Hybrid cloud optionality is becoming more important as enterprises distribute applications across private clouds, public clouds and colocation facilities. Workload requirements for latency, security, compliance and proximity make a universal placement strategy increasingly impractical.

Mergers, acquisitions and earlier cloud-first strategies can leave companies managing fragmented estates across Amazon Web Services Inc., Microsoft Corp.’s Azure and private infrastructure. Modernization therefore begins with assessing each organization’s current environment and desired destination, according to Rob Carter (pictured), chief executive officer of Lightedge Solutions Inc.

“Hybrid optionality is: What’s the right thing for our customer? Everyone talks about going where the puck is going. Well, where are you right now?” he said. “Everyone’s in a different phase.”

Carter 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 managed infrastructure, Lightedge’s partnership with Broadcom Inc. and matching cloud platforms to individual business needs. (* Disclosure below.)

Managed services expand hybrid cloud optionality

Operating distributed infrastructure requires expertise across storage, networking, virtualization, security and disaster recovery. Managed providers can assume that responsibility through platforms such as VMware Cloud Foundation, allowing customers to concentrate resources elsewhere while retaining flexibility over their cloud environments.

“Either you do it yourself and you have to build that bench. Storage engineers, virtualization engineers, network — there’s so much that goes into it,” Carter said. “Production versus disaster recovery, security — there’s a lot coming our way. It’s not the servers, it’s not the hypervisor, it’s not that piece. We will handle that layer for you.”

Lightedge is one of 14 U.S.-based VMware Cloud Service Provider Pinnacle partners, but its hybrid cloud optionality also spans public cloud and colocation. That range should support workload-specific decisions instead of creating pressure to sell one available platform, according to Carter.

I’m not going to say, ‘Hey, you must do … VMware,’ when that might not be the right [choice] for your business or that business unit, or vice versa,” he said. “Where do you need to be, and [how do we] put you in the right place versus jamming you into something just because that’s what I have to sell? That’s where companies get in a bad spot.”

Here’s the complete video interview with Rob Carter, part of theCUBE’s coverage of VMware Explore 2026:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the VMware Explore event. Sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE