VMware LLC is an American cloud computing and virtualization technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, U.S.[2] On November 22, 2023, Broadcom acquired VMware in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at $69 billion,[3] with the End-User Computing division of VMware then sold to KKR and rebranded to Omnissa. VMware was the first commercially successful company to virtualize the x86 architecture.[4]
VMware's desktop software runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS. VMware ESXi, its enterprise software hypervisor, is an operating system[5] that runs on server hardware.[6]
History
Early history
Technical background
Virtualizing the x86 architecture was widely considered impractical in the late 1990s. Unlike the IBM System/370 mainframe architecture, which had supported virtualization since the 1960s, the x86 instruction set contained seventeen instructions that did not meet the Popek and Goldberg requirements for classical virtualization, behaving differently in privileged and unprivileged modes without generating traps that a virtual machine monitor could intercept.[7]
VMware's technical approach grew out of the Disco research project at Stanford University, led by Mendel Rosenblum, which had virtualized the MIPS architecture for large ccNUMA multiprocessors in the mid-1990s.[7] The founders' key insight was that x86 could be virtualized by combining direct execution of
Current products
VMware's most notable products are its hypervisors. VMware became well known for its first type 2 hypervisor known as VMware Workstation. This product has since evolved into two additional hypervisor product lines: VMware's type 1 hypervisors running directly on hardware (ESX/ESXi) and its discontinued hosted type 2 hypervisors (GSX).
VMware software provides a completely virtualized set of hardware to the guest operating system.[134] VMware software virtualizes the hardware for a video adapter, a network adapter, and hard disk adapters. The host provides pass-through drivers for guest USB, serial, and parallel devices. In this way, VMware virtual machines become highly portable between computers, because every host looks nearly identical to the guest. In practice, a System administrator can pause operations on a virtual machine guest, move or copy that guest to another physical computer, and there resume execution exactly at the point of suspension. Alternatively, for enterprise servers, a feature called vMotion allows the migration of operational guest virtual machines between similar but separate hardware hosts sharing the same storage[135] (or, with vMotion Storage, separate storage can be used, too). Each of these transitions is completely transparent to any users on the virtual machine at the time it is being migrated.
VMware's products predate the
Former products
Desktop software
- VMware Workstation Player (discontinued)[160] was freeware for non-commercial use, without requiring a license, and available for commercial use with permission. It is similar to VMware Workstation, with some features not available, including support for UEFI Secure Boot, snapshots, encrypted virtual machines, and some advanced features.[161] While no longer available for purchase, it is still updated and bundled with the now-freeware VMware Workstation Pro.
Server software
- VMware Server was a free-of-charge product intended to use on a headless server. It is discontinued after the release of VMware Workstation 8.0.
Cloud management software
Incidents
Beginning in January 2022, hackers infiltrated servers using the Log4Shell vulnerability at organizations who failed to implement available patches released by VMware according to PCMag.[163] ZDNET reported in March 2022 that hackers utilized Log4Shell on some customers' VMware servers to install backdoors and for cryptocurrency mining.[164] In May 2022, Bleeping Computer reported that the Lazarus Group cybercrime group, which is possibly linked to North Korea, was actively using Log4Shell "to inject backdoors that fetch information-stealing payloads on VMware Horizon servers", including VMware Horizon.[165]
CVE-2025-22230 is a vulnerability in VMWare Tools versions for Microsoft Windows. CVE-2025-22230 is an authentication-bypass vulnerability which, alongside other vulnerabilities, can permit a compromised virtual machine to perform virtual machine escape. CVE-2025-22230 has a
See also
- Comparison of platform virtualization software
- Hardware virtualization
- Hypervisor
- VMware VMFS
External links
References
- VMWare, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, March 28, 2023, retrieved March 28, 2023^
- Gartner Says Worldwide Server Virtualization Market Is Reaching Its Peak Gartner, May 12, 2016^
- Mariko Oi. Chipmaker Broadcom completes $69bn deal to buy VMware