Sometimes we don’t lose something because it stopped being important.
We lose it because the world around us became too busy.
Recently, somewhere in the maze of Cloud, Generative AI, Agentic AI, Kubernetes, GPUs, platforms and services, I suddenly remembered VMware.
And I realized something:
I had lost my love for VMware.
Not because VMware became unimportant.
Quite the opposite.
VMware was one of those technologies that made me feel that computing could be simple.
My journey in computing started much earlier—from IBM, punch cards and terminals.
I travelled through mainframes, PCs, client-server systems, enterprise applications, the Internet, virtualization, cloud and now AI.
And somewhere along that journey came VMware Workstation.
What a wonderful software baby toy it was!
One physical PC.
And suddenly…
Windows.
Linux.
Another operating system.
Another environment.
Multiple computers seemingly living inside one physical computer.
For me, that was magic.
The villain at that time was complexity.
Hardware was expensive. Software was tightly tied to hardware. One physical machine generally meant one computing environment.
VMware changed the conversation.
It created an abstraction between the physical machine and the operating system.
The hardware was still there.
But we didn’t have to think about it in the same way.
The little baby toy grew up.
Workstation led to ESX.
ESX led to enterprise virtualization.
Virtual machines became infrastructure.
vMotion, HA, DRS and vSphere made the data center increasingly software-defined.
VMware was no longer a toy.
It became a major force in enterprise computing.
And then came Cloud.
The technology world moved forward.
So did VMware.
And eventually VMware became part of Broadcom, with the portfolio now focused strongly on private and hybrid cloud and, increasingly, private AI infrastructure. VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 and VMware AI Factory show just how far that journey has travelled.
But here is the thought that brought me back to VMware.
The villain has not disappeared.
Complexity has simply changed its costume.
Yesterday:
Hardware + Operating Systems + Servers
Today:
Cloud + Kubernetes + Containers + APIs + GPUs + AI Models + Agents + Security + Orchestration
We have more computing power than ever.
We also have more complexity than ever.
And perhaps that is VMware’s greatest lesson.
Technology does not always defeat complexity by removing it.
Sometimes it defeats complexity by creating a better abstraction above it.
That was VMware’s magic.
One computer could behave like many.
The physical data center could behave like software.
And perhaps today’s AI infrastructure is waiting for its own new abstractions.
So, yes…
I lost VMware somewhere in the maze.
But I haven’t lost my appreciation for it.
It is still sleeping somewhere in my memory—
a wonderful software baby toy that taught me that a computer doesn’t always have to be what it physically appears to be.
From punch cards to cloud.
From VMware to AI.
What a journey.
And perhaps the next VMware is already being born somewhere.
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