Dave Vellante and John Furrier sat down at VMworld 2013 in San Francisco with Sanjay Poonen, GM of End-User Computing Business, VMware, to discuss some of the hot topics at the moment as well as his recent departure from SAP to join VMware.

With a long and illustrious career in the business, Poonen must be trusted when he speculates that “the desktop, not only as a laptop but as the future of all mobile devices, is clearly going to move into the cloud.”

“In terms of technology, the infrastructure players need to comply with three core disciplines: Management Technology, Security and Virtualization. VMware had better assets than any other company to make that happen for end-user computing. The other aspect is related to the fact that VMware has always been a company that valued innovation. I wanted to be close to an innovating team – and also to shorten my commute,” joked Poonen, after explaining his motivation to join VMware in August.

“I felt that this was a company that had a tremendous brand. Five hundred thousand customers is always a good way to start. We are not creating a brand, we are building on that brand. [The data center] is moving to the cloud. We have a very clear strategy there, in cloud computing. That was very important to me.”

Sanjay Poonen dared say their competitors are not doing very much in terms of innovation at the moment in VDI so he seized the opportunity to become the innovator and gain market share.” Brimming with confidence, Poonen boasted: “I’m here to be the number one player in VDI.”

Make sure to watch the entire interview for more of Poonen’s tips for thriving in a very competitive market below:

Further discussing the company’s priorities, Poonen re-capped some of the best products and their current status: “With Mobile we’re still in the beginning stages, it’s a wide open market; but Desktop, Mobile and Social Computing represent at least three aspects that offer a lot of opportunity for end-user computing.”

Poonen considers himself lucky for having the opportunity to witness the transformation of SAP from a “system of record to a system of engagement.” He was very involved in the Analytic data of the Mobile business. A lot of what’s going on right now in the end-user computing is similar to those catalysts that generated systems of engagement.

“As I looked at the IT trends – Big Data, Mobile, Social, Cloud – there’s at least three or four where we have a big opportunity to play a big role. We had an opportunity to start with a clean slate in many areas and we have a fantastic team. From a revenue perspective, if the can double the revenue of this company, I’m hoping that a good part of it comes from end-user computing.”

Talking about competitors and market share, Poonen said that in the end-user computing area VMware is still number two, after Citrix, but he reckons VMware is the bigger brand. He sees it as an opportunity and his goal is to become number one. Poonen states: “You don’t have to obsess over competitors. You have to have the ambition to become number one, and competition keeps you honest. I am not focused on who is in the rear view mirror, but on where we should be going.”