The State of the VMware Cloud Foundation Partner Ecosystem

349 days. Just under a year. That's how long we have been on this journey to become the new VMware as part of Broadcom. So as we approach the one year anniversary of the acquisition, let's reflect on where we've come from and where we are headed.

As I've noted before, when we stepped back and looked at the entirety of the VMware partner ecosystem, what we saw was that complexity and inconsistency had seeped into our program. So as we transitioned all of our partners into the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program, there was an opportunity to make adjustments and streamline our partner programs that would benefit not only our ecosystem, but also our customers. We set forth to make the world easier for partners and their customers to do business with us by leveling the playing field and bringing standardization and consistency across all of the company's routes to market. This we believed would enable partners big and small to play by the same set of rules and increase customer value and choice.

Today, we are far more focused and deliberate in how we approach our partners. And this is a good thing. We're starting to go deeper than ever before with partners that are committed to growing with us. They too see the opportunities for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) to deliver a private cloud platform that accelerates customers' AI, sovereignty, and security outcomes.

VMware Cloud Service Provider Program Continues to Grow

The new VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program is a pivotal aspect of our VCF strategy. With more than 2,700 partners now participating across three tiers, we have a healthy and growing VCSP program that has established a substantial community focused on providing managed cloud services tailored to a diverse range of business needs. Partners in Europe such as Deutsche Telekom and Telia are working to accelerate our mutual customers' infrastructure modernization, AI adoption, and cyber resilience. Today we have more than 150 VCSP partners across EMEA offering managed services for customers of all sizes

Recently, the program has seen significant updates aimed at enhancing partner capabilities and expanding their service offerings. These updates reflect Broadcom's commitment to simplifying and optimizing the cloud service experience for partners, ultimately enabling them to deliver more value to their customers. The program enhancements include improved tools for billing and management, streamlined onboarding processes, and expanded training resources to help partners better navigate the evolving cloud landscape. In particular, the white label program is proving

Addressing the Need for Sovereign Cloud

Within the VCSP program, sovereign cloud is a key focus area. Today, 100+ countries have their own laws governing how data should be managed and stored within their sovereign borders, and many of these regulations are evolving constantly. The European Union, in particular, has emphasized cloud sovereignty, with an increasing focus on ESG principles, control over potentially disruptive technologies, and corporate accountability.

VMware enables 50+ Sovereign VCSPs to offer sovereign cloud services based on VCF, including more than 30+ across EMEA. This is the largest footprint of independent sovereign CSPs in the world. Sovereign VCSP partners meet the requirements for a local legal entity that owns, operates and manages the sovereign cloud with complete jurisdictional control, local data residency, and portability without lock-in (full reversibility). Here's what some of our Sovereign Cloud partners have to say.

"Data sovereignty requirements in Germany are some of the most stringent in the world, guided by both GDPR and other national regulations. plusserver is a leading authority in understanding these requirements, and helps customers operate in a secure and compliant manner. We have been focusing on digital sovereignty for many years now, including through our involvement in Gaia-X. As a thought leader in this area, we offer sovereign cloud solutions from our certified German data centers. One of these solutions is based on VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). By delivering sovereign VCF-based cloud services from our in-country data centers, we can ensure customer data remains within German borders."​ - Katharina Cordes​, Product Director pluscloud VMware​, plusserver GmbH

"The demand for sovereign cloud solutions that can help ensure national autonomy is on the rise in the Nordic countries. As a Pinnacle Tier VCSP partner, we are well positioned to meet the data residency and security requirements for our customers. Our Sopra Steria SolidCloud platform is built on VMware Cloud Foundation, which enables us to deliver a flexible and scalable sovereign cloud infrastructure. VMware Cloud Foundation enables us to innovate and deliver sovereign cloud services quickly by providing built-in compliance management, operations and security capabilities."​ - Roger Samdal​, Agency Director Hybrid Cloud​, Sopra Steria

