VCE has set its sights on becoming a multi-billion dollar cloud venture by expanding into new geographies, while banging the drum for standardised kit.
VCE is the tri-vendor coalition formed by VMware, Cisco and EMC in 2009, when all three agreed to pool their resources to create the private cloud-enabling Vblock packages.
The company claims to have an annualised run rate of more than $1bn, and since its new CEO Praveen Akkiraju took over the company reins in July 2012, has been looking to better this.
How do we scale up to become a multi-billion dollar operation and become a much bigger business?
Speaking to IT Pro, Bob Wambach, senior director of marketing at VCE, explained: "Since Praven was brought in, [the focus has been on] how do we scale up to become a multi-billion dollar operation and become a much bigger business," he said.
"[The CEO's focus] is on building out the geographic presence, as we have a strong presence in EMEA, our factories are in Cork, and Europe has been doing very well for us. We're now targeting expansion in the Asia Pacific region."
John Lockyer, technology consultants' director at VCE, said the company is seeing a lot of demand for Vblocks in VDI and SAP deployments, as well as within vertical markets, such as healthcare, financial services and the public sector.
Lockyer attributes this to the work VCE has done to standardise the production of Vblocks, in a bid to make them quicker and easier for end users to deploy.
"The standardisation piece has become the cornerstone of everything we do, and is something that sets VCE apart from the other [players in the] converged infrastructure [market]," he said.
"What most people are looking for are ways to avoid risk, get to market more quickly and compete against the competition, and the standardisation approach is a critical part of that, because...it makes [project outcomes] more predictable."
The company's Vblock packages are sold via the firm's network of service and solution providers, which include the likes of Hampshire-based firm Skyscape Cloud Services.
The firm announced this week that it had been enlisted by the Government through its G-Cloud procurement framework - to host its new GOV.UK website using Vblock technology.
The site was launched last October to provide UK citizens with access to information about Government services, and replaces the DirectGov and Business Link web portals.
According to Government figures, the move should save taxpayers around 70 million a year.
Speaking to IT Pro, Skyscape CEO Phil Dawson, said some of these projected savings could be directly attributed to the Vblock technology.
"What was the fundamental change Toyota bought to the automotive industry? It was design and automation. And, we're doing the same with the cloud," said Dawson.
"We're designing the cloud services to be assured upfront, and then we're automating it through converged infratrucutre and orchestration technologies...and that gives you to scale.
"Scale gives you the lower price point, so the Government can save millions of pounds and be more agile," he added.
