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VMware said it has seen revenues grow 32% in 2011 to US$3.77bn following a range of successful releases focussed on cloud computing capabilities and increasing uptake of virtualization technology in Australia, Japan and China.

CFO Mark Peek, however, said the company is keeping a close eye on the “macroeconomic environment and the volatility we are observing in the world economy and individual sovereign nations”.

“Although we have not observed a slowdown in customer activity like we saw in late 2008 and throughout 2009, we are cautious about the potential for slower IT spending and remain concerned about the European markets,” Peek said.

Peek said while the company had invested heavily in growth throughout 2011, increasing R&D spend by 23% and its repurchasing US$650m of VMware stock, the company still realized net income of US$724m and operating income of US$735m.

The fourth quarter itself saw revenue grow by 27% year on year to US$1.06bn. This was the quarter VMware released three products focussed on automation – Vmware vCenter Operations, vFabric Application Management and IT Business Management. It also launched vCenter Protect Essentials Plus, a management system for SMBs, and Horizon Mobile for the mobile workspace along with some consumer-focussed updates.

VMware CEO Paul Maritz said investment will continue to be put into these products in the year ahead.

“In the dimension of cloud infrastructure, we continue to not only make fundamental enhancements in vSphere but are pushing to deliver a full cloud infrastructure suite, including management, disaster recovery and security, delivered via private or public clouds,” Maritz said.

“Customers now want more than just virtualization. They are looking for ways to become fundamentally more agile and efficient and transform their businesses.

“2012 will be the year when we expect our customers to accelerate beyond virtualization in significant numbers and start operating in a cloud-like manner.”

Peek said 2012 had been an “outstanding” year for VMware, with a record breaking fouth quarter for bookings, revenue, non-GAAP operating margin and free cash flow.

He said the company is, however, planning to pause its operating margin expansion in 2012 as it makes way for future investment in emerging markets and more product innovation.

“The investments we have made and will continue to make in our international market expansion are clearly paying off, and we will continue to invest in these markets in 2012,” Peek said.

“We expanded our international footprint and customer-facing capacity, particularly in the key markets of China, Japan, Eastern Europe, Russia and Latin America.

“We're building out a comprehensive cloud infrastructure suite for the private and public cloud, incorporating new approaches for application development, management and security.”

As for Q1 2012, Peek said VMware expects revenues to be within the range of $1,015bn to $1,04bn or year-over-year growth of between 20% and 23%.

“It will take us some time to ramp our investment spending in 2012, and as a result, we expect the Q1 operating margin to exceed the operating margin for the full year,” Peek said.