Update November 30, 2015: this page is no longer actively updated, it is for historical reference only.
Technology can seem like it’s own language many times. VMware’s growing product set adds its own set of acronyms that can be confusing to the novice. I’ve created this dictionary of VMware Acronyms and their definitions as way to help out my clients and the VMware community. I attempt to update it regularly, with current acronyms at the top and deprecated ones below. Many thanks go out to my VMware colleagues and the VMware community for assisting with this dictionary.
Current
AV = App Volumes (previously called Cloud Volumes)
AW = AirWatch (VMware Acquisition 2014Q1)
BDE = Big Data Extensions (function of vSphere 5.5+)
CBRC = Content Based Read Cache (function of vSphere 5.0+)
CF = Pivotal Cloud Foundry
CMP = Cloud Management Platform
CNA = Cloud Native Applications
CTOA = CTO Ambassador
DA = Disaster Avoidance
DaaS = Desktop as a Service
DBaaS = Database as a Service
DCM = Deployment, Configuration, and Management engine (part of EVO)
DPM = Distributed Power Management (function of vSphere)
DRS = Distributed Resource Scheduler (function of vSphere)
DVS = Distributed Virtual Switch, officially known as VDS (function of vSphere)
EOA = End of Availability (VMware Support Policy)
ESX = Elastic Sky X (bare metal Hypervisor with linux based Service Console available on each host)
ESXi = Elastic Sky X Integrated (thin bare metal Hypervisor without a Service Console which added most of the size to the software distribution)
EUC = End User Computing (VMware Business Unit focused on end user facing solutions)
EVC = Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (function of vSphere)
EVDC = Elastic Virtual Data Center (function of vCD)
EVO = Evolutionary
EVO:RAIL = EVO HCIA Solution from VMware (NAA, rail as in mounting into data center racks…)
EVO:SDDC = EVO data center scale HCI solution from VMware (previously know as EVO:RACK)
FT = Fault Tolerance (function of vSphere)
GOS = Guest Operating System
HA = High Availability (function of vSphere)
HCI = Hyper-Converged Infrastructure
HCIA = Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Appliance (part of EVO)
HOL = VMware Hands On Labs
IaaS = Infrastructure as a Service
IODM = I/O Device Management (function of vSphere)
JVM = Java Virtual Machine
jeVM = Just Enough Virtual Machine
MDM = Mobile Device Management
MHM = vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager (add on to vCenter Server)
MSBU = Management Suites Business Unit
NAA = Not an Acronym
NIOC = Network I/O Control (function of vSphere)
NSX – (VMW platform for Network Virtualization consisting of Nicira and vCNS components)
NSX-MH = NSX for Multi-Hypervisors
NSX-V = NSX for vSphere
NVP = Network Virtualization Platform (from Nicira Acquisition)
OVDC = Organization Virtual Data Center (configuration aspect of VCD)
P2V = Physical to Virtual (process of converting physical server to Virtual Machine)
PaaS = Platform as a Service
PCF = Pivotal Cloud Foundry
PDL = Permanent Device Loss (aspect of HA, function of vSphere)
PVDC = Provider Virtual Data Center (configuration aspect of VCD)
QEP = Qualified EVO:RAIL Partners
RCA = Root Cause Analysis
SaaS = Software as a Service
SC = Socialcast
SDDC = Software Defined Data Center
SDRS = Storage Distributed Resource Scheduling (function of vSphere)
SM = vCenter Service Manager (previously: EMC Ionix Service Manager, InfraEnterprise) (prior abbreviation for vCenter Stage Manager which became integrated with LM4 and was depreciated)
SIOC = Storage I/O Control (function of vSphere)
SRM = vCenter Site Recovery Manager
SR-IOV = Single Root I/O Virtualization (feature of vSphere)
TPS = Transparent Page Sharing (feature of vSphere)
V2V = Virtual to Virtual (process of converting one Virtual Machine to another Virtual Machine format)
V4V = VCOPS for View (refers to the View specific support within VCOPS)
VAAI = vStorage API for Array Integration (feature of vSphere)
VAMI = Virtual Appliance Management Interface (component of VMware virtual appliance)
VC = generally used to reference Virtual Center or vCenter Server (eventual vCenter became a family name for all management products)
VCA = vCloud Air (rebranding of vCloud Hybrid Services)
VCAT = vCloud Architecture Toolkit
VCBM = vCloud Business Manager
VCD = vCloud Director (aka, Project Redwood)
VCGS = vCloud Government Services (FedRAMP compliant hybrid cloud)
VCIM = vCloud Integration Manager
VCLI = vSphere Command Line Interface (feature of vSphere)
VCS = vCloud Suite
VCSN = vCloud Security and Networking (prior to VS5.1 was the vShield family of products)
VCVA = vCenter Virtual Appliance (Web GUI, Linux Virtual Appliance based Virtual Center Server)
VDC = Virtual Data Center (configuration aspect of VCD)
VDP = vSphere Data Protection
VDR = VMware Data Recovery (feature of vSphere)
VDS = vNetwork Distributed Switch or unofficially Virtual Distributed Switch (function of vSphere)
