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Like it or leave: Analysts note what got emphasized at VMworld and what didn’t
Sometimes the strategic positioning of a company can become more obvious by observing who’s not on stage during its major annual conference than who is.
After a series of keynote presentations during VMworld 2019 on Monday and Tuesday, it was clear to those in attendance that the focus was on Dell EMC/VMware products more than any contributions from ecosystem partners.
“Clearly, the ecosystem partners who basically brought VMware to the position where it’s in through distribution are a little ruffled right now,” said Dave Vellante, co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the kickoff analysis on Day Three at the VMworld event in San Francisco. “Michael Dell is driving his products and his solutions through VMware, period, the end. If you don’t like it, leave.”
Vellante joined co-hosts John Furrier and Stu Miniman to discuss companies that were noticeably absent from the event and VMware’s strong focus on Kubernetes (see the full interview with transcript here).
No Nutanix, Red Hat limited
In addition to those not represented in the high-profile keynote presentations, the analysts also took note of some companies that had very limited visibility at the conference or were not even there at all.
Red Hat Inc., acquired by IBM Corp. last year for $34 billion, was kept at a lower level of sponsorship, according to the analysts. And notable among the missing was Nutanix Inc.
“The majority of Nutanix customers are VMware customers,” Miniman noted. “They are not here; they are not allowed to be at this show. That relationship is definitely frozen.”
With a laser focus this week on rolling out key features of its app-modernizing product portfolio, VMware placed one of its acquisitions — Heptio Inc. — in a prominent spot. The company, which was started by two co-creators of Kubernetes, has clearly emerged as a cornerstone of VMware strategic approach going forward.
“I’ve learned that the top execs of VMware are working hard to drive Kubernetes and cloud-native,” Furrier said. “The cloud-native thing is going to be interesting. It’s going to be a series of course corrections, but directionally they’re all in on it.”
Here’s the complete video analysis, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2019:
Photo: SiliconANGLE
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