VMworld 2013 Edward Snowden's revelations about the extent of the online snoopery in the US are good for business, say VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and COO Carl Eschenbach.

Speaking today at VMWorld 2013 the, pair were asked if Snowden's leaks are changing customers' attitudes to public clouds. Both answered in the affirmative.

“We have clearly seen sensitivity has increased since Snowden's disclosure,” Gelsinger said, adding that he's now feeling a bit smug about VMware's plan to offer hybrid cloud services deeply integrated with on-premises IT, an arrangement under which users can keep confidential data in their own data centres.

“This re-enforces that our strategy is the right one,” he said. The strategy is playing particularly well outside the USA. “As we go to foreign countries it is critical infrastructure be on their soil,” he said.

Eschenbach concurred, saying “the US government is validation that users will leverage hybrid clouds. It is not if but when people take advantage of hybrid cloud.”

The pair's observations are doubtless self-serving. The Reg would expect nothing less from two senior execs speaking to a room full of media and analysts. It's also to be expected that a large, listed, entity would take the chance to profit from a security scare that hurts rivals.

Some may find such cynical actions distasteful, but the fact remains that the US has been shown to be a jurisdiction in which supposedly private data can be accessed by the government.

VMware's response to that situation is an expansion of the footprint for its own hybrid cloud, so customers can get cloudy and elastic without having to set metaphorical foot on US soil.

Yesterday Gelsinger announced a partnership with Savvis and hinted it would go beyond the company's Chicago and New York data centres. Today Gelsinger said he expects VMware will announce partners for vCloud Hybrid Service in Europe and Asia in 2014, but hopes to do so earlier if possible. ®

The author attended VMworld 2013 as a guest of VMware, which paid for his flights, accommodation and nourishment.