Platform9 Unveils Partner Program Offering VMware Cloud Migration Services

A new partner program from Platform9 offers to help provide VMware Cloud migration services for VMware customers that want to move their business-critical deployments in the aftermath of the company’s 2023 acquisition by Broadcom.

The first-ever Platform9 partner program is built to assist VARs, systems integrators, and MSPs in helping their customers transition away from the VMware Cloud while leveraging their existing storage and server infrastructures, a huge benefit in such migrations. Under the program, VMware customers can switch by moving their workloads over to Platform9 Private Cloud Director.

“We want to be the neutral meeting ground where customers and partners can build solutions that meet their needs, together,” Emilia A’Bell, chief revenue officer of Platform9, told ChannelE2E. “This partner program helps us do that.”

In the past, Platform9 has worked with partners on a case-by-case basis when customers needed such assistance, she said, but unrest among some VMware customers since the acquisition caused Platform9 to create its own partner program for migrations, said A’Bell.

“Based on the size of the opportunity we are embracing, we have decided to formalize what we were already doing into a structured partner program,” she said. “With so many VMware customers looking for help, we felt now was the right time to put some formal structure around what we are doing with partners.”

The Platform9 partner program will allow customers to maintain existing relationships they want to preserve and “keep what they need to keep while they change what needs to be changed,” she said.

“VMware customers are in a lot of pain as they deal with the sudden disruption to their infrastructure stack,” said A’Bell. “They are looking for alternatives, not just to replace some infrastructure and tools, but to build a strategic relationship with partners they can trust.”

Platform9’s Private Cloud Director uses highly automated migration processes to make these migrations easier by handling virtualized workloads and container-based workloads, microservices, cloud-native software development, and more, said A’Bell. Platform9 Private Cloud Director enables advanced integration with more than 50 technology platforms, including NetApp, Pure Storage, Tintri, HPE, Dell EMC, Commvault, Veritas, Trilio, and Storware, according to the company.

VMware Migrations Fueled by Discontent: Analysts

Shelly Kramer, founder and principal analyst with Kramer&Co., told Channel E2E that similar VMware migration service offerings have multiplied in recent months.

“It is no secret that a number of VMware customers have been bailing, looking for alternatives since the Broadcom acquisition,” said Kramer. “This is due, in part, to things like a shift to a subscription-based model, the retirement of perpetual licenses, and price increases. Changes to the channel program have also been met with opposition and dissatisfaction.”

At the same time, “VMware customers have been thinking about the dangers of vendor lock-in and looking around for alternatives, but migration can be both complex and costly,” said Kramer. “Platform9 claims to be able to migrate virtual machines to its private cloud at about 1/10th the cost of competitive solutions – that is the money line at a time when cloud costs are rising, AI costs are rising, and CIOs across the board are looking for ways to control and manage costs.”

As Platform9 rolls out its new partner program, the company “appears to be following the lead of many in the channel, developing and rolling out an attractive, lucrative offering for partners, including some very cool training opportunities,” said Kramer. “This is what people are looking for – I am glad to see what Platform9 is doing here.”

Another analyst, Jack E. Gold, principal analyst at J.Gold Associates LLC, said he is seeing similar scenarios.

“There are many dissatisfied VMware customers,” he said. “But also, many smaller ones are being cut off by VMware as it looks to maximize revenues and limit support to clients that are big enough to make their cut. That goes for the channel as well with many smaller channel partners not getting agreements renewed.”

This situation is becoming an opportunity for other vendors, said Gold.

“It is logical for many companies to try and pick at the remains that VMware, under the new Broadcom management, has left behind,” he said. “I think Platfomr9 is trying to take advantage of this market turbulence.”