NerdioCon 2024: Nerdio Hypes Microsoft as Only Alternative for VMware Partners

NERDIOCON 2024 — Nerdio is endorsing Microsoft as a first-choice for VMware partners left scrambling for alternative desktop virtualization vendors.

Partners have been subject to uncertainty and confusion in the months following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. This included being told that Broadcom would officially end the VMware reseller program and its associated incentives.

Nerdio chief revenue officer Joseph Landes said Tuesday that partners should look no further than Microsoft for their next desktop virtualization vendor.

“We’re betting on Microsoft,” he told MSPs at NerdioCon 2024 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Landes referenced the disruption happening in the legacy desktop-as-a-service market. Alongside Broadcom, this also includes Cloud Software Group, which owns Citrix and Tibco, recently laying off  12% of its staff.

Nerdio's Joseph Landes on stage at NerdioCon 2024, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Feb. 13, 2024.

“I’ll tell you, quite honestly, what we think. Those companies are going to do what they think they’re going to — decide whether to invest, or more and more likely it’s the case they seem to be de-investing. But the thing that we’re super clear about is … if you are looking to build a successful practice using desktop virtualization, it’s very hard to make a bet on anyone else [but Microsoft] at this point.”

Related:Broadcom Invites 18,000 ‘Active’ VMware Resellers Into Partner Program

The company’s endorsement, of course, makes sense. Nerdio’s software helps MSPs migrate their SMB customers to the Microsoft cloud. And in 2023, Gartner acknowledged the company in its Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service report alongside Microsoft.

While not releasing any figures, Nerdio said it has doubled its annual recurring revenue over the past 12 months. Fueling this growth, it said, was organizations increasingly recognizing the benefits of transitioning from “traditional VDI solutions” to Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Windows 365. The company said it now influences $225 million of annual Azure channel revenue.

MSP: Nerdio Makes Transition to Microsoft Easier

The fallout of the Broadcom acquisition on VMware partners has also been a hot topic of conversation among MSPs attending the event. Peter Strahan, CEO of Dublin-based MSP Lantech, noted that if a partner has built their business on VMware or Citrix, it will take time and effort to switch. However, he said “it’s an important conversation to be having because you don’t want to be with a partner that is no longer invested or sees value in you anymore."

“The problem is," Strahan continued, "you’ve got people who are so deep into Citrix, so deep into VMware … moving to Microsoft, which was seen as the enemy for so long, is a huge task,” he said.

Related:All Is Not Lost: Vendors Rescuing VMware Partners Stranded by Broadcom

Nevertheless, Strahan said Nerdio is in a prime position help partners make the transition.

Lantech's Peter Strahan

“Nerdio makes that step to Microsoft a much smaller step,” he said. “With the Nerdio platform, somebody who’s maybe a VMware engineer can work it out very easily, very quickly, in layman’s terms. They can do the same things they were doing in VMware, with the Microsoft stack.

“Plus, it gives you more additional features around the management of the workstations, the workloads. So it’s not just about hosting the environments within that infrastructure. It’s, how do you manage all the applications, the security, the controls and patching, all of the requirements that are coming out of the modern day digital ecosystem with the risk of cybersecurity? Nerdio has built a stepping stone to the Microsoft ecosystem that makes it incredibly attractive.”

Nerdio Product Updates Include AI

Over the past year, Nerdio has also grown the number of MSPs it works with by 120% and added 250 enterprise SI partners.

At NerdioCon this week, the company is previewing a series of product updates. These aim to transform the management and cost optimization of virtual and physical desktops, applications and Azure infrastructure. This includes the infusion of artificial intelligence (AI) into Nerdio’s products. It said introducing gen AI assistants will aid IT administrators in scripted action generation, report creation, data analysis, and providing guidance across the product interface.