VMware last week continued its push into the cloud computing market with updates to its vCloud initiative and API, Virtual Data Center Operating System (VDC-OS), and more. So, how many of its customers does VMware expect to deploy internal "private" clouds? Answer: all of them.I had occasion to talk with VMware twice about its VMworld Europe announcements, first with CTO Stephen Herrod and later with VP of product marketing Bogomil Balkansky. The more they talked, the more it became clear to me that, from VMware's point of view, cloud computing isn't just an option that some leading-edge customers will deploy, but an evolution of virtualization that will eventually be adopted by all of its customers.

About 20 minutes into an interview with Balkansky, I asked: Are you saying that all companies will deploy private clouds? "Yes," he replied. "We do expect all companies to be leveraging at least some components of the VDC-OS in the future." VDC-OS is VMware's cloud operating environment.

Virtualization has gone through several phases, Balkansky says. The starting point was server consolidation. That was followed by an "intermediate phase," the one most companies are in now, in which virtualization technologies are used to increase the availability of IT resources and to create more flexible IT infrastructures. Internal clouds and "federated" or hybrid public-private clouds are the next step, promising efficiency, availability, and flexibility beyond what IT departments have already realized through their virtualization efforts, Balkansky says.

The terms "internal clouds" and "private clouds" are being used in different ways by different vendors, and it's not surprising to see VMware put the emphasis on virtualization. It will be interesting to see if VMware can rally industry support around its vCloud API (in beta release now) as a way of providing interoperability between internal VMware clouds and public cloud services.

Bottom line: If you're a VMware user and you thought that vCloud was interesting but not directly relevant to your company's IT operations, think again. According to VMware, a private cloud is in your future.