Hailing it as its most significant update to its vSphere virtualization manager in a decade, VMware claimed it was all part of the companies move from a supplier of virtualisation software for on-premises data centres to an enabler of cloud migration and multicloud management.

The new software has lots of software under the bonnet based on several acquisitions the company made last year.

VMware was once seen as a prime potential victim of containers, which are portable and self-contained software environments bundled with applications, but it has responded by embracing the technology and has built the Kubernetes manager into its flagship platform.