At the current rate that VMware Inc. is buying companies, the 21-year-old virtualization and cloud computing software provider might need to add another hall for its upcoming VMworld gathering in San Francisco, set to begin on Monday, Aug. 26, just to accommodate the increased headcount.

On Wednesday, VMware announced that it would acquire Intrinsic, a serverless computing security startup. The acquisition followed the news barely five days prior that VMware would Veriflow Systems Inc., another startup focused on security through network verification technology. And today, the company announced it’s acquiring cybersecurity company Carbon Black and Pivotal Software Inc. for several billion dollars.

These most recent acquisitions represent the 13th and 14th companies acquired by VMware over the past 20 months. That’s more than the firm purchased in the preceding five years, and 2019 is not done yet.

What’s going on here? It would be tempting to attribute the buying spree to an interest in strengthening network threat detection and cloud defenses given the company’s acquisitions this month and the additional purchases of E8 Security Inc. and CloudCoreo Inc. in 2018.

However, a closer look at VMware’s shopping enthusiasm over the past two years offers a glimpse into a much more extensive strategy, one that blends the company’s search for value, with an interest in positioning itself squarely in an enterprise world that embraces application-driven containerization and a multicloud model.

Strengthening enterprise credibility

A hint of this can be found in a statement from Pat Gelsinger, chief executive officer of VMware, during an interview with SiliconANGLE in May to discuss the firm’s acquisition of applications solutions provider Bitnami.

“Being able to cross between open source [software] and enterprise credibility — that’s exactly where VMware sees and wants to be able to position ourselves,” Gelsinger said.

A quest for enterprise credibility in 2019 demands serious attention to application management, containers, and tools for a multicloud cloud world. VMware’s recent acquisitions cover the bases for all three.

The addition of Bitnami in May and Avi Networks Inc. in June addressed a need to offer application management to VMware’s users. Bitnami accelerates application delivery for multicloud and Kubernetes functions. Avi Networks provides an automated, software-defined application delivery controller.

VMware has also reached out for companies that can bolster its capabilities in the container space. In addition to Bitnami’s Kubernetes support, the purchase of Heptio Inc. last fall gave VMware increased depth for its PKS packaged Kubernetes suite.

“There’s now a group that you could call ‘container-ware’ rather than VMware,” said Stu Miniman, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio and Wikibon analyst. “There’s a lot going on in the container space that might sit on a virtual machine and it might not.”

Move to reacquire Pivotal

Behind the strategic moves to add container and application support to its portfolio through acquisitions, VMware has also demonstrated a significant interest in the open-source world. This was reaffirmed by today’s news that the company will reacquire Pivotal Software Inc., a business that it spun off in 2012.

Pivotal commercialized the open-source Cloud Foundry platform, used by many Fortune 500 companies today. Yet, since going public in April 2018, Pivotal’s stock has floundered, which has made its potential purchase by VMware a relative bargain.

In the area of multicloud tools, VMware has diligently followed a strategy to enhance its offerings through key acquisitions. A significant element it added one year ago was CloudHealth Technologies, a multicloud management platform that supports Amazon Web Services Inc., Microsoft Corp.’s Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

An especially noteworthy element of the CloudHealth acquisition was the estimated 3,000 customers it brought into the VMware fold. These included Yelp Inc., Pinterest Inc. and Dow Jones & Co.

VMware has further strengthened its multicloud credibility with the addition of CloudVelox, provider of workload mobility solutions between data centers and public clouds, in February of last year. And, to address data mobility at the edge, VMware purchased AetherPal earlier this year, a provider of remote support solutions for endpoint devices and internet of things.

Adding to AI

While VMware has used its acquisition strategy to check off the boxes for a variety of enterprise information-technology needs, the company has not been known for a depth of expertise in artificial intelligence or deep learning. So it pulled out the checkbook again.

Over the space of seven days in July, VMware acquired BitFusion.io Inc., provider of technology to support AI workloads in the cloud or on-premises, and Uhana Inc., developer of an AI engine for applications and mobile networks.

“It’s not surprising to see VMware make some acquisitions in this space, because it’s not something where they had a lot of depth in their bench,” Miniman said. “With many of these acquisitions, you get the software and you get the team, and that can help you ramp up much faster in the AI and analytics space.”

That combination of team and product points to another key element behind VMware’s acquisition strategy: value. Aside from the purchase of Nicira Inc. for $1.2 billion in 2012 and AirWatch for $1.54 billion in 2014, most of the company’s acquisitions, until the combined $4.8 billion it shelled out for two firms on Thursday, have historically been well under the $1-billion mark.

Search for value

Value and success in its acquisition strategy are hallmarks that VMware’s top executive doesn’t hesitate to point out when given the opportunity. In an interview with SiliconANGLE prior to last year’s VMworld, Gelsinger was quick to note that his company’s success rate on acquisitions was close to 90%, compared with an industry average of 50%.

He also described the skepticism that greeted his purchase of Nicira, a small startup that provided the basis to what became VMware’s highly successful NSX software offering.

“People said at the time, ‘$1.2 billion for less than $10 million of revenue?’” Gelsinger recalled. “Now everyone says we’re brilliant. Four years of hard work on core technology and boom, we’re unquestionably the leader in software-defined networking now as the result of making a pretty bold bet at the time.”

Is there another Nicira among the crop of new additions to the VMware universe? The most noteworthy acquisition has been Heptio Inc., which VMware purchased for $550 million late last year.

Heptio was a significant acquisition for two reasons. One, Kubernetes container orchestration has become the rage not merely in open-source computing, but within the enterprise IT world in general. Second, the Heptio purchase also gave VMware two of the three people who co-created Kubernetes — Joe Beda and Craig McLuckie — when it was a developmental project inside Google LLC in 2014.

VMware has scheduled numerous sessions on Kubernetes for its VMworld event this month, including at least one with McLuckie himself, a sign that the company’s half-a-billion-dollar bet is top of mind for many executives within the company.

“The Heptio group is front and center leading the charge for Kubernetes,” Miniman said. “VMware bought themselves some thought leadership when they bought Heptio.”

SiliconANGLE and theCUBE will be providing blanket coverage of VMworld here and on SiliconANGLE from San Francisco next week.

Photo: VMworld