All Is Not Lost: Vendors Rescuing VMware Partners Stranded by Broadcom
All of this leaves VMware partners in a quandary.
![VMware partners getting rescued post Broadcom acquisition VMware partners getting rescued post Broadcom acquisition](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/bltbdc6d460bba10825/65a82fedd6c90f040a40d6d2/Businesswoman_in_Maze.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock
Leostream stands out as the first VMware rival to launch a partner program specifically to catch VMware partners kicked out or turned off by Broadcom. On Jan. 9, barely more than two weeks after news broke that Broadcom would take VMware’s top 2,000 customers direct, Leostream, which competes against VMware Horizon, debuted its V-Partner Continuity Program.
Solution providers, MSPs and resellers can expect new incentives alongside tools and training as they help customers with 25 or more users get off Horizon as those licenses expire. Resources for former VMware partners include sales and marketing materials, enablement collateral, deal registration (to remove any channel conflict Leostream ’s direct sales teams) and revenue tracking. Leostream also provides partner-only documentation with overviews of, and road maps for, new releases.
“This program assures service and loyalty to those partners whose customers rely on VDI, DaaS and other hosted desktop technologies to support hybrid and remote workforces,” said Randy Foster, vice president of sales and marketing for Leostream. “Former VMware partners will find that with the unique remote access workflows the Leostream platform facilitates, its management simplicity, security, BYOD flexibility, and low cost of ownership, the VMware problem has become a major opportunity.”
Karen Gondoly, CEO of Leostream, agreed.
“[W]e’re all about not locking you into a vendor,” Gondoly told Channel Futures.
Rather, Leostream’s remote desktop access integrates with any hypervisor, any hardware, any on-premise or cloud resource, any end-user device and any major remote display protocol, the company said. So, partners — which, for Leostream, are more MSPs and SIs than resellers — then can change the underlying infrastructure as customers’ VMware contracts expire. Organizations still running Horizon but wanting to move off VMware can install Leostream simultaneously. That way, when their time with Horizon comes to an end, there’s a seamless transition end users shouldn’t even notice.
To get to that point, though, Leostream is starting at the beginning, targeting disenfranchised VMware partners. The first action item? Dedicated co-sell, Gondoly said. From there, partners will be assigned an account manager “who will actually sit with them as much as they want us to. We'll sit with them on their calls with their customers. We'll do the demos for them with the customer. We'll help them out at the beginning and we find that's very valuable because our product is very comprehensive. … [L]earning the path that's going to be best for a particular customer takes a little time, and we want to help partners get there.”
Look for Leostream to offer its certifications, which normally feature a partner cost, for free. In addition, Leostream is giving partners not-for-resale trial runs of its platform. And, the company will do installation and configuration through its professional services team for free for the first 10 customers former VMware partners bring to the table.
All of this, Gondoly said, should help VMware partners “very quickly get up to speed so that they can start closing additional deals.”
Leostream has been around since 2002, but as a relative unknown — until now. Broadcom’s booting of certain VMware partners has given the Massachusetts-based software vendor a big publicity boost in the virtual desktop infrastructure space.
“We have always been a company that our customers and our partners have enjoyed working with and find value working with,” Gondoly said. “And I think that's the biggest thing — we are smaller. So we give that boutique experience of really truly caring for our customers and our partners.”
Managed service providers are looking for VMware alternatives as Broadcom slices and dices its (ultimately, after including debt) $69 billion acquisition.
For these partners, the biggest opportunity lies in implementing a whole new take on legacy virtual desktop infrastructure, Joseph Landes, chief revenue officer at Nerdio, told Channel Futures. (Indeed, that’s Nerdio’s specialty: simplifying and adding capabilities to Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop and, now, other platforms rolled out by Redmond.)
With that in mind, it’s time, Landes said, for MSPs and system integrators to “modernize their practices in the cloud.”
To be sure, many partners already have been thinking along these lines, he explained.
“[B]ut now, due to Broadcom’s decision as well as customer demand, partners cannot afford to put off cloud migration any longer without falling behind the competition. For ISVs like Nerdio building technology on top of native Microsoft technologies, this upheaval is our opportunity.”
Roy Illsley, chief analyst of IT operations at Omdia, agreed.
“The market was already moving slowly away from VMs to K8s and other cloud-native technologies,” Illsley said. “I think it is now more of an incentive for the partners to acquire these skills and offer customers a way to migrate from VMware to a more modern architecture.”
