VMware seeks to build on IPO buzz

"With a market value approaching $30 billion, VMware already is worth more than all but three publicly traded software makers — Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and SAP AG.
In January 2004, VMware was valued at $602 million — the price EMC Corp. paid for it then. Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC still holds an 87 percent stake in the company.
This week's conference, dubbed "VMworld," is another reminder of the company's rapid ascent. VMware's first customer conference in 2004 drew fewer than 1,500 people.
The central idea of WMware's visualization software is to turn a single computer into the equivalent of multiple machines, enabling companies to save money on the hardware and electricity needed to keep their data centers humming. Virtualization also is supposed to make it easier to recover information after computers crash."