EMC and VMware launch cloud and big data Pivotal Initiative

published 5 December 2012

EMC and VMware are planning to pool their big data and cloud platform resources to create a new organisation called the Pivotal Initiative by the second quarter of next year.

The Initiative will be headed up by former VMware CEO Paul Maritz, who recently left the firm to take up the role of chief strategy officer at parent company EMC.

In a blog post on the EMC website, the company said the operational structure of the organisation is still to be determined.

Aligning these resources is the best way for the combined companies to benefit from this transformational period.

However, it is expected that "most of the employees and resources" working within EMC's Greenplum and Pivotal Labs organisations, as well as VMware's vFabric, Cloud Foundry and Cetas offshoots, will join the Pivotal Initiative.

The company said the merger would allow both VMware and EMC to take advantage of the opportunities surrounding cloud, big data and mobile.

"We are experiencing a major change in the wide scale move to cloud computing, which includes both infrastructural transformation and transformation of how applications will be built and used on cloud, mobility and big data," said EMC and VMware in a joint statement.

"Aligning these resources is the best way for the combined companies to [make use of] this transformational period, and drive more quickly towards the rising opportunities."

The post also stresses the merger should not affect how people purchase products from the parties involved, although they will be working on a "common mission, roadmap and strategy," it stated.

"EMC has very successfully built and acquired an impressive collection of businesses and technologies geared towards...big data, analytics, cloud application services and...the software defined datacentre," said the post.

"The resulting Pivotal Initiative solutions will be optimised for the VMware vCloud Suite, helping to ensure that customers benefit from the best cloud architecture available, top to bottom," it added.

Both companies have advised that further details about the Pivotal Initiative will be made available during Q1 next year.

Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.