What’s Next for Broadcom-VMware as China Holds Up Clearance?
In other cloud news, check out developments at Google Cloud, Kyndryl, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.
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Broadcom appears to be trying its best to close the VMware purchase.The $61 billion deal was supposed to wrap up on Monday, Oct. 30. But China, likely due to U.S. sanctions on chip exports, is holding up progress.
Now, reports are swirling that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan met with Chinese officials over the past weekend in efforts to persuade them to let the transaction close. Those authorities happened to be in Washington, D.C., for a meeting at the White House, so Tan apparently took advantage of that proximity.
Even so, the combination of Broadcom and VMware remains in limbo. Broadcom said on Oct. 30 it expects its acquisition of VMware to close “soon.”
Google Cloud has appointed Matt Renner to lead cloud computing sales in North America.
Renner’s official title is president of North American and global startups.
He came to Google Cloud earlier this year from Microsoft, where he led enterprise sales for three years. Renner also worked for Oracle for 20 years.
At Google Cloud, he’s now leading customer- and partner-facing teams serving enterprises, midmarket customers and small and midsize businesses.
“It could not be a better time to join Google Cloud’s North America GTM organization as well as global startups,” Renner said. “The company has industry-defining products and services across infrastructure, data and analytics, AI, and more — and the go-to-market team is proven and successful in leading the fastest-growing cloud company in the market. Our future is as bright as it’s ever been, and I’m excited to get started.”
Adaire Fox-Martin, president of Google Cloud go-to-market and head of Google Ireland, agreed.
“Matt brings a singular focus in serving partners and customers, and I am thrilled to have him as a key leader in our organization as we enter this new era of AI transformation.”
Microsoft this week started selling AI Copilot for its 365 platform.Analysts at Piper Sandler estimate the tool — which relies on artificial intelligence for tasks including summarizing documents, generating emails and improving Excel analysis — will add $10 billion to Microsoft’s revenue by 2026.
That’s because the AI Copilot costs $30 per user each month. Right now, only select enterprises have access to the new service and must commit to at least 300 users.
AI Copilot could prove helpful to channel sales, too. Gordon McKenna, cloud evangelist and vice president of alliances at Ensono, tested the new tool last month. He reports excitement about the increases in productivity but skepticism around Microsoft’s faith in its own investments due to looming chip shortages.Meantime, Vadim Vladimirskiy, CEO and co-founder at Nerdio, has a similarly optimistic take on Copilot’s contributions to productivity. However, he is watching to see how long before CIOs note return on the investment for the relatively steep price.
Kyndryl is pursuing financial services firms via Google Cloud capabilities.
The consultancy, an offshoot of IBM, has developed a variety of offerings built on Google Cloud for the financial services sector. It’s focusing on automation, security and compliance."Services partners like Kyndryl provide the ongoing expertise and resources that many enterprises need for large-scale digital transformation projects," said Benjie Harrison, director of global alliances at Google Cloud.
Kyndryl based its new portfolio on Google Cloud services including confidential computing and security command center.
And lest this cloud news roundup turn into a Google Cloud-heavy piece, we have some catching up to do on the AWS front.
The world ’s largest public cloud provider recently launched its European Sovereign Cloud platform. The move marks AWS’ entrance into a market where competitors already have delivered similar platformsfor some time.
The AWS sovereign cloud targets customers in the public sector and other highly regulated industries that must meet stringent requirements around data residency and cloud operations.
As one would expect with such an offering, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud is physically and otherwise separate from the provider’s other “regions” (data centers). The first region housing sovereign cloud capabilities will launch in Germany, with availability for all European customers, AWS said.
“For more than a decade, we’ve worked with governments and regulatory bodies across Europe to understand and meet evolving needs in cybersecurity, data privacy and localization, and more recently, digital sovereignty,” said Max Peterson, vice president of Sovereign Cloud at AWS. “With this new offering, customers and partners across Europe will have more choice to achieve the operational independence they require.”
And lest this cloud news roundup turn into a Google Cloud-heavy piece, we have some catching up to do on the AWS front.
The world’s largest public cloud provider recently launched its European Sovereign Cloud platform. The move marks AWS’ entrance into a market where competitors already have delivered similar platformsfor some time.
The AWS sovereign cloud targets customers in the public sector and other highly regulated industries that must meet stringent requirements around data residency and cloud operations.
As one would expect with such an offering, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud is physically and otherwise separate from the provider’s other “regions” (data centers). The first region housing sovereign cloud capabilities will launch in Germany, with availability for all European customers, AWS said.
“For more than a decade, we’ve worked with governments and regulatory bodies across Europe to understand and meet evolving needs in cybersecurity, data privacy and localization, and more recently, digital sovereignty,” said Max Peterson, vice president of Sovereign Cloud at AWS. “With this new offering, customers and partners across Europe will have more choice to achieve the operational independence they require.”
It’s been quite a week in the cloud computing world, starting with the unfinished Broadcom-VMware deal.
The $61 billion transaction was supposed to close this past Monday. That didn’t happen. China remains the holdup, with speculation swirling around retaliation due to new U.S. restrictions on chip exports.
Now that a few days have passed, several media outlets report that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan met with Chinese officials to try to persuade them to clear the Broadcom-VMware combination. Find out more on the first slide, by clicking the image above.
But stick around. There’s a new North American sales leader at Google Cloud. And Microsoft launched its long-awaited AI Copilot this week. Find out what a couple of cloud managed service providers think about the tool. Plus, Kyndryl, the IBM spinoff, has developed new services around Google Cloud’s offerings. Finally, Amazon Web Services recently made a big move in Europe. Get the scoop, starting with the latest on Broadcom-VMware.
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