Pat Gelsinger’s 5 Boldest Remarks To Dell Partners At Partner Summit

‘We see that these technologies and the momentum that we’ve built, the solutions that we’ve architected over the last 18 months, really positioning us like no one else,’ said VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger on stage at Dell’s Global Partner Summit.

Gelsinger Takes Center Stage

Over 4,000 Dell Technologies partners cheered as VMware CEO Pat Geslinger took the stage at Dell’s Global Partner Summit this week to reinforce the channel benefits of tighter integration between VMware and Dell, saying that Dell Technologies has “defied gravity.”

“We see that these technologies and the momentum that we’ve built, the solutions that we’ve architected over the last 18 months, is really positioning us like no one else,” said Gelsinger on stage at the Partner Summit, which occurred simultaneously at Dell Technologies World this week in Las Vegas. “We’re partnering across our ecosystem, but this relationship with Dell and VMware is unique and powerful. We have defied gravity.”

Dell and VMware are integrating faster and more closely than ever as seen through a slew of new joint offerings, including the Dell Technologies Cloud and Unified Workspace. CRN breaks down the five biggest statements Gelsinger made to Dell partners, including “the resolution of a long-standing conflict between VMware and Microsoft.”

‘Tremendous Progress Over The Last 18 Months In Putting These Pieces Together’

We’re here to enable and answer these five questions for any customer: What’s their hybrid cloud architecture? How is multi-cloud going to occur? How can we enable them for cloud-native or modern apps? How do we transform their network and security environment? And what does it mean to really empower their workforce, and doing that with a digital workplace? We’re deeply compelled to innovate and drive so we can answer these questions for every one of our customers. For that, you see them aligning extremely well with our Dell Technologies partners. We’ve made tremendous progress over the last 18 months in putting these pieces together into integrated solutions. For the hybrid cloud, we’re uniquely positioned with VMware Cloud Foundation to have this platform, this consistent substrate now as part of the Dell Technologies Cloud that we’re uniquely bringing together the broadest set of cloud solutions in the industry built on the best stuff on earth. As I always like to say about VMware Cloud Foundation, we’re No. 1 in compute, networking, storage and management. If you’re going to make a really great meal, you start with the best ingredients, and we have the best ingredient at every level of the stack. For that, our solutions for every one of them are coming together in this very, very powerful way to deliver on this hybrid cloud strategy.

‘Cisco Played Such An Important Role, 30 Years Ago’

Cisco played such an important role, 30 years ago, in really giving that underlayment for how people can build and operate their data center environments. Today, it must be done in a software overlay that transcends across multiple clouds, multiple silos and that’s exactly what VMware NSX is all about. We’ve been actively building out this platform with great success. Last year, it grew over 50 percent year over year. We’re now seeing that customers really get it with what they need for a network. The hybrid cloud world—this idea of an end-to-end network that goes all the way to the edge with SD-WAN to my core data center through to my cloud—is a critical component to enable a multi-cloud, hybrid cloud future. Further, it needs to include intrinsic security. Intrinsic security, to me, is so powerful because most companies might have one or two server vendors, storage vendors or networking vendors—but they might have 100 security vendors. It’s simply impossible to deliver a secure environment. We must build more of those capabilities in to lower the attack surface and build a more secure infrastructure. That’s exactly what we’re going to do. Finally, we’re going to send it into the telco and this radical build-out of a 5G world that’s soon upon us over the next few years.

‘Resolved’ Microsoft Conflicts

The power of the digital workplace, our new announcements are quite exciting in this regard. Working with our Dell counterparts to build this common underlayment with Workspace ONE, directly into the Dell client solutions, it really empowers the digital workplace but also the resolution of a long-standing conflict between VMware and Microsoft, and how we’re going to build that environment. We’ve brought all the pieces together—Workspace ONE into Microsoft Azure, bringing together a Windows virtual desktop with Horizon as a service. We’ve resolved all of those conflicts. So we now have a single solution that is best in class for a multi-device future as well.

‘It’s Our Role Together To Be The Porters And Guides’

Uniquely with you, our partners, it’s our role together to be the porters and guides of our customers’ digital transformations. [We are] the ones that are running ahead. The ones that are showing the way and setting up camp and making it easy for this dramatic business transformation that they have to be on. It really is this unique position that we’re in now. The view from the top and the opportunity we have to lead our customers on that journey and to be able to guide them to the top of their digital transformation—because it is a transformative journey—it’s uncertain. Are they going to be able to make it to the top? They need the experience, talents and capabilities we have to offer to enable their digital transformation. Inside of that, as we’re on this journey—where are we going? It’s easy when you’re climbing a mountain to say, ‘I want to get to the top.’ But we’re off painting this picture of where we’re going into the future. This is what we call the role of VMware to help set this essential, ubiquitous digital foundation for our customers’ journey. … We’re uniquely positioned to cross these cloud silos and really view it—just like how we used to say with servers, we make it OK for any server to be a foundational element of the data center—now it’s any cloud, and make it foundational for the data center.

‘Thank You’

Overall, we see that these technologies and the momentum that we’ve built, the solutions that we’ve architected over the last 18 months, is really positioning us like no one else. We truly are in a unique time in history where never before have we had so much value and the needs of our mutual customers to be so incredible. That’s the path that we’re on. Thank you for the opportunity to partner with Dell, but even more importantly to partner with each one of you and help enable the porters and guides for our customers and their digital future. We’re seeing this relationship as gaining momentum. We’re seeing it as enabling these new solutions. We’re partnering across our ecosystem, but this relationship with Dell and VMware is unique and powerful. We have defied gravity.