VMware’s recent plans to acquire Zimbra are major news for the virtualization market, as this acquisition strengthens its position versus Google and Microsoft in the growing multi-billion dollar cloud computing market. VMware’s Chief Operating Officer Tod Nielsen stated to eWeek last week that "it's going to come down to us and Microsoft."  Nielsen indicated that the Zimbra acquisition is just a start.  He stated, "This is a first step of many we will take on a journey to offer a complete set of business services to our customers."  Cloud computing is fundamental to the architectural shift that is taking place.

Scott Gode, VP of Azaeleos in Seattle stated that as VMware incorporates Zimbra as "part of a unified and seamless cloud platform, Microsoft might want to sit up and take notice."  He also stated that, "This acquisition signals to me for VMware that their gloves are fully off against Microsoft."   According Gary Thome, chief architect at Infrastructure and Blades at HP, it is important for an organization to go beyond a silo model and look at both the total business model impact and technology impact to build a successful comprehensive cloud model.   The human element must be examined along with the technical elements.

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