Aiming high

zoom

VMWare has had a direct presence in the region since the second half of 2007. - Ghassan Darri, regional manager of VMWare, Middle East and North Africa.

Virtualisation major VMWare is planning on riding the launch of its new solutions to further success in the Middle East.

VMWare is setting itself new targets with its recent launches, as the company believes the future holds huge promise for it in the Middle East.

"At the recently held GITEX event, we launched three solutions intended for enterprises. The first is the Virtual Datacentre Operating System, the second is our vCloud initiative for enterprise-class cloud computing, and the vClient to expand virtual desktops," said Ghassan Darri, regional manager of VMWare, Middle East and North Africa.

Backed by these new solution offerings, Darri believes that VMWare will be able to enjoy significant growth in the region.

"VMWare has had a direct presence in the region since the second half of 2007. We now have an office in Dubai's Internet City, and we are growing in number to match the increase in business that we have seen in the region so far. Recent IDC studies suggest that local markets are growing at an average of 14% to 16%. We are trying to match that with our own investment and our own business development. I can say that we have seen quite substantial growth over the last few quarters," said Darri.

He added that the company will look to open additional offices across the region in keeping with its growth and to tap further into the region's potential.

"Hopefully, we will see huge announcements on other offices opening around the region. We will be next to our biggest markets, KSA, Egypt, Cyprus - those are some of the key markets we serve out here. The Dubai office currently covers the region," he said.

The company, which is planning on expanding its channel presence in the region as well, considers the predominant mindset that is oriented towards physical infrastructure as its biggest challenge in the region.

"There is always a cultural change exercise involved in virtualisation. It is not easy to go to an IT director of any enterprise and tell them that with virtualisation they can cut their servers down to 10% of what they have right now. It is a bit of a revolutionary concept. So there is a culture change in the process. This is one of the biggest challenges we face today. In the region, as we said, it is more of a change management exercise rather than anything else," said Darri.

According to him, VMWare is working to change this mindset with its own personnel, as well as its partners.

"We are first dedicating some of our marketing efforts in the region to recruiting additional partners. We have some global partners who have already embraced these initiatives, including companies like Cisco, who are the leaders in networking and datacentre technologies. Partner endorsement or acceptance of our solutions and initiatives is crucial, and we are extending a very warm welcome to the parties joining us in our efforts," stated Darri.

Darri, who believes that virtualisation can be beneficial to small and medium businesses, as much as large enterprises, said that it is only a matter of time before the technology is widely accepted in the region.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM