As VMworld 2013 opens in San Francisco this morning, VMware dominates the virtualization vertical. But the big question that it needs to answer over the next three days is: How will it maintain that dominance, and where does it go from here?

VMware’s central place in the industry is built on its technical superiority to its competition, and in particular second-place hypervisor Hyper-V. Today its technology is stable and provides most of the features users need, while Hyper-V is rated “good enough” by its users. And that is the problem VMware faces.

In every product life cycle, development reaches a point where the technology becomes mature. At that point, the different products rapidly lose any important differentiation, and price becomes the major factor in purchasing decisions, unless the a vendor can find some further direction of development that adds real value for users. This is where “feature creep” sets in. It is where Microsoft began adding page layout features to Word to convince corporate users that they needed to next version.

VMware certainly isn’t quite there yet, but it is getting close. The question then is: Where does it go next? Certainly software-led storage and networking are still immature, but will integration with those sister technologies be sufficient to sell the upgrade after next? Or will VMware start adding higher level features to turn its technology into a cloud computing platform? Or will it start expanding its portfolio with new products surrounding its core hypervisor? With Microsoft snapping at its heals and giving its hypervisor away, what will VMware need to justify its licensing price two or three years from now?

We can be sure that Pat Gelsinger, who is nobody’s fool, and his senior management are giving serious thought to exactly this question and are mapping out the technical direction and business strategy for the company, and users should be alert to statements and hints that they may make about that future direction.

SiliconAngle.TV will feature interviews with key decision makers at VMware, third-party vendors who play into the VMware ecosystem, and major users who may have their own lists of features and design improvements they would like to see in the next version. Over the next three days SiliconAngle CEO John Furrier, Wikibon Chief Analyst Dave Vellante, and the Wikibon analyst team will draw out the details of VMware’s direction for the next year and beyond in interviews and commentary direct from TheCUBE on the show floor.