Behemoths Amazon Web Services Inc., Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Corp.’s Azure might not have the entire cloud market cornered after all. Having tried large public clouds, some businesses find they lack crucial management oversight, according to Mike Franco (pictured, right), principal solution architect at Virtustream Inc.

“Clients are saying, ‘That was good, but as we start moving to these mission-critical applications, the applications that are running my business, we need a managed service,'” Franco said. Virtustream provides managed cloud services for both on-prem, off-prem and the gray area in between — that is, it shepherds on-prem companies transitioning to cloud.

Franco spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu) (pictured, left), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during this week’s WTG Dell EMC Users’ Group event in Boston, Massachusetts. (* Disclosure below.) 

EMC Corp. acquired Virtustream for $1.2 billion in 2015. Since EMC merged with Dell Inc. last year, Dell has leveraged Virtustream to beef up its cloud strategy.

Dell EMC and Virtustream’s hybrid vigor

One managed solution Virtustream provides sandwiches its managed cloud with Dell EMC’s hardware, Franco explained. These may involve “Dell’s converged platforms with the native hybrid cloud or Pivotal Cloud Foundry layered right on top of it with the tools to be able to manage it,” he said. Virtustream can tether this on-prem system back to its Enterprise Cloud and manage it for customers.

Virtustream announced further integration with its sister company Pivotal last May. Via this partnership, Virtustream’s Enterprise Cloud can now manage and run Pivotal Cloud Foundry. Cloud Foundry is familiar to many as an application development platform, but it also runs applications.

“Now that those applications are becoming stateful and a critical part of their business, they’re looking for somebody to manage that,” Franco said.

Thanks to the Dell EMC merger, Virtustream has recently adopted Winslow Technology Group LLC as a channel partner. A long-time Dell partner, Winslow consultants are now introducing Virtustream to many small-to-medium-size businesses. Virtustream’s managed cloud is an excellent fit for these SMBs, Franco concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of WTG Dell EMC Users’ Group. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for WTG Dell EMC Users Group. Neither Winslow Technology Group, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE