The coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the way brands around the world use technology to conduct business. Companies that have embraced the digital transformation are more in need of advanced cloud-based solutions — like multicloud platforms — than ever before.

“There’s two extremes, and both of them are dealing with a very similar situation, all caused because of COVID,” said Sumit Dhawan (pictured), chief customer experience officer at VMware Inc. “On one end of the spectrum there are customers who are saying, ‘Listen, our business is doing extremely well because of digital.’ And all of a sudden, business needs this rapid agility, which can only be achieved through modern applications.”

Other companies, however, like those in the airline industry, are struggling with reduced demand. They want to use this slowdown to restructure how they approach the cloud by adopting multicloud solutions, Dhawan added.

Dhawan spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the all-virtual VMworld 2020 event. They discussed how the business world’s ongoing digital transformation has changed — and even accelerated — in 2020. (* Disclosure below.)

How businesses are unifying their tech across the cloud

One of the biggest challenges for cloud providers has been in preparing the enterprise for the future. They must help organizations adapt current solutions to fit in with new, multicloud options that take advantage of multiple cloud-based servers, according to Dhawan.

“We bring to the customers an architectural approach across multiple clouds that helps them [conform] when they go from their existing applications or new modern applications … to one operating model and one architecture,” Dhawan said.

Dhawan pointed to an airline customer that has 600 critical applications. “They segment them out on which ones they will truly modernize … and which ones they will live with the way they are, for multiple reasons,” he stated.

VMware starts out helping organizations, like its airline client, by connecting them with a unified architecture and a unified operating model.

“That is where the power of VMware comes in,” Dhawan concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2020. (* Disclosure: VMware Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither VMware nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE).

Photo: SiliconANGLE