Tucci: Wish I could buy 10 VMwares

By Jennifer Mears, NetworkWorld.com, 02/28/06

If there was any thought that EMC might spin out VMware, Joe Tucci put that idea to rest at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium being held in Phoenix this week.

Tucci, sitting in an oversized armchair, fielded questions from Goldman Sachs analyst Laura Conigliaro as about 500 investors looked on. The president and CEO of EMC brushed off analyst suggestions that the storage powerhouse might divest itself of the x86 server virtualization company.

“VMware is a tremendous asset and to separate it from EMC would be a huge mistake,” he said. “It’s not going to happen.”

Tucci called server virtualization a “game changing” technology in data centers and said EMC is in a good position as VMware competitors such as XenSource and Microsoft emerge and the virtualization of x86 systems proliferates.

“We have a tremendous lead,” he says, adding that EMC plans to continue operating VMware “at arm’s length” to enable third parties such as HP and IBM to make use of the technology.

When Conigliaro asked Tucci to grade EMC’s handful of investments over the last few years, he gave them all – Documentum, Captiva, Legato, et al – glowing reviews, but added, “I wish I could buy 10 VMwares.” Going forward, though, Tucci said EMC will expand through partnerships, rather than through large acquisitions.

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