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Why is VMware hiring data center gurus in JAPAN? It doesn't take a vExpert to work it out...

Virty giant plans Pacific assault on Microsoft and Amazon

Public clouds need to be global, so VMware is shortly going to open an Asian hub for its vCloud Hybrid Service, judging by job postings seen by The Register.

The virtualization company is preparing to announce a new data center location for its vCHS cloud, we understand, and it looks set to put down roots in Kyushu, Japan, based on an investigation by El Reg's San Francisco office.

One VMware job listing asks for a Senior Data Center Operations Manager based in Kyushu. Responsibilities include being "responsible for the day to day activities of the vCHS Operations team in Japan, which will include data center operations and support functions. In this role you will also be expected to manage processes and develop procedures used by vCHS Operations."

Another job is for a Data Center Engineer, also in Kyushu. This is more of a hands-on role that requires "datacenter operations responsibilities" such as "rack, stack and cable as needed for new and existing equipment in the data center" and to "respond to customer escalated issues, primarily by web interface, telephone and e-mail," among others.

VMware does not have any publicly disclosed vCHS data centers in Japan – or, for that matter, anywhere in Asia. It has five data centers in the US (Jersey City, NJ; Sterling, VA; Dallas, TX; Las Vegas, NV; and Santa Clara, CA) along with one in England (Slough).

By opening up a data center in Kyushu, VMware would give its public cloud service the type of global reach that is necessary from both an application performance point of view and, in some cases, data locality legislation.

If it does open a data center in Japan, it would be in good company: Yahoo Japan! subsidiary IDC Frontier has a data center campus on the island, and Japanese titan Fujitsu operates a data center in the area as well.

Major public clouds from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, by comparison, have already established significant presences in the Asia-Pacific region. Amazon has data centers in Sydney, Beijing, Tokyo, and Singapore, while Microsoft Azure has them in Singapore, Hong Kong, and in Japan at Saitama and Osaka. Google, meanwhile, has set up shop in Taiwan.

VMware announced its vCloud Hybrid Service at VMworld last year as the company sought to compete with Amazon. Though it operates its own vCHS data centers, the company also helps to enlist the channel and reseller community to help it sling its wares – the same strategy taken by HP with its recent Helion cloud.

When The Reg contacted VMware about its Kyushu-based job postings, a company spokesperson declined to comment on "rumors or speculation." ®

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