by
Colin Steele
As VMware moves away from non-essential product lines,
some of its end user computing products may not make the cut.
VMware reported record fourth quarter earnings yesterday
but also announced 900 job cuts and a "planned exit of certain
lines of business," according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The company said it will focus on three core technology areas: the
software-defined data center, hybrid cloud computing and end
user computing (EUC).
VMware's EUC portfolio includes desktop and
application virtualization, productivity and collaboration applications and Horizon
Suite, a still-in-development mobile management offering. Not all of these
products will live on, however; the company has already targeted one -- SlideRocket,
a cloud-based PowerPoint competitor -- for elimination.
SlideRocket
was part of VMware's application acquisition spree in
2010-2011. The company also bought
Zimbra, an email and collaboration platform, and Socialcast,
a social collaboration provider, during that period. The deals were puzzling at
the time, and none of the products have really taken off since, leading to
speculation that VMware will abandon ship.
"I always wondered about
those businesses anyway," tweeted CA Technologies' Andi
Mann. "Very non-core, and distracting."
Nobody thinks VMware will get rid of View
or ThinApp, but what about its enterprise mobility management products? The
company has been talking mobile for years, but only one product, Horizon
Application Manager, is generally available. It would be easy to cut the cord
on the others: no angry customers to deal with, no discontinued products to
support, etc.
As Gartner analyst Chris Wolf pointed
out, however, mobile represents a market (albeit a tough one) where VMware can
grow new business.
"Workspace aggregation, Web, mobile are
highly competitive and also have a different buyer," he tweeted.
"Still I think VMware will fight."
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