Digital transformation on a par with the industrial revolution - VMware CEO

Pat Gelsinger says digital age is 'just as transformative' as industrial revolution

The digital transformation is as significant as the industrial revolution, according to VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger.

Gelsinger was delivering his keynote speech this morning on the first day of VMworld in Barcelona, an event expected to be attended by around 10,000 visitors from 96 countries.

Kicking off the expo, Gelsinger declared this "the greatest period of disruption in the history of IT".

"We think this period of time that we're in is very profound," he said.

"Since the industrial revolution begin in the 1700s in England everything has been about optimisation. Optimisation of the supply chain, of the delivery of resources, of manufacturing, of distribution systems.

"But today we believe that what we're doing in digital business is just as transformative, just as significant and as long lasting as the industrial revolution hundreds of years ago."

Gelsinger said that VMware expects cloud workloads to account for 50 per cent of all IT workloads globally by 2021, before quipping that his researchers had even narrowed the date down to June that year.

He added that VMware expects the public cloud alone to account for 50 per cent of global workloads by 2030.

Gelsinger also addressed the new VMware partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) which will see VMware's private cloud solutions available on AWS' public cloud.

He was joined on stage by AWS vice president Mike Clayville, who declared the initiative "a whole new revenue for partners".

"[The partnership is] two of earth's most innovative companies coming together to create another innovation for our customers. VMware - the leader in on-prem private cloud platforms - coming together with AWS, the leader in public cloud platform; creating a deeply integrated, complete hybrid architecture," he said.

"Even more exciting is the potential for our partners. "Every partner I talk to looks at this as a whole new revenue engine for them and a very exciting solution for their customers."