VMware made a surprising addition this week when it purchased online presentation vendor SlideRocket. VMware known mostly for its virtual machine technology has decided to move into end-user cloud services as well, and this is a step towards that.

Writing in The Console, the VMware Executive Blog, Chief Technology Officer Steve Herrod articulated this new vision. Herrod said that VMware is not just about the data center. "The cloud is about much more than just making the IT department's life easier. End-users deserve to reap the benefits of the cloud as well, and 'your cloud' is focused on delivering these to both IT and end-users in a very personalized way."

To that end, VMware purchased SlideRocket, an online business presentation program built from the ground up as a cloud application. Herrod also points out that other than email, business presentations are the most popular type of content, so in that context it made sense for VMware to choose them.

Herrod wrote of the purchase: "SlideRocket's focus on improving the process of building, delivering, and sharing presentations is a testament to the potential of cloud computing to change how business users work, providing them with technology that makes them happier, engaged and more productive."

With Sliderocket, VMware gets more than a presentation tool, it also gets one that brings social networking and collaboration to the table providing the company with a powerful centerpiece for its end-user focus. 

According to Eric Savetz on Forbes, SlideRocket boasts more than 200,000 customers encompassing 300,000 users.

The news comes on the heels of a purchase of another consumer service, online storage vendor Mozy from EMC earlier this month and the purchase of online messaging tool Zimbra in January.

For more information:
- see the VMware press release
- see Steve Harrod's blog post

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