VMware CEO Paul Maritz

5. Big Moves: According to Maritz, 2010 was a “breakout year” for VMware. He noted that fiscal year revenue rose 41 percent, operating income roles 95 percent, U.S. revenues climbed 40 percent and international revenues jumped 43 percent. Moreover, VMware and partners have helped to create a $45 billion industry opportunity, Maritz added.

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4. Simple Message: VMware is about efficiency and agility. “We need to enable more agility while becoming more efficient,” said Maritz. Ultimately, it’s about enabling applications for businesses, he added. “Take existing applications on a journey, explain how those applications can be used more efficiently out of data centers and in the cloud.” Eventually, you’ll need to transform the applications themselves. “If you’re sitting on 40-year old code you can’t service the FaceBook generation,” he added.

3. SaaS Applications: “It’s similar to how PCs came into the environment in the 1980s,” said Maritz. “SaaS has arrived in spite of IT, not because of IT.”

2. Cloud Era Demands New Approach: Maritz called on partners to integrate and automate, shift to new applications and data paradigms, and focus on a device-independent, post-Windows World. “I’m always surprised to see the number of iPads in the first-class cabins of America,” said Maritz. It’s now two-thirds iPads and one-third laptops. “It’s the beginning of the end of that era.”

1. Tipping Point: In 2009, the number of applications deployed on virtualized servers overtook the number of applications deployed on physical hardware. Virtualization software is now managing the hardware interaction, Maritz asserted.

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