But who?

Libcloud.  If VMware is all really all about freedom, it needs to work with other efforts equally invested in user freedom, and libcloud is all about provider flexibility.

Wait. What’s libcloud?

Libcloud aims to be a unified interface to cloud (infrastructure) providers. It’s company/provider agnostic, and speaks to provider API’s. It’s built for people who need to to talk to the cloud that they don’t own, like EC2, Slicehost, etc. (Yes, other projects have the same vision, and many want to standardize the cloud, but frankly libcloud has gotten farther than anybody, in less time than anybody, with real code living sitting in github right now.).
The main user/sponsor of libcloud is Cloudkick, who makes a really nice monitoring/management dashboard for popular providers (BTW, I really recommend Cloudkick, no affiliation.)

VMware totally wants tools like Cloudkick to work with vCloud Express providers.

Cloudkick reboot screen

Libcloud can already do a lot of basic management tasks with a growing list of providers.

infrastructure providers libcloud currently supports

But what if libcloud worked with the potentially hundreds of vCloud Express providers that will exist shortly?

infrastructure providers libcloud could support with vCloud Express interface

The way the libcloud project is working right now, there’s basically one rep from each provider helping to make an interface to libcloud.  With just a little bit of engineering time, VMware has the power to make an interface that would result in compatibility with 100’s (1000’s?) of providers.

So what are you waiting for, VMware? Join the libcloud list and get involved.  With a bit of effort you can some street cred for vCloud Express’s mission, without changing any of your technology, adding a ton of value to all your provider partners.