New Horizons Blog and Resources

VMware is best known for its pioneering efforts in server virtualization, which it brought to the fore of enterprise IT throughout the 2000s. Building on that technical base, the company has since become a central player in every important sector of modern business technology, from network virtualization (through NSX, a billion-dollar business it created from its acquisition of Nicira Networks) to private cloud (via the vCloud Air product lines). VMware has also made inroads in mobile device management (also known as enterprise mobility management), primarily through AirWatch.

What can you gain from mastering VMware AirWatch? The platform is one of the most widely used solutions for mobile device management (also known as enterprise mobility management) and has been a reliable source of revenue for VMware even as the company restructures and de-emphasizes some age-old products such as Fusion and Workstation.

Citrix, like Cisco and VMware, is one of the main players in network virtualization. Its primary solutions in this realm - XenApp and XenDesktop - are designed like the rest of the company's tools to deliver a top-notch experience for remote workers. But unlike other Citrix products such as the videoconferencing platform GoToMeeting (which Citrix spun off into a separate business in 2015), both of these offerings are designed with IT admins, rather than end users, in mind.

Network virtualization is rapidly becoming a priority for service providers such as mobile operators and home ISPs. According to a report from SNS Research, their investments in software-defined networking and network functions virtualization - the two building blocks of network virtualization - are expected to expand at a 46 percent compound annual growth rate between 2016 and 2020. These additional dollars will go toward upgrades to content delivery networks, customer premise equipment and other key infrastructures.

Hard disk drives have been staples of the computing experience for decades. For example, the sound of an HDD whirring into action was a hallmark of using a PC in the 1990s and 2000s. However, in recent years HDDs have lost ground to the solid-state drives that are standard in mobile devices and increasingly common in laptops, too. Virtualized storage has also made inroads into IT departments and data centers: