‘Moving the Ball Forward’: Ricky Cooper on Changes for VMware Partners

VMware partners might be feeling a little uncertainty, given all the ups and downs regarding the pending, $61 billion acquisition by Broadcom.

But there’s a lot happening at VMware that could assuage those fears, even though some change will inevitably occur once the transaction closes. (We don’t know what that might be, we’re just saying that any M&A brings with it some level of upheaval in personnel, policies, processes, etc.). Channel Futures sat down with Ricky Cooper, head of the worldwide channel and commercial organization at VMware, on Feb. 24, to get the scoop on what’s been in the works and what’s on the horizon.

Cooper, you’ll recall, assumed the role as head of the VMware partner program last June. Since then, notable changes have continued to come to light. That was part of Cooper’s intent for the job.

Cooper’s Priorities

VMware’s Ricky Cooper

“I came in with a vision of really taking the bull by the horns,” said Cooper, who Channel Futures just last week named to its 2023 Channel Influencers list. “We’re making drastic improvements, investing, spending time listening. … We’ve got so many priorities.”

Those priorities reflect trends in the cloud world and among channel partners. As the technology industry migrates away from legacy, one-time purchases to subscription buying, VMware and its partners have had to keep pace.

That’s not a simple undertaking. VMware, just like many VMware partners, started doing business way back in the day before “cloud” was a thing. The company and its channel experts built their financial foundations on hefty hardware sales. Cloud, however, continues to force the evolution to recurring revenue; Cooper is spearheading partner program changes that align with that shift. As a hint, a new version of Partner Connect is on the way in March. In the slideshow above, Cooper shares “why that’s now very important” for VMware partners, “and why it fits in with the plans of our customers.”

We delve into the nitty-gritty with Cooper and see what he and his team are planning for VMware partners.

As Cooper put it, “hopefully you will see that what we’ve talked about here really justifies how we’re really moving the ball forward.”