Virtual Instruments CEO: We're the bridge between physical and virtual

Infoworld - Every transition in computing spawns a new market in management tools -- the evolution to highly virtualized data centers and the cloud is no different. Virtual Instruments is squarely focused on delivering the next generation of management for, as its name implies, this new virtual world. But Virtual Instruments is different from other startups trying to tackle the virtual management challenge.

First, it's not a start-up at all. Rather, the company began as a 2008 spin-out from optical network company Finisar Corp. Second, Virtual Instruments sports one of the tech industry's most seasoned chief executive officers in John Thompson, former CEO of security vendor Symantec and, earlier, top executive at IBM. In this installment of the CEO Interview Series, Thompson spoke with InfoWorld Editor-in-Chief Eric Knorr and IDG Enterprise Chief Content Officer John Gallant about what makes Virtual Instruments different from existing management companies and why enterprises from PayPal to Unilever have committed to the company's technology.

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Q: What's the unique proposition behind Virtual Instruments and what's the value you deliver in this highly virtualized moving-to-cloud world?

A: What's very clear is that there is another transition under way in our industry. They happen about every eight to 10 years, and we're in the midst of yet another one -- one that, as I've said to many customers around the world, is inevitable. The physical, the virtual-to-cloud transition will happen, and what we're doing at Virtual Instruments is positioning our product platform to be the performance management platform for that environment.