VMware: Success Story
Similar to many of the Silicon Valley-based tech giants, VMware was founded by a handful of Stanford and UC Berkeley grads back in 1998. The company started out with five employees in a 500-square foot office over a Palo Alto deli, and today is one of the biggest names in the virtualization and cloud industry, with 19,000 employees. VMware has grown to occupy 1.4 million square feet of office space within Stanford Research Park.
VMware’s transformative virtualization and infrastructure IT products and solutions are ubiquitous and have a global reach with more than 500,000 worldwide customers and 75,000 partners. VMware products and services are the common denominator for every Fortune 500 company.
In an industry that evolves at lightning speed, being located in the heart of Silicon Valley and close to Stanford University and UC Berkeley is a key to lasting success. Over the years, VMware has developed relationships and partnerships with Stanford University, from philanthropically supporting the construction of the new Stanford Hospital and expansion of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, to providing free software to Stanford students and faculty. VMware employs many Stanford graduates and works closely with the University in ongoing projects. Stanford has been credited for helping shape VMware’s culture and technology, and as a result, the company has created endowments to the University as a way to honor some of its top employees.
VMware has a culture that invests in the future
The virtualization of computing systems is not only good for business – it’s good for the environment by reducing energy consumption and infrastructure costs. In addition to being the leader in providing virtualization and cloud computing software, VMware has helped set the standard of corporate environmental stewardship through a rigorous recycling and composting program that diverts 94% of waste from the landfill.
VMware is more than a company; it’s a community. It empowers its employees to choose meaningful ways to connect with their work and their peers. It’s a company that believes in giving back to its communities, and in 2015, VMware employees volunteered more than 50,000 hours of service to charities around the world. It’s no surprise then that VMware was recognized as one of Fortune’s “100 Best Places to Work For.”