The COVID-19 pandemic has led to most businesses speeding up digital transformation, and it’s no different for cloud computing and virtualization tech company VMware Inc. It’s accelerating its own transformation and its transition to software as a service to lead the next decade of innovation for its customers, according to Mike Hayes (pictured), senior vice president and chief digital transformation officer of VMware.

“We’re focused on our customers and how our customers can improve their own business models, whether it’s cost, flexibility, speed, imagining new things,” he said. “And at the same time, we’re transforming internally in order to bring ourselves into our exciting third chapter.”

Hayes spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during theCUBE on VMworld event. They discussed the need for companies to constantly rethink and invest in their digital strategy, VMware’s own journey of change, and how the company intends to continue helping businesses move forward in their transformation processes. (* Disclosure below.)

Keeping up with market changes

VMware is undergoing a business model transition from perpetual-license software to subscription and software as a service. The company follows a market trend: As Covid-19 has put a massive strain on budgets, SaaS is becoming more affordable for customers and, therefore, more powerful.

The agility to transform itself to keep up with the rapid market changes is critical for any business, according to Hayes.

“The organizations that win aren’t the organizations that prepare for tomorrow, but they prepare for the ability to change for tomorrow, and as the markets change, they stay ahead of that,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing at VMware, and that’s what we’re really excited about [with] our entire suite of products and services so that we can help organizations do the same.”

As the company drives its own transformation, its internal principles of simplicity, clarity and accountability guide the process, according to Hayes. And, unsurprisingly, that is what VMware also recommends and helps customers do. Another fundamental concept for the process is prioritization.

“One of the hardest things is prioritizing and saying: ‘How do we spend our resources in the smartest way possible so that we are doing the things that will have the greatest impact for our customers?’” he said. “[This is] something that we feel like we have a great plan for, and we’re excited about the execution over the coming year.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of theCUBE on VMworld event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for theCUBE on VMworld event. Neither VMware Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE