Buying VMware Firms, M&A In 2026 And The ‘Powerful’ VCF Platform: 11:11 Systems’ CRO Explains Vision

As 11:11 Systems continues to acquire VMware service providers at a rapid pace, CRO Dante Orsini explains his company’s VMware acquisition strategy, M&A this year and why VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is the platform of the future.

VMware global cloud services partner 11:11 Systems is acquiring fellow VMware cloud providers at a blistering rate due to the changes Broadcom’s has implemented inside VMware’s partner programs.

The Fairfield, N.J.-based company has now acquired six major VMware-based businesses over the past three years including: Faction, iland Cloud, Green Cloud Defense, Unitas Global, Sungard Availability Services and Ntirety.

“We’re very focused on people and companies that share the same focus on the VMware platform and have a history of being able to deliver for their clients,” said 11:11’s Chief Revenue Officer Dante Orsini (pictured above).

“We’re always looking. We have a banking team that’s always bringing us different opportunities, but we’re very disciplined in our approach,” Orsini said.

Broadcom officially terminated its former VMware Cloud Service Provider program (VCSP) in 2025, replacing it with a new, invite-only VCSP program. This move forced hundreds, possibly thousands, of former VMware Cloud Service Providers to be removed from the VSCP program.

Broadcom Pushing VCSP Partners To Acquire Others

CRN recently spoke with VMware’s Ahmar Mohammad, who crafted the new VCSP program, about the change.

“We are creating the purity of the program so that it means something when I say CSP, so a customer can expect a clear service level agreement with a clear outcome that they can drive from it,” said Mohammad, vice president of partners, managed services and solutions go-to-market.

Mohammad said his company wants VMware cloud service providers to grow bigger, potentially, by buying former VCSP companies.

“We want our CSPs to grow bigger and bigger and bigger and much faster, whether it’s acquiring the business of departing (VCSP) partners or buying them outright,” he said.

11:11 Systems is a top global VCSP partner who is doing exactly that.

In an interview with CRN, Orsini explains 11:11’s VMware acquisition strategy, M&A plans for 2026 and why the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform is winning in the market.

What is your strategy in buying companies with a solid VMware practice?

Our goal is to continue to invest in the VMware platform so we can grow.

Then at the same time, because of all the disruption that’s happening in the VMware partner community, when we look at other folks—there’s several different options we have.

If they’ve been cut from the [VMware Cloud Service Provider] program—which has happened most recently in the middle of July—it really puts those folks in a unique spot.

It depends on their existing footprint in their business, like, ‘How much of that business is predicated on a VMware-based platform?’

It’s creating an opportunity where those folks need to figure out, ‘How are they going to continue to drive the kind of service that their customers have been accustomed to on VMware when they’re no longer in the program?’

We see a couple different options.

One is what’s happening with Ntirety. They reach an inflection point where they believe that their best opportunity is to sell the business. That is what the best option was for Ntirety.

What are the options for these VMware-based companies who are no longer inside the VCSP partner program?

We also see a lot of folks who may have recently made significant investments in Capex. And they want to continue to sweat those assets as long as they can.

We also see that, depending on their mix of services, they may be very focused on managed services or managed security services—which are typically going to be more people heavy, not necessarily Capex intensive. It’s very difficult for providers to be both.

What I mean by that is, if you’re burdened with a lot of headcount and then you’re also Capex intensive—it’s a very difficult path forward.

So when we speak to folks like that, it makes so much sense for them to migrate their customers to our platform and continue to manage them where we’re still the underlying platform. So it allows them to continue to drive that top line revenue, maintain that customer experience, but at the same time, not be burdened with the capital expenditure to continue to invest in the infrastructure.

On the financial side of that, because they are able to buy from us at a wholesale rate and continue to manage top line revenue themselves and manage their customer base—they get a massive pickup on the bottom line revenue.

A lot of these folks are going to be regionally-based where 11:11 is globally based company. So we can open new markets for them.

Is 11:11 looking at more acquisitions of companies with a solid VMware practice in 2026?

Yep, 100 percent.

We’re always looking. We have a banking team that’s always bringing us different opportunities, but we’re very disciplined in our approach. Not everybody’s going to be a great candidate, right?

But from our perspective, we’re very focused on people and companies that share the same focus on the VMware platform and have a history of being able to deliver for their clients.

We’re always looking for good companies that have got great technical expertise, but also have happy customers.

From our perspective, because we’ve invested so much in the platform, we tend to find that we were already highly differentiated in that VMware Cloud service provider community.

So when we do find folks that have done a great job servicing their customers, usually our platform is a big upgrade for that customer base.

Why Ntirety?

Ntirety has a really good long-term customer base and the ability to deliver managed data-centric services, like database services—whether that’s on the VMware stack, or in some cases hybrid cloud.

In addition to that, they add some additional expertise on the network side which is very welcoming as we continue to expand. Delivering Network-as-a-Service is a very big part of our business.

Ntirety built up both a VMware hosting practice as well as the ability to deliver managed database services, regardless of where the workload exists—whether it’s in their environment, on a public cloud or in their own customers environment. We do the same thing, but they bring even more depth and breadth of different platforms that they support. So it’s accretive.

It gives us the ability to provide more value to our customers. Meanwhile, if I look at our platform and all the things that we build invested in, it brings a whole lot of opportunity to their customer base.

Talk about the future of VMware by Broadcom. What gets you excited?

There’s been so many people out there talking about the challenges and the decisions Broadcom has made, whether that’s in the direct market or the channel space.

But people need to really understand the investment that VMware and Broadcom have made in the platform. It’s unbelievable.

They’re investing [a large percentage] of VMware gross revenue in R&D with VCF 9.

There’s excitement we have on the investments that we’re making with Broadcom to deliver on that vision. I think a lot of people miss the amount of investment that Broadcom is making with VMware on the R&D front.

This is the first time you’ve ever seen a single, development team work on a platform together. Versus all the silos that used to be there before.

So as a cloud provider, that’s massive because they have a vision now where everybody is focusing on the same thing: How do you drive the best possible private cloud platform? And allow the customer to figure out how they’re going to consume it—whether it’s in their own data center, or whether it’s in ours?’

Why is 11:11 bullish on VCF and VMware’s future?

We bring a long history of working with VMware and we’ve integrated VMware squarely into our platform. So we’ve done that all via their API stack.

So we’re super excited about having the ability to deliver a single stack that can, not only perform and deliver management for VM workloads, but containers as well as AI workloads.

It’s all about how we can package, deliver and extend services to help the customer, not just meet them where they are, but get them to where they want to be.

Having a single, integrated platform that allows us to leverage all of our expertise—whether it be on the network side, the security side, or the overall scale and management component—it’s just really exciting for us.

You’re going to continue to see this market evolve. As people start to get beyond some of the frustrations they may have had in the last 18 months, and they really look at that powerful VCF platform—that’s what makes us excited.

Because the total sum of value that we can provide today is huge.