It’s been eight months since Broadcom Inc. acquired VMware, a move that has prompted plenty of analysis. Among many other subjects, this year’s VMware Explore has been a chance to unpack what’s going on with the cloud and cloud service providers around VMware, including when it comes to the IBM-VMware partnership.

The partnership goes back 20 years. It has involved investment and joint innovation, according to Brendan Kinkade (pictured), vice president of strategic technology partnerships at IBM.

Brendan Kinkade of IBM talks with theCUBE about the IBM/VMware partnership.

“We have a joint innovation lab where we’ve had probably 20-some-odd projects come through, and those have resulted in some of the foundational components of the cloud environment that we run VCF in today,” he said.

Kinkade spoke with theCUBE Research’s Rob Strechay at VMware Explore, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the IBM VMware partnership and the transition and impact of Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware.

Early VCF adoption strengthens IBM-VMware partnership

IBM were very early adopters of VCF. The company saw from customers that they wanted more than just naked vSphere, according to Kinkade.

“They wanted more of the stack. They wanted NSX, they wanted vSAN, they wanted vRealize. We were already naturally doing that with clients,” Kinkade said. “VCF was just, I would say, the natural evolution of that. Now it’s the only option, really.”

IBM was aware that a period of transition would follow after Broadcom acquired VMware, according to Kinkade. But it didn’t change the company’s strategy.

“We were fully committed. We never wavered at all. We had full belief in the stack and the value that we could bring to clients pretty uniquely around that stack,” Kinkade said.

When Broadcom acquired VMware, Kinkade sat in the executive briefing. The company has executed on its plan.

“With partners, [Broadcom’s Hock Tan] said, ‘I’m going to segment my accounts, and partners are going to work with us. We’re going to co-sell with you.’ And that’s actually come to fruition,” Kinkade said.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of VMware Explore:

Photo: SiliconANGLE