VMware put a greater focus on managed services in its partner program announcement last month, citing greater numbers of its VMware partners that were adding or planning to add managed services to their existing business models.Now VMware is doubling down on these plans, layering additional program elements over the company’s existing managed services partner program to make it easier for channel partners to deploy and work with these services at their end-customers.
What is VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services?
Scott Bergquist, senior director of Ecosystem Solutions, VMware
The new parts of the program are called VMware Cross-Cloud managed services. These are a set of prescriptive offers that provide enhanced partner and customer benefits intended to help partners expand their managed services practices.Scott Bergquist, senior director of ecosystem solutions at VMware, told ChannelE2E that these new offerings fall into the following categories:
Hybrid cloud with the VMware private cloud and sovereign cloud offers built on VMware. This lets MSP customers leverage their current on-premises infrastructure investments using private clouds. Customers can then also have that same experience within the VMware cloud-providers, off premises.
Public Cloud, which is powered by VMware Cloud (VMC). Bergquist said this is starting with VMC on AWS as hybrid cloud offers for those asset-lite MSPs (i.e., those MSPs without the on-premises infrastructure)
Native public cloud and modern apps, which encompasses another set of services. These are designed to accelerate customer adoption of native public cloud across cloud platforms. Centralized governance is powered by VMware Aria for Multi-Cloud. Cost Optimization is powered by VMware Aria Cost, and Cloud Native App Delivery is powered by VMware Tanzu.
What New Incentives are Offered in VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services?
VMware is also rolling out a set of enhanced go-to-market capabilities including improved incentives -- both financial and non-financial -- to help partners develop their certifications and proof cases on these, Zia Yusuf, senior vice president of Strategic Ecosystem and Industry Solutions told ChannelE2E.Breaking it down, improved incentives include the following:
Improved incentives. Badged partners can potentially earn up to 40% more rewards for providing assessments and proofs-of-concept, up to 100% more than non-badged partners for deployment services, and significantly more back-end rebates for selling VMware Cross-Cloud managed services through the new Sell incentive in Partner Connect.
Greater flexibility. A new “bring your own subscription” option lets customers deploy existing VMware subscriptions to VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Service Provider environments, letting customers get maximum value from their subscriptions through the support and expertise of qualified VMware partners.
Go-to-market alignment. A new co-selling program will let VMware support Cross-Cloud Managed Service Providers in demand generation and selling and closing activities.
Ease of doing business. Partners can expect more deal protection on SaaS-related sales.
Chris Swadish, hybrid cloud business leader for North America at Softchoice, a VMware partner, had this to say about the new program:
“When it comes to managing complex multicloud strategies, our experience has shown that the do-it- yourself approach may not yield optimal results. Optimizing cloud governance, security, costs, and overall performance requires a distinct set of skills that can be missing in organizations large and small. With VMware Cross-Cloud managed services and our proven operational expertise, Softchoice will help keep customers agile, competitive, and running smoothly as they adopt multi-cloud to accelerate their digital innovation.”
Jessica C. Davis has spent a career as a journalist and editor covering the business of technology including chips, software, the cloud, AI, and cybersecurity. She previously served as editor in chief of Channel Insider and later of MSP Mentor. She now serves as editorial director for CyberRisk Alliance’s channel brands, MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E.
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