To that point, while Nerdio is not revamping its partner program in the wake of Broadcom’s moves around VMware, it is talking up its capabilities and channel dedication.
“[W]e can work with impacted VMware partners who need to change their way of business after the Broadcom deal,” Landes said. “These former partners need ample support and guidance during this transition to another solution, and that’s what Nerdio can provide.”
On its website, VergeIO, founded in 2010, bills itself as a VMware alternative.
“VergeOS integrates the entire infrastructure stack into a single, cohesive code base, creating a data center operating system, VergeOS,” George Crump, chief marketing officer, told Channel Futures. “It essentially replaces ESXi, vCenter, vCloud Director, vSAN and NSX.”
The Clarkston, Michigan-based company is making no bones about its intent to attract VMware partners (and their customers) alienated by Broadcom. It’s providing free professional services to end users moving off VMware, and extending a “risk-free” offer around migrating VMware virtual machines to VergeOS.
“Migration is seamless,” Crump said. “Our migration function will log directly into vCenter and enable the reseller or customer to see and select the VMware VMs that they want to migrate. Within a few moments, the VM is on the VergeOS platform and is ready to run.”
Plus, he added, VergeIO’s partner margins come out higher than VMware’s. That’s because the vendor’s pricing totals between 30% and 50% less than that of the corresponding VMware solutions, Crump said.
As for the VergeIO partner program, Crump emphasized the company’s dedication to the channel.
“VergeIO has been in business for over 12 years and has always put our partners first and treated them with respect,” he said.
VergeIO works with MSPs, value-added resellers, agents and consultants.
At the time of publication, indie cloud vendor Virtuozzo was still finessing the details of changes to its partner program — developed, CEO Alex Fine told Channel Futures, “with direct feedback from … hundreds of service provider partners’ input over the years.”
That said, the company was taking aim at VMware partners left in the cold by Broadcom. Fine said Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure can replace multiple VMware products, including vSphere, up to the Enterprise+ edition, vSAN, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid and NSX.
“In general, Virtuozzo can replace the VMware stack completely for use cases such as virtualization, virtual data center, Kubernetes management, software-defined storage (all types – block, file, object), private, hybrid and public clouds,” Fine said.
As such, Virtuozzo is touting its migration and adoption services, as well as its managed monitoring and logging, and fully managed services for end users. And amid the Broadcom-VMware furor, Virtuozzo has kicked off a promo to make migration “more cost-effective for customers,” Fine said.
When it comes to how users may procure and pay for its platform, Virtuozzo gives buyers a choice.
“Virtuozzo provides hybrid licensing models catering to its target segments: service providers, SME and SaaS vendors to match their consumption and budgeting requirements,” Fine said.
That could prove significant in light of Broadcom’s decision to remove all perpetual licensing for VMware software. While the tech industry continues to shift to subscription licenses, which deliver recurring revenue for vendors and partners, many customers still prefer a one-time purchase. That way, they gain more control over the software itself and don’t have to worry about scaling seats — and incurring unexpected costs — as employees come and go.
“For the channel, of course, it ultimately comes down to SKUs, but when you’re going to market, it is the customer use case that is all-important,” Fine added. “Virtuozzo provides a proven OpenStack-based cloud platform that is easier to deploy, easier to manage, and much more cost-effective for channel customers looking to sell their own branded cloud, build their own in-house private clouds, or manage applications in a cloud-native, DevOps-friendly way. For most SME and enterprise use cases, Virtuozzo is faster, easier, better-supported and has lower TCO — and better margins for our channel partners.”
Next up, SUSE (pronounced 'SOO-suh) is doing its part to lure VMware partners disillusioned by Broadcom’s actions.
SUSE specializes in developing enterprise-grade open source software based on Linux. Its channel head, Rachel Cassidy, billed the company as a “substantial global player” with decades-long leadership in open-source. SUSE was founded in Germany in 1992 — and it continues to grow outside of Europe.
“Recent product acquisitions and investment areas across partners and cloud position SUSE well for increased market share in this space at a global scale,” Cassidy, senior vice president of global partner ecosystem, told Channel Futures.
As such, she explained, SUSE helps organizations to diversify their tech stacks or settle in with cloud-native options that pave the way toward the future. To that point, SUSE Rancher and NeuVector offer alternatives to VMware Tanzu. And Harvester is SUSE’s answer to hyperconverged infrastructure, so it works for Kubernetes, edge computing and more. All SUSE software is delivered on a subscription basis.
And even though the company is not developing a separate program for VMware partners, it is grandfathering them into its SUSE One Partner Program’s Emerald tier.
“This provides immediate access to deal registration (upfront discount for partners) and gives partners access to technical expert-level training courses on our partner portal and through our Partner Academy (a hybrid training model blending self-learning and instructor-led training) at no charge,” a spokesperson told Channel Futures.
Still, that doesn’t mean migrating off VMware to an open-source counterpart is simple. Cassidy pulled no punches about that.
“[T]here are always challenges in transitions like this,” she said. “Customer-facing teams and back-end operations will need to be educated and potentially implement new processes — which takes time and resources away from crucial projects.”
But, Cassidy added, that’s why SUSE supports partners with co-selling teams, and training and certification. Getting partners up to speed also gives end users time, with the help of their trusted advisors, to figure out how to plan for the future. While not an easy task, it can be “a great opportunity for customers to assess what works well and [decide] what can be improved in their infrastructure, allowing them to plan for the future, such as planning their cloud strategy, their possible embrace of microservices, etc.”
The outcomes are worth the effort, Cassidy noted.
“As larger companies shift away from community and partners for near-term revenue gains, the ecosystem will actively seek alternatives aligned with open-source and cloud-native values,” she said. “SUSE has a partner-first strategy. More than 80% of our revenue flows through a partner as it is. Combined with our open-source ethos, this means we embrace a philosophy of openness with our partners that has led to decades-long partnerships.”
Another VMware rival seeking to pick up VMware partners comes in the form of Zadara, which focuses on cloud computing and data storage for hosting providers, MSPs, VARs and other partners.
“We already have several customers engaging in discussions who are trying to understand what options are available in the market,” Mark Lewis, head of product marketing, told Channel Futures.
In terms of the channel, Zadara is heads-down on efforts for that audience, too.
“Zadara is developing short-term strategies to help attract new partners, specifically MSPs, looking to switch from VMware,” Lewis said. “Like many, we recognize the business opportunity these changes are setting in motion, and are ready to provide support to those left out of the invitation-only Broadcom Advantage Partner Program and any other enterprises that find themselves adrift over this ongoing set of circumstances.”
SoftIron represents another vendor on the hunt for unhappy VMware partners, though it’s not changing its channel program in the wake of Broadcom’s actions.
“I think we built a pretty good program from day one,” Philip Crocker, chief revenue officer at SoftIron, told Channel Futures.
Instead, SoftIron is promoting itself to the indirect channel as an ideal VMware alternative. And, to be clear, the company, founded in 2012, positions its HyperCloud platform as more than a VMware copycat — it’s a total shoo-in for the VMware stack, per executives.
“[I]t is designed for what is needed for today and for the future,” wrote Andrew Moloney, chief strategy officer, in a recent blog, adding, “We’re not trying to replicate what VMware did 25 years ago.”
Rather, he expounded, SoftIron “started with the problem that presents itself today. Where the end state — private cloud — is known, but the technologies available to deliver that were overly complex, severely limited and hard to maintain and secure. Top down, we built a platform that enables private clouds to be built quickly and simply, securely and elastically. We deliver that as a product set, and support it with a comprehensive channel program that enables our partners to add real differentiation and value — and do that profitably. To present their offer in any business model they choose. To blur the lines between product and service, between on-prem and hybrid cloud, independent of any hyperscaler.”
Crocker agreed. He has spent his career in the channel, designing and supporting programs — and leaving companies when they turned their backs on partners.
“[I]t kind of offends me just as a business professional, the way they're handling it,” he said of Broadcom’s treatment of VMware partners and customers.
“[T]here's actually a better way to get to the right outcome for Broadcom, if that's what they want, but you don't have to do damage along the way,” he told Channel Futures. “That's where I land on this, just as an individual in the industry and then as an employee of SoftIron. And I have a lot of excitement around what we can bring to the party and things we can do for partners who don't know where to where to head next.”
To that point, SoftIron is positioning itself as a soft landing in the private cloud sector.
“Some of the design cues for what we do on-premise have been taken from what the public clouds have done,” Crocker explained. “But the difference with us is not only did we built all the hardware and all the software all the way up to an API, but it's an untethered system. You’re not tethered to it, in the sense that we give a customer or a managed service provider the entire stack they need and then they get to run it. There are no obligations back to us other than if you want support; then, of course, there's a support contract, but you own it on your terms on your turf.”
