As the No. 3 executive at Microsoft, Paul Maritz presided over the company’s Windows juggernaut, turned aside threats from Netscape and Sun Microsystems (JAVA), and pressed the company to embrace the Internet. Now, the longtime software executive is looking down Microsoft’s barrel from the other end, trying to help his new employer, VMware (VMW), triumph where past Microsoft competitors fell short. In his new role, Maritz is leading VMware’s charge in the mounting battle over cloud computing, the trend that’s leading companies to shift computing power away from their own machines and into the hands of tech powerhouses such as Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Amazon.com (AMZN), and Salesforce.com (CRM).
VMware’s Lofty Cloud Computing Goals
November 13, 2008