The COO of VMware explains the 3 things that will create 'a massive tsunami of opportunity' for the tech giant in 2020

• VMware COO Sanjay Poonen sat down with Business Insider at the World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss the three areas where he says the software giant expects to see "a massive tsunami of opportunity" this year.
• Poonen said he sees VMware playing a critical role in key cloud trends related to cybersecurity, cloud applications and the ongoing cloud migration, which he and many experts expect to accelerate in the coming years.
• VMware's technology helped make it a major player in cloud computing, and a valued partner of the cloud giants, Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
• "There is going to be a fair amount of workload that is moved to the cloud," he told Business Insider. "So this whole idea of migration, cloud migrations, and we are at the epicenter of that because we've been a very significant player.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

VMware has a commanding presence in the cloud that Chief Operating Officer Sanjay Poonen expects to become even more formidable in 2020.

"We have two or three areas that are going to be big focuses for us that I think are massive tsunamis of opportunity," he told Business Insider at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Poonen said he sees VMware playing a critical role in key cloud trends related to cybersecurity, cloud applications and the ongoing cloud migration which he and many experts expect to accelerate in the coming years.

"There is going to be a fair amount of workload that is moved to the cloud," he said. "So this whole idea of migration, cloud migrations, and we are at the epicenter of that because we've been a very significant player.

VMware emerged as a major player in enterprise tech as a pioneer of virtualization, software that allowed businesses to tap disparate computer systems as one network, using that capacity based on their needs.

The technology became even more powerful with the rise of the cloud, which allowed businesses to set up networks on web-based platforms run by the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google. VMware is now a key partner of the three cloud giants.

Poonen also expects VMware to focus on an important segment of the cloud market is also expected to continue growing: cloud applications.

"A significant part of the apps world is going to be modernized," he said, adding that VMware is poised to be a stronger player in this trend with its acquisition of Pivotal, which offers technology like Cloud Foundry that makes it easier for developers to manage and deploy applications.

Another cloud trend where VMware sees opportunity is the growing importance of cybersecurity. Poonen said VMware is also well positioned for this trend, especially with its recent acquisition of Carbon Black, which uses big data analytics to detect malicious behavior and attacks.

"We really rolled out our security vision," Poonen said. "It's been fabulously resonating...That industry is ripe for shake-up. We have a billion dollar security business and the acquisition that we have done are really going to feed into that."

VMware is strengthening its position in the cloud at a time when there's heightened scrutiny on the most dominant player in the space, Amazon Web Services. The tech giant, which is one of VMware's major partners in the cloud, has been accused of locking in customers, being unfair to partners and trying to stifle competition.

Amazon has denied these accusations, and Poonen said that is now how he or VMware view the company.

"They have been a delightful partner to work with," he said. "We have not seen that. I mean, competition is good and there's competition in that space that's growing. I think it's always good for competition to exist. But we've not witnessed that. They have been, like us, very focused on the customer."

Got a tip about VMware or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at bpimentel@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @benpimentel or send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.