Private cloud choices shift as Dell adapts to market – News

It has been two years since Broadcom Inc.’s acquisition of virtualization powerhouse VMware Inc. was finalized, changing the landscape for the enterprise private cloud.

The transition was significant in the private cloud arena. Companies noted higher prices and reduced marketing resources from VMware, while a simplified subscription model and renewed focus on top-tier firms have fueled new momentum for Broadcom, according to Caitlin Gordon (pictured), vice president of product management at Dell. This new reality has translated into different customer conversations with VMware’s and Broadcom’s major partners, such as Dell Technologies Inc.

“This acquisition, the pricing and the packaging change, some of the route-to-market changes, has really affected the way [our customers are] thinking about how they’re going to design and architect their private clouds, and even who they want to partner with,” Gordon said. “Ironically, [it] even has fed into how they’re thinking about their AI architectures as well.”

Gordon spoke with theCUBE’s Rob Strechay at the recent “5 Steps to a Smarter Private Cloud” event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, News Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how Dell has adjusted its strategy and portfolio to meet changes in the private cloud market. (* Disclosure below.)

Weighing private cloud options

As customers assess their private cloud options, they are confronted with a wide range of choices. In addition to VMware, Gordon noted that Dell also partners with providers such as Microsoft Corp. and Red Hat Inc.

“The breadth of choice is not the problem,” Gordon said. “Who are the right partners that you want to bring into your data center? With Microsoft, you want to optimize for more of a hybrid cloud. With Red Hat, you’re optimizing more on a container platform. Our whole strategy is to help not just with the choice of who, but to make sure that no matter what choice you make, the architecture and the infrastructure underneath can support that today.”

There is also the Dell Private Cloud, launched in May. The offering is designed to provide an appliance-like experience with the flexibility of an open-software system. Customers can access validated blueprints from Dell’s partners such as Broadcom, Nutanix and Red Hat.

“The Dell Private Cloud is the culmination,” Gordon said. “I’ve been here for now 20 years and it’s bringing together all the innovation we’ve had over that time. It brings together the simplicity, and the automation, the validation work that we always built into our industry-leading hyperconverged infrastructure portfolio.”

Despite customer uncertainty surrounding the changes at VMware, Dell is finding that this has not diminished interest in flexible solutions for hyperconverged infrastructure, according to Gordon. HCI is all about choice, and Dell’s approach has been to emphasize the flexibility that comes with a disaggregated solution.

“Now you know you can move to something and you can move off of it when you need to, and that’s really critical, because you have the storage that you’re sharing, you have the compute that’s open, and you have the great automation software from the Dell Private Cloud that goes with that,” Gordon said. “The biggest thing for us is we have the privilege of having one of the biggest VMware install bases in the entire world. We have industry-leading infrastructure and industry-leading IP to simplify these. So, we really have the unique and privileged position of helping our customers here.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of News’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the “5 Steps to a Smarter Private Cloud” event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “5 Steps to a Smarter Private Cloud” event. Neither Dell, Intel or AMD, the sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or News.)

Photo: News