In kicking off the fourth edition of the VMworld conference, VMware has succeeded to draw in a crowd that makes most other technology conferences look pale by comparison.

The 11,000 people attending the conference this year demonstrate the enormous momentum behind virtualization. Shows like Linuxworld or WinHEC can only dream about such numbers.

Sure, XenSource, Virtual Iron and Parallels all do virtualization too, but VMware is the only vendor that seems to be having any credibility with the enterprise. And Microsoft will launch an underperforming alternative before August next year.

12 Sep 2007

Still, it is all too obvious that VMware needs some serious competition. VMware has seen its valuation skyrocket from $635m in 2003 to nearly $29bn today.

The firm however is still headed up by co-founder Diane Greene (pictured above). You hope that parent company EMC has hired an executive search firm that is looking for a chief executive with some actual presentation skills. One that can sell a room full of 11,000 people on a product, get through a demo without getting lost in his/her own product and is able to deliver a keynote that has some coherency.

If EMC is lacking such insights, a bad quarter and the resulting collapsing stock price would do the trick, or a serious competitor in the shape of a convicted monopolist who can use its installed base of Windows Server to push its product.

We hear that Carly Fiorino still hasn't landed a serious new gig.

Fiorina during better days, posing with Gwen Stefani back in 2005