VMware Cloud Foundation adoption is moving beyond platform deployment toward measurable business outcomes. Broadcom Inc. is leaning on partners to connect VCF with customers’ wider security, automation and infrastructure strategies as artificial intelligence and hardware constraints add operational complexity.

After spending last year defining the platform’s value proposition, Broadcom is now focused on rapid deployment and deeper use of VCF capabilities. Partners are central to that effort because they bring long-standing customer relationships and expertise across the wider IT environment, according to Tara Fine (pictured, right), vice president of Americas Partners and Commercial Sales at Broadcom.

“Our partners really do make the vision of our platform a reality,” Fine said. “It’s kind of what ends up being the customer outcomes. We make a great platform … but without our partners, they don’t happen.”

Fine and Stephen Ayoub (left), co-founder and president of Ahead Inc., spoke with theCUBE Research’s Christophe Bertrand and co-host Alison Kosik at VMware Explore during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how partners are helping customers translate VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 capabilities into operational, financial and security outcomes. (* Disclosure below.)

VCF adoption moves from architecture to implementation

For Ahead, implementation begins by identifying what customers need to accomplish rather than selecting technology first. Once those business outcomes are defined, Ahead brings in teams capable of integrating VCF across the wider IT environment, according to Ayoub.

“What are they trying to drive to enhance the business? Is it security? Is it growth and sales?” he asked. “Once you build that, it’s having the right teams in place … to implement that vision and understanding, not just the basic platform, but how that plays into all the different components of the IT environment.”

VCF adoption at a regional bank initially involved renewing roughly 19,000 cores, Ayoub emphasized. After assessing its cloud workloads, load balancing, security and container strategy, the proposed footprint grew to 24,000 cores while incorporating networking, security and disaster recovery. The example illustrates how private cloud infrastructure decisions increasingly encompass financial impact, operational efficiency and risk.

“If you’re the [chief information officer] or the [chief technical officer] or the chief risk officer, change can be scary,” he said. “They don’t want to cross that bridge until they know they have the right partner that’s going to make sure they don’t introduce risk by making changes to the environment, but actually creates a better environment. At the end of the project, the entire environment is de-risked.”

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

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VMware Explore event. Neither Broadcom, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE