VMware has whistled up outside support for its newfangled vCloud Initiative, collecting upwards of 100 partners such as BT, Rackspace and Verizon Business, it said, for the push to deliver enterprise-class cloud computing by federating compute capacity on demand between virtual data centers and cloud service providers in support of new and existing application loads.

VMware says these partners are supposed to help companies of all sizes tap compute capacity inside and outside their firewalls – how they want, when they want, and as much as they want – to ensure quality of service for any application they want to run, internally or as a service.

The move implies that VMware won’t be launching a cloud of its own.

The vision revolves around VMware’s new Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS) and a set of so-called Cloud vServices that will provide the APIs and technologies underpinning VMware clouds.

According to a canned statement attributed to VMware CEO Paul Maritz, “Until now, businesses have faced too high a hurdle to realize the benefits of cloud computing, including wholesale disruptive infrastructure and application changes. The VMware vCloud Initiative brings together industry innovators to deliver enterprise-class cloud computing for any customer and any application. Whether businesses want to expand their internal IT infrastructure into an internal cloud model or leverage off-premise compute capacity, the VMware platform would give them the flexibility and assurance to dial up and dial down the IT resources they need, when they need them, to run their businesses with high efficiency and agility.”

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