VFRC = vSphere Flash Read Cache (feature of vSphere 5.5+)
VIN = vCenter Infrastructure Navigator
VIO = VMware Integrated OpenStack
VIP = VMware Infrastructure Planner
VLiFT = VMware Ladies in Field Technology (internal VMware program)
VMA = vSphere Management Assistant
VMFS = Virtual Machine File System
VMRC = VMware Remote Console
VMS = vFabric Management Service
VMW = VMware (NYSE stock symbol)
VR = vSphere Replicator
VRA = vRealize Automation (previously VCAC)
VRB = vRealize Business (previously ITBM)
VRMS = vSphere Replication Management Server (component of SRM)
VRO = vRealize Orchestration (previously VCO)
VROps = vRealize Operations (previously VCOPS)
VS = vSphere, packaging referring to vCenter Server and ESXi Hypervisor (ESXi 4.0+)
VSAN = Virtual Storage Area Network
VSOM = vSphere with Operations Management
VSX = VMware Solution Exchange
VVD = VMware Validated Design
VUM = vCenter Update Manager
VVOL = Virtual VOLumes (announced feature of vSphere)
Deprecated
AD | AppDir = Application Director (integrated into vRealize Automation (VRA) as application services 2014Q3)
ADM = vCenter Application Discover Manager (previously: EMC Ionix Application Discovery Manager, nLayers Application Discovery Manager; became VIN)
APM = vFabric Application Performance Manager (functionality merged into vCenter Hyperic)
ASM = vCenter Application Stack Manager (previously: EMC Ionix Application Stack Manager, FastScale Application Stack Manager)
CAM = vCenter Configuration Analytics Manager (previously: EMC Ionix Configuration Analytics Manager, Configuresoft Configuration Intelligence Analytics)
CB | CBM = vCenter Chargeback Manager (functionality merged into IT Business Management (ITBM))
CIS = Cloud Infrastructure Suite
CIQ | CapIQ = vCenter Capacity IQ (functionality integrated into vCenter Operations Manager)
CV = Cloud Volumes (VMware Acquisition 2014Q3; rebranded to App Volumes 2014Q4)
DD = vFabric Data Director (divested to Pivotal in 2013)
EM4J = Elastic Memory for Java (divested to Pivotal in 2013)
ERS = Enterprise Ready Server (replaced by vFabric WebServer)
GFE = vFabric GemFire Enterprise (divested to Pivotal in 2013)
GSX = Ground Swell X or Ground Storm X (precursor hypervisor to ESX)
ITBM = IT Business Management (rebranded to vRealize Business (VRB) 2014Q3)
LCM = vCenter LifeCycle Manager
LM = vCenter Lab Manager (product functionality replaced by vCloud Director)
MVP = VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform
S2 = SpringSource (divested to Pivotal in 2013)
SD / vCSD = vCloud Service Director (originally know as Project Redwood, Service Director was a short lived name before product was launched as vCloud Director.)
SI = Spring Integration (divested to Pivotal in 2013)
SQLF = SQLFire (divested to Pivotal in 2013; part of vFabric)
STS = SpringSource Tool Suite (divested to Pivotal in 2013)
TCS = vFabric tcServer (divested to Pivotal in 2013)
VADM = vCenter Application Discovery Manager (functionality merged into vCenter Infrastructure Navigator (VIN))
VCAC = vCloud Automation Center (rebranded to vRealize Automation (VRA) 2014Q3; pronounced “v-cake”; previously: DynamicOps Cloud Automation Center)
VCB = VMware Consolidate Backup (replaced with VDR in vSphere 5.1)
VCHS = vCloud Hybrid Service (rebranded vCloud Air 2014Q3; pronounced “v-chess”; Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud operated by VMware, built on VMware SDDC stack)
VCM = vCenter Configuration Manager (rebranded vRealize Configuration Manager (VRCM) 2014Q3; previously: EMC Ionix Server Configuration Manager, Configuresoft Enterprise Configuration Manager). Sometimes I get suggestions it should stand for vCenter Compliance Manager, but it doesn’t.
VCO = vCenter Orchestrator (rebranded vRealize Orchestration (VRO) 2014Q3)
VCOPS | vC Ops = vCenter Operations (rebranded vRealize Operations (VROps) 2014Q3; eventually became a family name for all operational management tools, VCOPS Manager is new name for dashboard analytics tool)
VI = Virtual Infrastructure (ESX 3.x)
VIEE = Virtual Infrastructure Enterprise Edition (ESX 3.x)
VPG = vFabric Postgres (divested to Pivotal in 2013)
VRM = vCloud Request Manager
VSA = vSphere Storage Appliance (EOL after release of VSAN)
VSM = VMware Service Manager
Note: we could debate the marketing syntax of the letter V but I think the VMware Product Marketing team has already done that for us…thus many of the acronyms that start or contain the letter V are many times written with a lower case v to be fully marketing correct. Full understanding of the syntax rules around this requires a yet to be created 5 day training course or a minimum of 3 years working with VMware! 🙂
I defaulted to the uppercase V for this dictionary because most acronyms are capitalized and over the years I have found that it just takes too darn long to always lowercase part of the acronym and uppercase the rest. My dictionary, my choice…no offense to any Product Marketing folks from VMware.