As VMworld 2015 came to a close today, John Furrier, Dave Vellante, Stu Miniman and Brian Gracely of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, went around the table to discuss the important takeaways from VMworld 2015.

Rumors, intrigue and no answers

Much of the conversation centered on the future of VMware, Inc. and the storage industry in general. The conference began with anticipation of an announcement that never came. There was much speculation about the fate of VMware at the hands of Elliot Management, but the show closed leaving the industry still guessing.

The panel voiced many opinions regarding the Federation vs. standalone issue. Who is buying who? Who will lead? Rumors popped up about leaks involving reports from tech blog Re/code and talk of a “tiger team” comprised of the company elite looking at the customer consumption of the Federation. Overall, there was a great deal of behind-the-scenes gossip, but at the end of the day, VMware’s future is just a mysterious today as it was on Day 1 of the show.

The good, the bad and the non-committed

Vellante remarked that VMware is strong and although it is fighting battles on many fronts, it is a winning company. He believes that scale is the linchpin of the company’s future. Gracely and Miniman both feel that the company still needs to put all the pieces together. They both failed to see a commitment on the part of VMware to invest in scale. Gracely said, “They keep saying here’s our market and there is huge opportunity, but they need to articulate it better.”

Industry outlook

Furrier considers this a huge opportunity for startups. Vellante wondered if the industry really needed another storage company. (His answer was yes.) Miniman believes that there were good innovations unveiled this week, and Gracely sees the industry starting to take baby steps in the area of DevOps.

Furrier closed the show with these two thoughts:

Re VMware: “VMware was flexing its muscles. The show proved this is a proud company going to the next level, no matter who is running it.”

Re the industry: In reference to VMware CIO Bask Iyer’s analogy involving surfers, cloud and mobile, he said, “Ye,s there is another wave coming, but someone has to clean the beach, then surf.”

Watch the full interview below and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2015.

Photo by SiliconANGLE