The opportunities available in the cloud and Big Data are the next generation model of technologies. Stopping by theCUBE with hosts John Furrier and Dave Vellante was VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger. This interview was packed full of good information, and if you didn’t make it to EMC World 2013 I highly recommend watching it in its entirety.

50 billion dollar market opportunity.

The new Big Analytical Data (BAD) market cap is at $50 billion, according to Gelsinger. And had you identified that market opportunity back in 2010, it looked quiet different. The early technologies around Big Data have now started to crystalize. The Consumer Internet companies that have seen real value over the last five years are the big winners and the largest contributors to what is now being seen as Big Data. The amount of data being poured into the pot is astounding, and dynamic infrastructures are quickly being scaled up to try and just understand the data. (Editors note: I won’t even try to include the imperativeness of real-time analyzing of this data in this post.)

The ‘Internet of Things’ (Industrial Internet) is one of the largest players in Big Data, and behemoths like GM are taking notice. With its $105 million investment in Pivotal, that is a Big Deal for #BigData. So where exactly does VMWare fit into this huge $50 billion market and how is it expanding its marketshare? One of the ways is as a cloud provider–the enterprise workload with operationalized software, its inside-out model, according to Gelsinger. Vellante stepped in and called VMWare an accelerant for its partners. VMWare becomes the accelerant, particularly as it goes global, with a key part of its strategy being its partners.

VMware makes house calls with Dr. No Lock-In

Enterprises are certainly building clouds today, they are just private clouds. Gelsinger explained that VMWare sees the role of IT becoming the service broker. IT’s responsibility will still be to guarantee SLAs and governance. It isn’t a radical jump, the hybrid cloud VMWare is wanting to enable will have the same networking, management tools, etc. The problem with the alternative, Shadow IT, is that it’s Dr. Lock-In (a theme at EMC World 2013). You’re still locked in a box, it’s just a new box. Gelsinger explained that VMWare sees the private cloud as a gateway, with no Dr. Lock-Ins.

Gelsinger on OpenStack

Furrier asked Gelsinger why he thought Open Stack was so successful.  He was quick to point out it hasn’t been successful on a deployments level but more in a “the–messaging-is-working” way. VMWare doesn’t see public clouds as compatible. OpenStack works because there is some governance but no lock-in. VMWare has two strategies in OpenStack:

1. Build of a complete stack
2. Build out a component strategy, follow OpenStack APIs

He was quick to point out that from his direct feedback, CIO’s and architects are concerned about the lock-in, so VMWare is addressing those concerns directly. For those who are scared that VMWare is in OpenStack and will take it over? Gelsinger has this to say:

“I’m contributing code.“

VMWare is one of the largest contributors of code to OpenStack, and by admissions of Furrier and Vellante, playing well in the ecosystem. The cloud and Big Data are part of one giant ecosystem. I repeat, Big Data is one giant ecosystem. VMWare partners with some of its biggest competitors because it believes that it has to be an open platform, and the best technologies will win. Software-defined data centers are a very big deal, as they are typically very hardware heavy. By putting lightweight interfaces on top of them, open is the new multi-vendor.

A bit of parting knowledge from Gelsinger: IT actual wants only a few vendors, and will pick trusted partners for more than one vertical. VMWare has four brands, four companies with independent focuses from each other. VMWare’s goal is to evolve the IT as a service offering. “We are the software infrastructure of the future,” says Gelsinger. If you can believe you can achieve right?