VMware accelerates expansion outside the datacenter in a $1.54 billion deal that might broaden the company’s End-User Computing portfolio.

Virtualization and cloud infrastructure vendor VMware on Wednesday announced an agreement to shop for mobile device management and mobile security vendor AirWatch for $1.54 billion.

AirWatch will bolster VMware’s End-User Computing (EUC) group, which was formed in 2010 with the Horizon desktop management product line. Last October, VMware acquired Desktone, which supplies a desktop-as-a-service virtualization platform for delivering Windows desktops and applications as a cloud service. With the AirWatch deal, VMware extends its management grasp to mobile devices.

“VMware’s vision for end-user computing have been to create a safe virtual workspace that permits end-users to… move from desktop, to laptop, to pill, to phone, to car,” stated Sanjay Poonen, executive VP  and general manager of the EUC group. Poonen previously headed up mobile strategy at SAP, and was named head of the EUC group last August.

[Want more in this vendor? Read VMware Datacenter Growth Removed from Over.]

VMWare is planning to offer AirWatch a high degree of independence. Once the deal is finished, that is expected to happen within the first quarter, employees will continue to report back to AirWatch founder and CEO John Marshall, who will, in turn, report back to Poonen. AirWatch’s co-founder and chairman, Alan Dabbiere, will oversee a brand new operating board on the way to report back to VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger.

“By joining a proven innovator like VMware, we’ve a chance to bring our leading-edge solutions to a fair broader set of shoppers and partners to aid them optimize for the mobile-cloud world,” said Dabbiere in a press release.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., AirWatch provides mobile device management, mobile application management, and mobile content management software to greater than 10,000 customers globally. Competitors range from MobileIron and Apperian to BoxTone, SAP Afaria, and the IBM MobileFirst Platform.

“We have got been predicting for a while the demise of the stand-alone mobile device management market as mobile has matured and is mainstream at nearly every enterprise,” wrote Jack Gold, principal analyst, J.Gold Associates, in an emailed research note at the deal.  “Recent acquisitions — IBM/Fibrelink, SAP/Sybase, Citrix/Zenprise, Oracle/Bitzer — have taken place and we don’t think market consolidation is finished yet.”

Of the greater than 2 billion smartphones and tablets now in use, greater than half touch corporate datacenters, consistent with AirWatch.

Doug Henschen is executive editor of InformationWeek, where he covers the intersection of enterprise applications with information management, business intelligence, big data, and analytics. He previously served as editor-in-chief of Intelligent Enterprise, editor-in-chief of Transform magazine, and executive editor at DM News.

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