Once the internet made a spark in the tech world, the IT industry started brimming with profits. It is since the mid-1990s that so many new companies have been established in the tech market and almost all of them have become business tycoons today.
Even the telecommunication industry who sold hardware products, today with the help of AI and ML are creating advanced technologies and software. Terminologies such as cloud computing, fog computing, artificial intelligence and many more have become very common these days. In this tech-driven world, it has shown the highest potential of development which leads to the positive growth curve for establishing a career in this field. VMware is one such company that mainly focuses on cloud computing, developing advanced software and services accordingly. The company was founded in Palo Alto, California by five tech enthusiasts namely Diane Green, Edouard Bugnion, Scott Devine, Mendel Rosenblum and Edward Wang. Diane Green was made the CEO of the company and by the end of the year, the company had only 20 employees.
The Founders
Diane Green after receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering went to pursue her Master’s in Naval Architecture. She is an MIT graduate who received her second Master’s degree in Computer Science. Before founding VMware, Green worked in several companies like Tandem Computers, Silicon Graphics etc. Green was also a member of Google board of directors and she founded her start-up called Bebop which was acquired in 2015.
Edouard Bugnion is also an engineer who received his Bachelor’s from ETH Zurich followed by his Master’s degree from Stanford University. After co-founding VMware, he is also the founder of Nuova Systems, a company that was later acquired by Cisco. Bugnion is also an angel investor.
Scott Devine completed his B.S. from Cornell University followed by post-graduating from Stanford University. His main paradigm is operating systems and computer architecture and currently serves as Principal Engineer in VMware.
After completing his Bachelor’s from the University of Virginia, Mendel Rosenblum pursued his PhD from the University of California. Apart from co-founding VMware, Rosenblum is also a professor at the University of Stanford and resigned from VMware in 2008 after his wife, Diane Green was fired.
Edward Wang went to the University of California and holds two Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical and Computer Science Engineering. He then completed both his M.S. and PhD in Computer Science. Currently, he serves in VMware as Principal Engineer and he is also the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award from Usenix.
Founding Story
Though the company was founded in 1998, VMware launched itself officially at the DEMO Conference in February 1999. The company presented its first product, Workstation 1.0 in this conference which allowed the user to use more than one O.S from a single PC.
Shortly after the presentation of the product, the company received around $1 million in bookings for Workstation 1.0. In the year 2001, the company launched VMware GSX Serves and VMware ESX Server and made an entry into the server market. In 2003, the company went outside America for the first time with establishing its significant presence in Europe. The next year came up with the big news of the company’s acquisition by EMC Corporation (present-day DELL) for $635 million.
A new beginning
One year after the acquisition, the company opened offices in India and China as well. In this year the company reached 1,000 employees. In 2007, the company finally received its first IPO with $29 per share and the day ended with $51 per share. The company’s annual revenue turned to $1.9 billion at the end of 2008. In the same year, Diane Green was replaced by Paul Maritz as the new CEO of the company.
In 2009, the company received the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award in the category of software. By 2011, the company established R&D offices in China, India, Israel, United States and Bulgaria. This year the company’s total employees turned out to be 11,000 throughout the world.
The company’s success followed by acquiring Nicira in 2012 for $1.26 billion followed by making the largest acquisition of VMware in 2014, that is, AirWatch for $1.54 billion.
Present Day
In 2017, the company was listed third in America as one of the highest paying companies. The company’s latest acquisition was Carbon Black in October 2019 for $2.1 million. Currently, the company has 24,000 employees with Pat Gelsinger as the CEO. The products of the company include server software, cloud management software, networking products etc.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more