Increased demand for virtualization and cloud computing sees the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) become one of the fastest growing markets for cloud services

Dubai, UAE, May 7, 2013 - VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced significant growth in the Middle East and North Africa region, with a 50% increase to its local workforce and a new office, strategically located in Dubai Internet City, the largest ICT business park in the Middle East. The news coincides with today's VMware Forum event at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai, which has attracted more than 400 local customers and 200 partners in its second year.

VMware's expansion in the region follows increased public and private sector demand for cloud computing and virtualization solutions, as the local banking, government and telecom industries look to these technologies to control costs and deliver business growth. The region has seen significant interest from these sectors looking to extend their virtualization investments to create private clouds. In addition, according to Gartner, the Middle Eastern and North African public cloud services market will see strong growth in 2013 with spending for the overall market forecast to increase by approximately 24.5 percent from 2012.[1]

VMware's growth in the MENA region have been further supported by a 42% increase in its number of local partners as they take advantage of the expanding cloud computing market. In 2012 alone, more than 550 individuals were certified as VMware sales professionals and VMware technical sales professionals for infrastructure virtualization, management and end user computing, demonstrating that the local VMware-specific skillset continues to grow beyond core virtualization capabilities.

"A significant shift is taking place in the way enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa function, and improving business agility is now one of their top concerns," said Sam Tayan, regional director, VMware Middle East and North Africa. "VMware's operations in the MENA region continue to perform well and we expect growth to continue throughout 2013 as more customers begin to understand the financial and organizational advantages that virtualization and cloud computing bring."

There is acknowledgement that the opportunity this region presents is a significant one. According to Gartner, Middle East (ME) IT spending is projected to total $192.9 billion in 2013, a 5.5 percent increase from 2012.[2]

Bank AlBilad, one of Saudi Arabia's leading Shariah-based financial services providers, has recently completed the third phase of a major data center transformation project using the latest virtualization solutions from VMware. VMware is now the primary virtualization provider for the bank with plans to deploy VMware vCloud solutions to deliver even greater automation and efficiencies.

"Before deploying VMware solutions, Bank AlBilad was running 250 physical servers across two sites and the main data center occupancy had reached its capacity. We now have 750 virtual servers and 60% occupancy, which is a remarkable change, allowing us to be much more efficient as a business. Crucially, we now have access to a much more flexible and secure virtualized platform that provides us with room to expand without compromising our future storage infrastructure requirements," said Mr.Rashed AlOthman, CIO, Bank AlBilad.

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About VMware:
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2012 revenues of $4.61 billion, VMware has more than 500,000 customers and 55,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

VMware and VMware vCloud are registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective organizations. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

Contacts:
Natasha D'Souza
The Portsmouth Group
natasha.dsouza@theportsmouthgroup.com
Tel: +971 4 369 3575

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding expected growth in virtualization, cloud computing and enterprise computing markets in the Middle East and North Africa and VMware's expected growth in such locations. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in consumer or information technology spending; (iii) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors into the virtualization market, and new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors; (iv) our customers' ability to develop, and to transition to, new products and computing strategies such as cloud computing, desktop virtualization and the software defined data center; (v) the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology; (vi) rapid technological and market changes in virtualization software and platforms for cloud and desktop computing; (vii) our ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (viii) geopolitical events and stability; and (xiv) fluctuating currency exchange rates. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K that we may file from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

[1] MENA cloud services revenue forecast, Gartner, 11th February 2013

[2] Middle East IT spending forecast, Gartner, 5th March 2013

© Press Release 2013