VMware this week at its online VMworld 2020 conference bolstered its outreach to partners by expanding the reach of VMware Cloud Partner Navigator, formerly known as Project Path, to include VMware offerings that can be deployed via a single click on multiple clouds along with announcing an update to VMware Cloud Director platform for managed service providers (MSPs) that adds support for VMware networking software and Kubernetes clusters based on its Tanzu platform.
Collectively, the goal is to make it easier for VMware to extend the scope of the services they provide as a complement to a VMware portfolio that continues to grow in size and scope, says Rajeev Bhardwaj, vice presidents of product for the Cloud Services Business Unit (CSBU) for VMware.
Tanzu will be especially important for MSPs as organizations embrace Kubernetes running on multiple clouds.
“Kubernetes is becoming a de facto standard for MSPs,” says Bhardwaj.
Overall, VMware revealed this week there are now more than 4,300 partners offering VMware-based cloud services, with more than 600 channel partners having achieved a VMware Cloud on AWS service competency. The unit of Dell Technologies also disclosed more than 10 million virtual machines have been deployed in more 10,000 data centers run by cloud service providers, representing a 173% growth rate year over year.
VMware also revealed more than 160,000 end customers are now running more than 15 million enterprise workloads on VMware in the cloud. Much of that growth is being spurred by the adoption of VMware Cloud on AWS. VMware reports that as of August, the total number of its virtual machines on AWS are up 140 percent year-over-year, with the total number of hosts up by 130% during the same timeframe. There are also now more than 300 certified or validated technology solutions available to organizations that have embraced VMware Cloud on AWS.
While VMware is finally gaining traction in the cloud, its relationships with partners are becoming both more complex and nuanced. VMware effectively manages many of its platforms today as a managed service thanks to advances in automation. Rather than managing the underlying VMware platform, many VMware partners are shifting their focus toward applications that are delivered on top of VMware platforms.
At the same time, end customers are pressuring partners to craft their solutions around specific business outcomes rather than technical services. That shift requires partners to first change the way they monetize their services alongside a vendor partner that is also delivering managed technology services around its platforms.
The relationship between VMware, the end customer and the partner is becoming less transactional, says Sandy Hogan, recently appointed senior vice president for worldwide commercial and partner sales at VMware.
“It’s no longer a linear model,” says Hogan.
VMware is moving toward identifying repeatable use cases and solutions that will provide partners with some clarity into how much profit they can expect to make, notes Hogan. However, each customer engagement will be different in terms of both cost to the partner and ultimate profitability.
The upside is the VMware portfolio has never been broader, which Hogan notes means the opportunity for partners to add value to a customer engagement is much greater. The challenge is determining what to charge for that expertise at a time when the cost of labor associated with mastering enterprise IT technologies also continues to rise.
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