By Angela Chen
VMware Inc. (VMW) will soon offer Google Cloud products as part
of its vCloud Air service, as the tech company continues to expand
its "hybrid cloud" business.
Palo-Alto based VMware is a pioneer in virtualization, a
technology that substitutes hardware with software and drives down
IT costs.
In March 2013, VMware said it would enter the cloud-computing
market and start running customer applications through vCloud Air,
a VMware-managed online cloud service. This hybrid cloud feature
was meant to target software customers who wanted both in-house
computing capability and external resources in the public cloud. It
was widely seen as a response to competitors like Amazon.com Inc.'s
(AMZN) Web Services.
Under the partnership, the first with an outside company, vCloud
Air customers can buy access to various Google Cloud services,
including cloud storage and BigQuery, a big-data analytics service.
Google, meanwhile, will have access to customers who favor the
hybrid-cloud approach.
The Google products are expected to be available in the first
half of the year, and pricing has not been yet.
The companies are also considering integrating the Google Cloud
platform to be part of VMware's Cloud Management Suite.
VMware is majority owned by EMC Corp (EMC), which has been
pressured by Elliott Management Corp. to spin off its remaining
stake in VMware and pursue other strategic opportunities. Earlier
Thursday, EMC posted a 12% rise in profits on strong demand for
data storage.
In its most recent quarter, VMware's profit fell slightly, as
double-digit revenue increase were offset by higher costs
associated with its stock-compensation program.
Shares of VMware have been down about 20% in the past 12 months
through Wednesday's close.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com
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