The CoE will be an extension to the VMware R&D center in Bangalore, which has been playing a research-and-development role that contributes to the company's entire portfolio of solutions. In addition, the center will showcase new and prototype VMware virtualization and cloud offerings, enabling customers to plan their IT architecture to best effect. VMware has already empowered more than 600 companies in India to reduce capital expenditure and operational costs, while improving levels of efficiency and flexibility.

After officiating at the CoE opening ceremony, Dr. Stephen Herrod, VMware's Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice-President of R&D, said, "At VMware, we are driven by a fundamental customer need - to do more with less. This approach has paved the way to eliciting an incredible response to our various offerings from businesses around the world. We are proud of our leadership in innovation and are dedicated to delivering increasingly transformative value to our customers on their journey to cloud technology. This proof-of-concept center is a step in that direction and will accelerate the delivery of quality, user-friendly and innovative offerings by VMware and our partners in India."

Working with partners, such as Cisco Systems, Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, NetApp and Wyse Technology, VMware engineers at the CoE will provide customers with first-hand experience of virtualization and cloud infrastructure. VMware India has also announced new initiatives around core products, VMware View, the VMware vCenter Product Family and VMware vSphere to drive adoption of business infrastructure virtualization in India. VMware vSphere and the VMware vCenter Product Family reduce the day-to-day costs of running IT, while enabling IT resources and budgets to be shifted from tactical maintenance to strategic projects that will create more value for a business.