VMware enables multi-cloud managed services

VMware has introduced VMware Cross-Cloud managed services, a set of prescriptive offers with enhanced partner and customer benefits that will enable highly skilled partners to expand their managed services practices. Building on VMware’s success in creating an ecosystem of more than 4,000 cloud service providers that serve tens of thousands of customers worldwide, VMware Cross-Cloud managed services will make building managed services faster for partners and easier to consume by customers. This will improve partner profitability while opening new opportunities for growth and expansion.

The adoption of multi-cloud is helping customers become digitally smart. Multi-cloud services enable faster development of modern apps, accelerate enterprise cloud transformation, and empower more secure hybrid workforces. However, S&P Global Market Intelligence research shows that ensuring security, having skilled personnel, managing costs, and workload/data mobility are the biggest challenges facing organisations adopting a multi-cloud operating model. Eighty-three percent of organisations surveyed are open to using external managed or professional services to support their hybrid and multi-cloud efforts.1

With VMware Cross-Cloud managed services, VMware is making it easier for partners to do business with VMware by combining prescriptive solutions, improved incentives, aligned go to market activities, and more flexibility. Together, these will enable VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services Providers to drive growth, improve profitability, and increase recurring services revenue while improving time to value for multi-cloud environments and bridging today’s IT talent and skills gap for customers.

“With our global ecosystem of VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services Providers, we will help customers to evolve from cloud chaos to cloud smart while achieving outcomes faster,” said Zia Yusuf, senior vice president, strategic ecosystem and industry solutions, VMware. “VMware Cross-Cloud managed services is yet another example of how we will empower partners to expand and grow their VMware businesses while collaborating to help customers implement a cloud smart strategy that accelerates their digital transformation.”

Introducing VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services Offers

VMware will deliver prescriptive offers targeting key customer outcomes and supported through close alignment with VMware's go-to-market, sales, and support motions. Partners will then use these targeted offers to build unique Validated Service Offerings to deliver differentiated services.

• VMware Cross-Cloud managed services for Hybrid Cloud will enable customers to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for on-premises environments, simplify operations, reduce risk with observability, actionable insight, and performance optimisation, and accelerate cloud migrations. These offers will include, (i) VMware Cross-Cloud managed services for private or sovereign cloud, and (ii) VMware Cross-Cloud managed services for public cloud. Partners will build these services using VMware Cloud on AWS or new VMware Cloud Packs, which will include hyperconverged infrastructure, hyperconverged infrastructure with advanced automation, compute with advanced automation, and VMware Cloud Foundation.

• VMware Cross-Cloud managed services for Native Public Cloud and Modern Apps will enable customers to automate more secure modern platform operations across multiple clouds, achieve centralised governance and deliver better cost controls. These offers will include, (i) VMware Cross-Cloud managed services for Centralised Governance powered by VMware Aria; (ii) VMware Cross-Cloud managed services for Cost Optimisation powered by VMware Aria Cost; and (iii) VMware Cross-Cloud managed services for Cloud Native App Delivery powered by VMware Tanzu.

Benefits, Incentives, and Capability Advancements for Cross-Cloud Managed Services Providers

Partners can differentiate themselves and command greater market recognition and profitability. The new VMware Cross-Cloud managed services badge will signify partners’ expertise in delivering VMware validated managed services offerings (VSOs) and validate the achievement of the forthcoming VMware Managed Services Specialisation (MSS). Additionally, VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services Providers will benefit from tailored financial and non-financial partner benefits including:

• Improved Incentives: badged partners can potentially earn up to 40 percent more rewards for providing assessments and proofs-of-concept, up to 100 percent more than non-badged partners for deployment services, and significantly more back-end rebates for selling VMware Cross-Cloud managed services through the new Sell incentive in Partner Connect.

• More Flexibility: a new Bring Your Own Subscription option will allow customers to deploy existing VMware subscriptions to VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services Provider environments, enabling them to derive maximum value for the subscriptions through the support and expertise of qualified VMware partners.

• Go To Market Alignment: a new co-selling program will enable VMware to support Cross-Cloud Managed Services Providers in demand generation, as well as selling and closing activities.

• Ease of Doing Business: partners can expect even more deal protection on SaaS related sales.

Partner Commentary

“VMware Cross-Cloud services are an excellent fit for BT’s own next generation of cloud solutions, delivered at the near edge,” said Colin Bannon, CTO at Business, BT. “As a VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services Provider we will continue building on strong foundations of collaboration and shared vision. Together, we will help customers innovate, address data sovereignty requirements, and reduce operational costs while focusing on sustainability.”

“VMware Cross-Cloud managed services, a core component of HCLTech’s CloudSMART for VMware offerings, will help enterprises unlock the untapped value of multi-cloud and app modernisation,” said Anand Swamy, Executive Vice President, Head of Tech and Telco Ecosystems, HCLTech. “These new managed services offerings will further enable HCLTech to help enterprises pursue the path of digital dominance by aligning transformation with overall business objectives while remaining agile through cloud freedom and enterprise control.”

“Rackspace is committed to helping our customers do more than just manage their multi-cloud environments. We’re about helping our customers use multi-cloud as an innovation engine that drives their businesses forward,” said Josh Prewitt, Chief Product Officer, Rackspace Technology. “VMware Cross-Cloud managed services will enable Rackspace to build on more than a decade of expertise in VMware to deliver new outcome-focused service offerings that accelerate cloud migration, streamline operations and enable customers to deliver applications faster and more securely.”

“When it comes to managing complex multicloud strategies, our experience has shown that the do-it-yourself approach may not yield optimal results. Optimising cloud governance, security, costs, and overall performance requires a distinct set of skills that can be missing in organisations large and small,” said Christopher Swadish, Hybrid Cloud Business Leader, North America, Softchoice. “With VMware Cross-Cloud managed services and our proven operational expertise, Softchoice will help keep customers agile, competitive, and running smoothly as they adopt multi-cloud to accelerate their digital innovation.”

“TeraSky helps organisations tackle the complexity of new technologies so they can transform with confidence. VMware Cross-Cloud managed services are perfectly aligned to this mission,” said Ofir Abekasis, Chief Executive Officer, TeraSky. “With VMware Cross-Cloud managed services, TeraSky will help our customers meet their technical, operational, and financial targets, address their IT skills gaps, and maximise investments in VMware technology. Achieving the VMware Managed Services Specialisation and becoming a VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Service Provider will improve our own competitive differentiation and help fuel our growth.”

“With VMware Cross-Cloud managed services, we will expand our MSP portfolio to provide flexible and easy to consume services for our multi-cloud customers, accelerating their journey from cloud chaos to cloud smart,” said Gavin Jolliffe, Chief Executive Officer, Xtravirt. “The new prescriptive VMware Cross-Cloud managed services will also make it easier for us to align the best VMware services with well-defined and critical challenges we see our customers facing every day. This will accelerate their time to value.”