Crocker also put the matter this way: HyperCloud, he said, “is fully inclusive, fully integrated, channel-first.”
Moloney elucidated on those notions.
“Part of being a trusted advisor for your customers is to maintain a degree of independence from the vendors that you choose to represent,” he wrote. “By recommending a customer transition to … consumption-based models, not only are you effectively asking them to entrust their future IT strategy to the road map of a single vendor, you are also in effect removing your independence and ability to advise, instead simply becoming a ‘franchisee’ and delivery partner for a model you do not control, either from a financial or technical perspective. Your ability both to add value and also to provide a differentiated offer to any other ‘franchisee’ is severely curtailed.”
SoftIron, on the other hand, does virtualization natively in the cloud, eliminating the need for “all those expensive licenses,” Crocker said.
“[W]e can offer a much more comprehensive solution, which takes the pain away of integrating all those pieces — software and hardware — because we do all of that. We design it and build it in our own factories, which means that the customer can focus on what they set out to do, like running a business.”
The channel program is structured such that partners don’t even have to undergo any intensive sales training, Crocker added. As long as the lead is qualified, “we’ll do the heavy lift and then we’ll work with you to get you into the next level of the program. I deliberately designed it that way so it’s not like, ‘Well, if you’re not going to do $1 million with us, we’re not interested.’ Everyone has to start somewhere.”
On top of that, SoftIron will only bring direct sales into the process if the end user requests that. That rarely happens, Crocker said.
Overall, as partners seek out VMware alternatives, Moloney had this to say: Look for a vendor that expresses “faith in their vision” and that proves it can build “a long-term, supportive and mutually profitable relationship.”
Finally, the big kahuna among VMware rivals, Nutanix, is out to showcase its ability to replace any part of the VMware stack — and emphasize its appeal to partners.
The 15-year-old multicloud vendor started as a hardware provider but has transitioned in recent years to software and subscriptions, updating its channel program frequently along the way. For sure, company longtimer and channel head Dave Gwyn told Channel Futures, throughout those business model changes, “our track record speaks for itself. We’re still 100% channel. We were founded with that statement and we’ve stuck with that.”
And with Broadcom creating instability for VMware partners and end users, Nutanix is taking advantage. Over the past couple months, Gwyn, senior vice president of worldwide channels and customer success at Nutanix, has been hard at work on new initiatives for partners. He could not, at time of publication of this article, discuss the details. But, he said, the changes are “intended to have our partners become a lot more comfortable in what is a turbulent market,” Gwyn said.
Those additions will accompany other improvements Gwyn has made since taking on the channel leader role at Nutanix. He recounted some of those, including the implementation of the support group, the Channel Lead Autonomous Resource Center, or CLARK; helming a cultural shift to allow partners more independence, bringing in Nutanix only when asked; and crafting better margins for deal registration.
“I say all that not to bore you to death, but to say that that program is what we view as being the thing that should attract VMware partners who may be feeling uncertain or disenfranchised as a result of what's going on,” Gwyn said. “We have a great set of partners. And my priority is to make sure that members of that program have a great way to have very productive businesses. And if VMware partners want to come over here, they'll find that Elevate program sitting here for them to join.”
That invitation applies no matter the partner size or level. Like SoftIron, Nutanix says it wants to work with channel experts across the board, knowing they bring loyal clientele to the table.
There “actually is safe harbor in this market,” Gwyn said.
Gwyn expected to be able to talk about Nutanix’s channel program changes by sometime in February.
For the time being, he noted that the industry is likely to see two types of VMware partners emerge from Broadcom’s invitation-only approach.
“There's going to be the group that used to sell VMware and now is out, and then there's going to be the group that used to sell VMware and now is in, but isn't all that keen on it because it's not the greatest program they've seen as far as bringing goodness to their customers or them,” Gwyn said.
As a result, partners are, not surprisingly, seeking ways to replace their VMware revenue while keeping customers happy “in the way that VMware previously did,” Gwyn said. Broadcom will have a hard time doing that if it keeps treating VMware as “a financial instrument, not so much a technology instrument,” he added.
Canalys’ Jay McBain agreed. Broadcom could have used VMware as a “perfect pivot point” away from the tainted reputations of its CA Technologies and Symantec acquisitions. The company could have positioned VMware “as a crown jewel.”
That’s not happening.
