VMware India channel partners anticipate business climate favoring growth and expansion in 2012

Partners Expect Desktop Virtualization, Cloud Computing to be Top Technology Investment Priorities for Customers

Mumbai, India – April 09, 2012– VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced the findings of a survey conducted amongst channel partners across Asia Pacific, exploring business outlooks and technology priorities for 2012. The results show that a majority (63 percent) of channel partners surveyed in India expect business growth and expansion in 2012, compared to a regional average of 45 percent.

VMware channel partners in India report that their top three business priorities for 2012 are attracting new customers (76 percent), developing innovative offerings for current customers (67 percent) and business transformation and process improvements (46 percent). Fifty-seven percent of partners surveyed expect their customers’ IT budgets to increase in 2012. Partners also indicate that IT/ITeS (75 percent), banking and financial services (62 percent) and manufacturing (53 percent) are the three industry verticals most important to their businesses.

From a given list, partners surveyed believe the most important role of IT over the next 18 months will be to drive increased efficiency and productivity (32 percent). The majority of respondents identified cloud computing (84 percent) as one of the technology trends which will have the greatest impact on the business, followed by mobility (66 percent) and changing risk and security landscape (40 percent). More than half (51 percent) of the respondents said desktop virtualization is the top technology investment priority for customers, followed by cloud computing (48 percent) and virtualization for datacenter consolidation (48 percent).

“The survey results suggest that our partners anticipate growth and expansion in 2012 and that their customers’ investments in technology will enable them to advance on their journey to their cloud in the year ahead. We share this optimism as we see a new cloud economy emerge around our virtualization and cloud infrastructure, with our partners playing a central role in delivering these technologies,” said Ganesan Arumugam, director, Channels & Alliances, VMware India. “Our partner community has played a strategic role in educating and enabling customers on the immediate opportunity of the cloud.”

Supporting the trends toward cloud computing, respondents cited potential growth in 2012 in the areas of server and datacenter virtualization (97 percent), desktop virtualization (94 percent) and modernizing applications for the cloud (87 percent).

VMware shared these insights at the sidelines of its annual Partner Exchange on Tour 2012 that kicked off in Mumbai last week. The event saw more than 850 senior executives, sales professionals and technical experts from VMware’s community of solution providers, technology alliances, systems integrators, distributors and OEMs in the region come together to learn how to grow and transform their businesses for the cloud era with VMware. The tour will also cover Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Colombo.

The Partner Pulse Survey 2012 was conducted by VMware to understand the business outlook for the year ahead amongst channel partners. A total of 612 channel partners, including 93 from India, were surveyed across Asia-Pacific early in 2012. These business insights, along with VMware’s continued investment in its partner community will help to empower partners and customers to take advantage of the cloud computing business opportunity in 2012.

About VMware

VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 350,000 customers and 50,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com/in.

# # #

VMware is a registered trademark and/or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

Media Contacts:

Vivaan Gideon
VMware
+91 9972291924
vgideon@vmware.com

Sonali Pappur Sadanand
VOX Public Relations India
+91 9844489854
SonaliP.S@voxpr.co.in