VMware Inc. is paving a path to public cloud through deals with Amazon Web Services Inc. and now Google Cloud Platform. Good for its customers; but will its many smaller partners fall by the wayside?

“Public cloud was a dirty word at VMworld a couple of years ago — now we’re embracing it,” said Stu Miniman (@stu) (pictured, second from left), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. After a series of fumbles — most notably, its vCloud Air platform — VMware appears to be getting serious about a stable cloud strategy.

Miniman discussed VMware’s ties to information technology’s past and its potential for the future with co-hosts Dave Vellante (@dvellante, right), John Furrier (@furrier, third from left) and Peter Burris (@plburris, left) during the close of day two at VMworld 2017 in Las Vegas. (* Disclosure below.)

VMware is striving to remain “open with an opinion” on cloud, according to Burris. It cannot afford to be static with companies seeking guidance though infrastructure migrations and digital transformation. If it says to a chief executive officer, “We’re throwing a bunch of spaghetti against the wall. Would you help us sustain these assets until we figure this all out?’ the CIO’s going to say, ‘Thank you very much, where’s Microsoft?'” Burris said.

Customers feel that the AWS deal, in particular, gives VMware — and them — a portal to the very best of cloud today and going forward. They’ve expressed such enthusiasm at the conference, Miniman stated. On the other hand, “Their partners are like, ‘It’s scary. I don’t know if I make any money. Is this now VMware and Amazon just go to the bank and they cut me out of the whole thing?” he said.

VMware’s smaller partners — and specialized cloud service providers generally — can survive by targeting industry verticals, according to Vellante. “But they better have a differentiation strategy relative to AWS,” he added.

Secret to winning platform war

Public clouds and smaller service providers can shore up their futures by focusing on compatibility with other platforms, according to Burris. The coming “platform wars” will favor not the fiercest but the friendliest, he added.

“The way the people are going to evaluate the quality of a platform is not intrinsic to the platform, but how well it binds to other platforms,” Burris stated.

Furrier added, “This is not a software vendor or a hardware vendor — it’s all going to be a data vendor at the end of the day, and we’ll see who can bring the stacks together.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VMworld 2017. Neither VMware Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE