Intel Corporation made a significant investment in VMware this week through its global investment arm - Intel Capital. The company announced that it will invest $218.5 million in the virtualization giant, giving them approximately 2.5 percent of VMware's total outstanding common stock. The deal also gives Intel a seat on the VMware board of directors. However as of yet, an Intel executive has yet to be named for Intel Corporation made a significant investment in VMware this week through its global investment arm – Intel Capital. The company announced that it will invest $218.5 million in the virtualization giant, giving them approximately 2.5 percent of VMware’s total outstanding common stock.The deal also gives Intel a seat on the VMware board of directors. However as of yet, an Intel executive has yet to be named for this position. The investment is intended to foster strengthened inter-company collaboration towards accelerating VMware virtualization product adoption on Intel architecture and reinforcing the value of virtualization technology for customers. In addition, VMware and Intel have entered into a routine and customary collaboration partnering agreement that expresses their intent to continue to expand their cooperative efforts around joint development, marketing and industry initiatives. This isn’t Intel’s first time at the virtualization investment rodeo. About two years ago, the company invested in SWsoft, the second largest virtualization player behind VMware. This is clearly another indication of the importance that virtualization is playing in IT.Beyond its financial investment, Intel is also placing considerable technological muscle behind virtualization technology, including building it into their own processors. When I spoke with SWsoft about this recent investment announcement, I asked them what Intel’s investment in their own company meant to them. SWsoft’s CEO Serguei Beloussov said, “As a virtualization company, having Intel’s support is invaluable.” He continued, “The monetary investment we received from them in 2005 was great, but of the active working relationship we’ve shared is of higher value. Virtualization is all about getting more from your computing power, so collaborating with the company providing much of the technology at the heart of this makes perfect sense. For us, working with Intel means we are able to make our products more effective, and bring them to market quicker.” Software Development