"STC offers Sovereign Cloud services built on VMware Cloud Foundation that meet the specific needs of businesses and government entities in Saudi Arabia. Our services aim to foster trust, security, and compliance in cloud computing while supporting the broader digital transformation goals of the region. Unlike native public clouds, our 100% local infrastructure helps ensure complete data sovereignty and compliance with local regulatory requirements." -​ Mohammed Khamis Balobaid​, Executive Head, Cloud & Digital, Solutions by STC

"For customers needing Sovereign Cloud for highly sensitive public sector and commercial data, never has it been more important to ensure that data is secure. RedCentric has developed innovative sovereign cloud solutions built on VMware Cloud Foundation that enable data mobility and independence, with the flexibility to adapt to changing regulations and technologies." - Steve O'Brien​, Managing Director - Cloud and Cyber​, Redcentric Solutions Ltd

Hyperscaler Cloud Partnerships Expand

Broadcom's partnerships with major hyperscalers like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud provide significant value for VMware Cloud Foundation users that want to extend their on premises private clouds into the public cloud. A key feature of these partnerships is the support for license portability, which is an entitlement that allows our customers to easily extend their VMware workloads across different cloud platforms. Azure VMware Solution and Google Cloud VMware Engine now support this portability, enabling organizations to manage their VMware workloads seamlessly across different environments. This capability simplifies deployment, reduces costs, and enhances operational agility, making it easier for businesses to adapt to changing demands.

At EXPLORE 2024 Barcelona, we are continuing to expand these relationships. You can read about how we plan to bring together our VMware Live Recovery product with Google Cloud VMware Engine, as well as how we will support Microsoft's Azure AI Video Indexer, on VMware Private AI running on VMware Cloud Foundation, in our announcement this week.

Targeted and Strategic Technology Partnerships

Our technology partner ecosystem has always been core to VMware. You cannot deliver a platform without an ecosystem to support it. Today, hundreds of technology partners continue to be validated to run on vSphere, the core virtualization technology of VCF. And, as I noted above, we look for strategic opportunities to go deep with partners that truly extend and add value to the VCF platform, especially in areas such AI and machine learning.

NVIDIA is a perfect example of this. With the announcement at VMware Explore 2023 in Las Vegas of VMware Private AI with NVIDIA, Broadcom and NVIDIA created a vision of an enterprise-grade, robust generative AI solution focused on privacy, choice, flexibility, performance, and security for our enterprise customers. The solution became generally available earlier this year, and we've continued to innovate while already creating momentum with customers.

And as organizations modernize infrastructure with VMware Cloud Foundation, they want to know that the services upon which they rely from industry-leaders will continue to work seamlessly and deliver the value they have come to expect, which is why we have continued to build our collaborations with partners such as NetApp.

More recently we've looked at how we are supporting the needs for our customers' virtual desktop infrastructure deployments. We recently shipped support for our core GPU virtualization technology vSGA with Intel® Data Center GPU Flex 140. This allows customers to double the VM consolidation for 3D accelerated applications, creating a great TCO opportunity for our customers running VDI from partners such as Omnissa. VCF extends Intel GPU's capabilities with vSGA to deliver enhanced manageability, consolidation and user experience for customers. You can learn more about this in our blog here.

Co-engineering with Value Added OEMs Delivers Impact

Broadcom's Value Added OEM (VAO) partners are integral to the company's ecosystem, offering co-engineered solutions for VMware Cloud Foundation. The continuous evolution of these partnerships underscores Broadcom's strategy of fostering collaboration that drives innovation and delivers tangible benefits to customers. Shipping versions of these co-engineered solutions are available today from Dell Technologies, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Hitachi Vantara and Lenovo. For our customers in Europe, we're excited to announce that Fujitsu has announced their new co-engineered solution - PRIMEFLEX for VMware Cloud Foundation, which you can read about in their blog here.

Through a rejuvenated ecosystem committed to adding value to customers through continued innovation, Broadcom and its partners are enabling the private cloud everywhere with VMware Cloud Foundation. Together we are unlocking the promise of AI in the enterprise, delivering new levels of organizational resilience, and supporting the privacy and digital sovereignty demands of customers around the world.

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