IT and business, Gelsinger highlighted the Edward Snowden revelations as the most important event of recent years.

"Love him or hate him, this guy [Snowden] changed the face of IT on a global basis," he said. "The 2013 disclosure by Snowden, I believe, is the most significant change in the technology landscape this decade."

He said this event has meant companies are pushing towards local clouds.

"When I am in Germany, France, China, everyone is very clear: they are not going to have a single cloud environment. It's not going to be an uber cloud with a global basis. It needs to be local-grown governed environments."