VMware set for a good year in Malaysia, thanks to WorkSpace One

  • Managed to sign up 10 customers for its software-defined networking solutions
  • Newly-launched WorkSpace one seeing good growth traction

VMware set for a good year in Malaysia, thanks to WorkSpace One

VIRTUALISATION giant VMware Inc has all the reasons to be optimistic on its outlook in Malaysia, as many of its new products and solutions are showing positive traction.

"We had a great year last year (2016), and I believe that it will continue to be a good year this year," said VMware Malaysia's country manager Alex Loh (pic above)  in an interview with Digital News Asia in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Loh's optimism is mainly driven by the traction it is witnessing in terms of the demand of its new solutions. Among the solutions include its WorkSpace One solution.

"We have launched WorkSpace One last year. As it is a very new in the market, we invested on creating the awareness, organising workshops, and others. These efforts are starting to show dividend, as we are seeing growing interest in WorkSpace One lately," said Loh.

Another product that Loh is confident about is its network virtualisation solutions.

"Last year  we started to see a lot of people embarking on network virtualisation solutions. We had about 10 companies signing up.

"It was a tremendous success," said Loh, who revealed that in 2015, the company had about one customer signed up for the solution.

 

Demand driven by decentralisation of IT

Loh explained that the growing demand for its solutions is mainly driven by the decentralisation of enterprise IT. 

In the past, the IT is the sole decision maker when comes to purchasing applications, IT hardware and software. For example, when an organisation's sales department needs a certain applications or tools to ease their workflow, they would need to send their requests to IT, and IT (if it doesn't have the applications) will need to start sourcing for the apps.

While such process will allow the IT to ensure its IT systems and infrastructure is not compromised (in terms of its security), it may not be the most time efficient.

Today, the same sales department, as well as other departments, can "bypass" IT simply by getting the applications from the web/ cloud via software-as-a-service model.  

"The changing market landscapes are causing organisations to innovate faster than before. The change in pace is a result of changing demands by different departments, with IT department no longer being the sole decision maker in technology purchases.

"While this allow the various departments to operate more effectively as their needs are met, the company's IT security is potentially compromised as there is no standard policy and guidelines, or adherence, for proper implementation," said Loh. 

 

Growing demand for WorkSpace One

With the view of the growing trend of decentralisation, VMware unveiled its OneWork Space solution last year. The solution essentially allows IT to better manage various devices in one platform.

In the past, the IT would need a set of tools to manage desktops and laptops, and a separate set of tools to manage smartphones and tablets. 

With the WorkSpace One, the organisation can have 3,000 devices - with a mixture of iPhones, laptops, Android devices - and these can be managed the same way.

IT will have a better control on the software and applications that are downloaded on each devices, and at the same time, users can get access to various tools (such as Salesforce.com) via the platform. 

 

Increasing appetite for new technology

Malaysian enterprises, like most Asian enterprises, tend to be slightly more conservative when comes to adopting new technology -- as they want to see more success stories before jumping onto the bandwagon. 

Such mindset is understandable, as cost to move to a new technology can be high sometimes, and can be a costly affair if the transition did not go as smooth. 

However, Loh said that increasing number of companies are now more willing to try on new technology and solutions, as they want to have more competitive advantage against their peers.

"In fact, there is one large conglomerate in Malaysia is having a very open mindset about the cloud technology, and is putting its core application onto the cloud," said Loh, who cannot reveal the conglomerate's identity due to non-disclosure agreement.

 

Game plan this year

Over the years, VMware has built a solid foundation with its virtualisation solution. 

"Today, I believe most enterprises are our customers. So, our goal now is to get these enterprises to use more of our products and solutions," said Loh.

He added that the company will also be looking at growing the commercial space -- the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

"I see that there's a lot of areas that can be improved. In the enterprise market, we penetrated to most of them. So, the idea now is to sell deep into the existing enterprises. We also need to look at improving in the commercial area.

"Another big area of focus for us this year will be the public sector," said Loh. 

 

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