Instead, McBain said, Broadcom “looks more like a private equity company that's coming in to shut down the local manufacturing site in your small town. … And this is kind of a dismantling again, a financial dismantling. I think [VMware] is the wrong company to try that experiment with greed. That's like Twitter was the wrong kind of company to tell your advertisers to go f*** themselves."
Of course, there are more — many more — vendors with channel programs capable of replacing some or all of the VMware stack. On Reddit, VMware users are talking about companies including Citrix, Proxmox, Red Hat and Microsoft’s Hyper-V. The conversations are being spurred by confirmation that Broadcom is getting rid of VMware’s cloud service providers program. That leaves partners and their customers scrambling to plan — if they didn’t already use the 18-month acquisition process to do so — migrations once contracts end.
Reddit users also are comparing Broadcom CEO Hock Tan’s treatment of VMware to Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, as well as the wood chipper scene in the movie “Fargo.” Even Canalys’ McBain couldn’t resist a Musk-Tan comparison. Posting on his firm’s internal messaging system, he told Channel Futures, he wrote, “Elon Musk drops Twitter valuation by 65% in one year. Hock Tan is like, ‘Hold my beer.’”
Indeed, contrary to Tan’s assertions that he would immediately invest $2 billion into VMware research and development (“not clarifying that the $2 billion comes from cutting jobs and eliminating solutions,” commented Reddit user Blackertai), and stay true to VMware channel partners, Broadcom appears to be turning its back on those promises.
“In the end, Broadcom’s VMware partner decisions may go down in history as something to be modeled or something to be mocked,” Omdia’s Adams told Channel Futures. “The results will ultimately decide.”
Whether inadvertently or purposely, Broadcom has turned partners’ and end users’ purchasing upside down with its slicing and dicing of VMware’s products, people, business units and channel programs. As a result, the chipmaker has flung open the door to competitors, and invoked a seismic shift within the technology world and its indirect channel. Our next, upcoming piece on Broadcom-VMware will assess those big-picture changes and their impact on the channel ecosystem. Stay tuned.
Of course, there are more — many more — vendors with channel programs capable of replacing some or all of the VMware stack. On Reddit, VMware users are talking about companies including Citrix, Proxmox, Red Hat and Microsoft’s Hyper-V. The conversations are being spurred by confirmation that Broadcom is getting rid of VMware’s cloud service providers program. That leaves partners and their customers scrambling to plan — if they didn’t already use the 18-month acquisition process to do so — migrations once contracts end.
Reddit users also are comparing Broadcom CEO Hock Tan’s treatment of VMware to Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, as well as the wood chipper scene in the movie “Fargo.” Even Canalys’ McBain couldn’t resist a Musk-Tan comparison. Posting on his firm’s internal messaging system, he told Channel Futures, he wrote, “Elon Musk drops Twitter valuation by 65% in one year. Hock Tan is like, ‘Hold my beer.’”
Indeed, contrary to Tan’s assertions that he would immediately invest $2 billion into VMware research and development (“not clarifying that the $2 billion comes from cutting jobs and eliminating solutions,” commented Reddit user Blackertai), and stay true to VMware channel partners, Broadcom appears to be turning its back on those promises.
“In the end, Broadcom’s VMware partner decisions may go down in history as something to be modeled or something to be mocked,” Omdia’s Adams told Channel Futures. “The results will ultimately decide.”
Whether inadvertently or purposely, Broadcom has turned partners’ and end users’ purchasing upside down with its slicing and dicing of VMware’s products, people, business units and channel programs. As a result, the chipmaker has flung open the door to competitors, and invoked a seismic shift within the technology world and its indirect channel. Our next, upcoming piece on Broadcom-VMware will assess those big-picture changes and their impact on the channel ecosystem. Stay tuned.
As Broadcom turns its back on hundreds of VMware partners, including cloud service providers, smaller companies are coming to the fore with safety nets for the channel and end users.
While many VMware partners used the 18 months between Broadcom’s announcement of its intent to buy VMware and the time the deal actually closed to talk with customers about the transaction’s implications, that didn’t negate contracts that had been renewed. Organizations entrenched in VMware platforms won’t have an easy time migrating off the brand. And Broadcom isn’t making future consumption easy on them, either. The behemoth chipmaker is selling the end-user computing unit and Carbon Black (both of which reportedly have interested buyers). Plus, it’s bundling VMware products in such a way that end users will have to pay for software they don’t necessarily want or need.
All of this leaves VMware partners in a quandary. Some of them will receive invitations to join the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program. But the rest — per industry reports, if they generate less than $500,000 in annual VMware revenue — will not.
