VMware (NYSE: VMW) CEO Pat Gelsinger, speaking at a forum for institutional investors, said that IT was but a “broker of services that drive speed of business and competitive advantage.” Now that’s an interesting 35,000-foot view of technology’s utility in the marketplace, don’t you think? What’s IT’s enabler? Virtualization software, of course.

In outlining the virtualization vendor’s three top priorities going forward–the software-defined datacenter, expanding its hybrid cloud offerings and the multi-device era–Gelsinger articulated VMware’s larger strategy to leverage virtualization software to solve technology challenges.

“VMware’s vision is to empower people and organizations by radically simplifying IT through virtualization software,” said Gelsinger. “Our customers are looking to us to help them solve some of the toughest challenges in IT in simple and elegant ways thereby delivering new levels of efficiency, control and agility. To do this, we will continue to introduce new innovations and offerings that will empower IT as a broker of services that drive speed of business and competitive advantage.”

As for the software-defined data center…VMware plans to merge its vCloud Networking and Security product line with the Nicira Network Virtualization Platform (NVP) into a single product family called VMware NSX. The technology will work across VMware and non-VMware hypervisors and cloud management systems and any underlying networking hardware, providing an open framework to integrate networking and security services. VMware will launch the new line in the second half of 2013.

As for the hybrid cloud, VMware said it will launch a new business unit dedicated to hybrid cloud services, naming Bill Fathers, the former Savvis president, as general manager and senior vice president. VMware said there will be a play for its partners with the new initiative, which it is calling the vCloud Hybrid Service.

About empowering the multi-device era (how VMWare refers to BYOD), Gelsinger showcased the vendor’s newly-released Horizon Suite aimed at managing multiple devices in a mobile workspace, including the associated data, apps and desktops. Boiled down, the Horizon Suite is VMware’s entry into mobile application management. It includes updated versions of the vendor’s Mirage and View products bundled together with Horizon Workspace, a new application that enables IT managers to allocate data, applications or desktops to end users or groups instead of their devices.