The opening day of Dell Technologies Inc.’s annual user conference in Las Vegas kicked off with the announcement of a partnership between VMware Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The deal provides Azure cloud customers with the ability to use VMware’s virtualization software in managing information technology operations.

Today’s announcement featured a trio of high-powered industry chief executives sharing the conference stage. Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger all appeared at today’s event.

“It’s a VMware story,” said Dave Vellante, co-host of theCUBE, SilicoANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, on the opening day the Dell Tech World event. “If it weren’t for VMware, Nadella wouldn’t be here. I love the collaboration across the divisions.”

Vellante appeared with John Furrier and Stu Miniman, co-hosts of theCUBE. They discussed highlights of the joint Dell/Microsoft/VMware announcement and how this will position the companies for growth in the hyperconverged market (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Pressure on Amazon

The news adds another chapter to the ongoing saga of enterprise players seeking to take advantage of cloud services combined with on-premises infrastructure. Today’s joint partnership will likely add further pressure for Amazon Web Services Inc. to continue down its previous path when it released Outposts, an on-premises extension of AWS, late this year.

“Amazon’s weak link is they don’t have a software as a service business,” Furrier noted. “An on-premises infrastructure set up to look like the cloud ultimately will do well.”

The latest news will also likely strengthen Dell’s already formidable leadership in the hyperconverged infrastructure market. The company has developed a number of assets for hyperconverged systems and software to complement the on-prem component of the hybrid cloud.

“They are a leader,” said Miniman, in his discussion of Dell’s and VMware’s hyperconverged positioning. “They’re still beating the market in growth, but they are doing that by gaining market share.”

A recent International Data Corp. report confirmed the Dell/VMware lead position in both hardware and software spending in converged infrastructure, with spending up nearly 15% in the fourth quarter alone.

“This is not a bad business to be in,” Furrier said. “A boom is coming.”

Below is the complete video analysis, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s extensive coverage of the Dell Tech World this week. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell Technologies World. Neither the sponsors of select segments of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: Dell