“If the rumors prove to be true that only about 10% will get invites, the ramifications could be huge,” said Devan Adams, principal analyst for the channel research and consulting practice at Omdia (a Channel Futures sister company).
![Omdia's Devan Adams Omdia's Devan Adams](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt87f09ad4312197bc/6525c5cdc4e0dec3411af080/Adams-Devan_Omdia.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Omdia's Devan Adams
It’s no stretch to say the remaining VMware partners will be left out in the cold, including those who will lose their largest customers altogether as Broadcom takes the top 2,000 for itself, through its direct sales teams.
What Can VMware Partners Do About Broadcom’s Channel Moves?
And there’s not much VMware partners can do about Broadcom’s decisions. They have no power right now, said Jay McBain, chief analyst at Canalys (also a Channel Futures sister company).
“[N]o customer is going to rip out and do open-heart surgery on how they created their virtual environments because of an acquisition, at least in the first few years,” he said. “So partners aren't really at the negotiating table here. They don't really have a strong position.”
![Canalys' Jay McBain Canalys' Jay McBain](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt83263e870dfd7423/654b761705c57d040a6f50c5/McBain_Jay_Canalys_2023.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Canalys' Jay McBain
Broadcom’s decisions are about doubling VMware’s size. It’s using those aforementioned top 2,000 customers to achieve that goal. Therefore, in axing partners who bring in less than $500,000 in annual VMware revenue, Broadcom will focus on what it views as worthwhile efforts.
“There's cost to every customer and there's probably a point where profitability per dollar goes down at a certain threshold, right?” McBain said. “And they cut it off at $500,000. So maybe they're smarter than all of us. But boy, it's throwing everything into turmoil.”
To be sure, Broadcom is acting more like an aggressive private equity firm than a publicly traded company, McBain noted. (Broadcom, by the way, did not return our request for comment on its decision to take those buyers away from partners.)
“They’re just taking those top 2,000 accounts and bringing as much profit out of those as they can — in other words, taking away the partner margins and all that. So, just absurd profit day one," added McBain.
Broadcom Missed Something Really Important About the Channel and the Long-Term
Yet, in taking end users direct and alienating channel partners, Broadcom seems to have missed a critical piece of high-level information. According to McKinsey & Company, every VMware customer has seven trusted partners.
That, said McBain, is huge.
“One or less of those seven may ever collect money on behalf of VMware as a reseller type, but the other six are doing the consulting the design, the architecture, work, implementation, integrating managed services; they're doing everything else,” McBain said. “And if you don't have a strong channel strategy, you're basically creating friction around the seven people that every one of your customers and prospects trust. And that's very ugly for the future of a product that relies on these … ecosystems.”
Overlooking that reality, and focusing just on reselling, margins and financials, could deal Broadcom some blows in the long run.
“I don't think they understand the broader picture,” McBain said. “And this is the five- and 10-year view of doubling the size of VMware.”
Rival Vendors Step in to Rescue VMware Partners
The circumstances created by Broadcom perfectly position a number of VMware competitors to come to partners’ rescue. While we don’t consider the list of companies in this piece a comprehensive reflection of the landscape, given the dozens of vendors that can replace some or all of the VMware stack, we have interviewed and tracked many we know to be channel-friendly. It’s imperative to understand these vendors’ channel views and trajectories in the wake of Broadcom’s systematic dismantling of the VMware partner program (including Partner Connect, which Ricky Cooper and Tracy-Ann Palmer spent years creating as VMware moved to a multicloud and subscription business model). With that in mind, some of the programs target shunned VMware partners with formal rejiggers, while others feature more of a “come to us, we gotchu” feel.
And VMware partners not staying with Broadcom have to move quickly. Those who handle the Broadcom disruption well will further cement trust and loyalty with their customers. There is little room for missteps as Broadcom upends the channel in an historic way.
We’ve invested significant time and exploration to cut through the noise for you and to present it in an easy-to-consume format (see the slideshow above). Along the way, keep an eye out for analyst commentary. These insights point to the “bigger picture” shifts emerging from Broadcom’s treatment of VMware partners. Channel Futures will bring a deeper look into that aspect soon; here, we start prepping that discussion with the help of experts looking not just at the breaking news, but the wider implications of Broadcom’s VMware strategy.
Here we offer the meat of what VMware partners need to think about and act upon as Broadcom ruthlessly seeks returns on its biggest acquisition yet.
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