VMware's strategy is to put control of IT back into the hands of the CIO, increase efficiency in everything the company does, and grow value for every stakeholder.
So said Henri van der Vaeren, vice president, South Europe, Middle East and Africa at VMware, during an interview at VMworld 2016 Europe in Barcelona. "It's all about value. Selling value, demonstrating value and implementing value. We have a broad life cycle with our customers, and it's about making sure that every contact moment with a customer, from early on in the first discussion, down to when we demonstrate value, and do the actual implementation, forms a value circle with our customers."
He says the company's first priority is to meet the right customers at 'C level', those who are in charge of the architecture. "CIO, CTO, or those in charge of transformation. Next we need understand what their architecture looks like, and where they want to go with their company. Only then we can help them design the digital architecture of the future and demonstrate the value of VMware.
"Once we have seen what the customer has, we can look at the vertical, be it retail, banking or telco, and decide what the best architecture for that vertical is. We can give them advice, and then design the architecture, and really calculate what the value will be," Van der Vaeren elaborates.
"However, beyond demonstrating the value, what we need to do, is to make sure that once we have done this, and signed the contract, ensure that we help them in the implementation phase. We need to take the people who will do the implementation at the customer, be it a partner or VMware itself, and make sure they are working together to achieve the value, essentially closing the loop. Providing value is not just serving the customer, it's us challenging the customer. If they bought something that will take them to the next level of modern digital infrastructure, we need to ensure it is properly implemented."
The CIO
Coming back to the role of VMware and its strategy, Van der Vaeren believes that there is a danger and an opportunity. "The danger is that if CIOs do not find a way to be back in charge, they might disappear. The IT spending of a CIO these days is single digit in terms of percentage increase. Shadow IT, or users buying directly, has taken control away from the CIO. It happens because users cannot cope with long waiting times that getting the technology they need through the IT department takes.
"However, is difficult and frustrating for CIOs, as they still have to handle the legacy technology alongside the shadow IT. While buying directly might save time, it results in security breaches and a loss of operational control."
On the flip side, he says the opportunity lies with the cross-cloud announcements made by VMware recently. "The fact is that when you look at IT architecture, there are different pillars. Computing, storage, networking, linking everything, end-user computing and mobility, those are the building blocks."
On the market there are technologies available for each of these pillars, many of them good solutions. However, none of them actually provide a consistent solution across all these pillars - only VMware has an end-to-end software solution. "So what do we do? We bring cost reduction and efficiency, by migrating hardware to software."
He says the VMware solution helps put the CIO back in charge across all those pillars and now across all the different clouds too. "Being in charge means being in operational control, in security control and in financial control. And without losing the agility that the business people have been enjoying with shadow IT."
Should the CIO implement cross-cloud, effectively cross-pillar elements from VMware, he or she can then go back to his colleague, and say they can buy from Azure, Amazon, SAP - whichever platform they choose, and the CIO can do the negotiating for them, and can do it in a matter of weeks, at a lower cost, with better security, on any device, and with a better operational system. That's what is going to drastically change the future for the CIO. VMware cross-cloud helps them regain control."
He leaves a message for CIOs: "Allow us to come and present that to you - don't think VMware is the guy talking about data centre or storage only, we are much more than transactional, more than bringing new solutions for data centre - we can bring true IT infrastructure transformation."
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