Cisco and EMC, together with VMware, on Wednesday introduced the Virtual Computing Environment coalition, an unprecedented collaboration of three information technology (IT) industry leaders. The coalition has been created to accelerate customers' ability to increase business agility through greater IT infrastructure flexibility, and lower IT, energy and real estate costs through pervasive data center virtualization and a transition to private cloud infrastructures. Cisco, EMC and VMware have worked closely over the past year on a shared vision for the future of enterprise IT infrastructure - private cloud computing. A private cloud is a virtual IT infrastructure that is securely controlled and operated solely for one organization. It can be managed either by that organization or a third party, and it can exist on or off premises or in combination. Private cloud computing offers the controls and security of today's data center with the agility required for business innovation at substantially lower costs. Worldwide spending on data center technology infrastructure and services exceeds $350 billion1 annually, according to McKinsey estimates, with half of that spent on capital expenses (products) and half on operating expenses. An estimated 70 percent or more of those costs are expended to maintain existing infrastructures, leaving 30 percent or less for new technology initiatives.
