The major cloud providers are all throwing their hats into the cloud on-premises ring. It makes market sense since most enterprise customers aren’t abandoning their data centers. But can companies really enjoy public cloud from the comfort of home? Are these vendors “cloudwashing” ho-hum data-center tech? Are any really delivering the cloud operating model on-premises?

The offerings we’ve seen so far might best be described as “good enough,” according to Dave Vellante, co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. “But my view? It’s still not cloud. It doesn’t have the scale of cloud. It doesn’t have the economics of cloud. And when you peel the onion, it certainly doesn’t have the SaaS model and the consumption model of cloud — nowhere close yet,” he said.

The desire for on-prem cloud is real. The company that can bring truly cloud-like tech on-prem could drain market share from competitors.

Vellante spoke with co-hosts John Furrier and Stu Miniman during Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas. They discussed fantasy versus reality in on-prem cloud, as well as which providers are closest to realizing the dream (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Dell wants seat at big table; AWS continues chowing on market

Defining features of public cloud are continuous integration and continuous delivery and continuous deployment. We’re not quite there yet with cloud on-prem, but companies such as Amazon Web Services Inc. are bringing cloud services to enterprise data centers.

“It’s interesting how you see the enterprise trying to be like Amazon and Amazon trying to be like the enterprise,” Furrier said. 

Dell EMC is tapping its acquired VMware Inc. portfolio to build a compelling on-prem and hybrid cloud story. It just introduced VMware Cloud on Dell EMC. The companies say it delivers the simplicity and agility of public cloud as-a-service to data-center and edge locations. This marks a turning point for Dell and VMware, according to Miniman. For a while, the companies were throwing a lot of disparate infrastructure pieces at multicloud with no cohesive strategy.

“Dell is now putting themselves in there as a first-class citizen,” Miniman said. The company is saying, “We want a seat at the big table,” he added. 

This is a strong move for Dell, which is doing fine cashwise if not so much with stock traders, Furrier pointed out. “No one gets … how valuable Dell Technologies is,” he said. “They’re throwing off close to $7 billion in free cash flow.”

AWS and its Chief Executive Andy Jassy will likely continue to dominate in public cloud and cloud on-prem for the foreseeable future, according to Furrier. “As long as they don’t fall into the enterprise trap of trying to be too enterprisey,” he said, “I think Jassy’s got that covered.” 

Here’s the complete video analysis below, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Dell Technology World. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell Technologies World. Neither the sponsors of select segments of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: Dell