Dell Technologies Inc. brought a big, fat cash cow back to the farm when it acquired VMware Inc. Despite VMware’s health in sheer revenue, some have muttered that it’s 2018, and the virtualization legacy needs to up its cloud-first game already. In response, the company is bringing new networking research and development out of hibernation and unveiling deeper integrations with partner Amazon Web Services Inc.

The news is helping to fade VMware’s embarrassing turn in its own cloud efforts a few years back. “VMware botched the cloud, and they’re kicking ass right now with cloud,” said John Furrier (@furrier), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the VMworld conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Furrier, along with co-hosts Dave Vellante (@dvellante), Stu Miniman (@stu) and James Kobielus (@jameskobielus), discussed VMware’s future in the multicloud and edge market, and Dell EMC’s financial outlook at this week’s VMworld conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. (* Disclosure below.)

The look, the feel of cloud-on-prem crossover

The big news at the conference is Amazon Relational Database Service, or RDS, on VMware on-premises. The move is the first of its kind for AWS, according to Furrier. RDS combines VMware’s NSX virtualized network with AWS’ Direct Connect and many other pieces. It marks VMware and AWS as co-conspirators in bringing multicloud out of techies’ dreams and into enterprise reality.

Amazon completes a trifecta of the top cloud players (Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Corp. Azure being the others) throwing their hats backwards into the data center. “All the better cloud guys are betting on-prem,” Vellante said.

The work put into NSX for the past several years is finally arriving and breathing new life into VMware, Miniman pointed out. “The networking and security pieces are why VMware has the right to sit at the table in this multicloud discussion,” he stated.

VMware is also making bold moves toward becoming a major provider of software-defined edge appliances, according to Kobielus. “That could be their next major revenue-producing business as the traditional hyper-visor VM world begins to wane,” he said.

Wikibon’s research shows that data center infrastructure has plenty of muscle to elbow its way to cloud-minded customers. “The True Private Cloud report shows that on-premise is going to be there, but it’s going to look and smell like cloud,” Furrier concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the VMworld conference. (* Disclosure: VMware Inc. sponsored coverage of VMworld, and some segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE are sponsored. Sponsors have no editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: VMware Inc.