As part of our effort to get the channel community better informed and get an earful of what the leading vendors are thinking, expecting, and planning for the channel community in 2022, we have started this new section to record the channel predictions of the most prominent players of the IT industry.
Here, as part of this special series of Tech Forecasts, VMware India registers its predictions for 2022.
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“We continue to focus on our strengths in areas such as the core, data center, VMware Cloud foundation, hyper-converged, software-defined networking, software-defined storage. Partners should expect some new things to come out of these in the near future.”
Raghuram Krishnan
Director, Channels and Partner Sales,
VMware India
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In a special interaction with SME Channels, Raghuram Krishnan – Director, Channels and Partner Sales, VMware India, shares his company’s Channel Predictions for the year 2022. Edited excerpts…
Give a brief introduction about your company.
VMware is a leading innovator in enterprise software and offers a breadth of digital solutions that powers apps, services, and experiences that enable organizations to deliver the best customer service and empower employees. VMware streamlines the journey for organizations to become digital businesses to deliver better experiences to their customers and empower employees to do their best work. Our software spans App Modernization, Cloud, Networking & Security, and Digital Workspace. We work to solve our customers’ toughest challenges through disruptive technologies like edge computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning, Kubernetes, and more to define the digital foundation that will accelerate the next wave of innovation.
As the pandemic is still there and a new variant has surfaced, what are the major market trends you are forecasting for 2022?
In the next few years, we expect to see the emergence of a cloud-agnostic federated data fabric as enterprises transition from traditional systems and successfully operationalize a multi-cloud architecture. With ransomware attacks on the rise, we will see more tech companies work with the open-source community, academia, cybersecurity institutions, and government agencies to meet the challenges around data protection and cybercrime.
We will also see the emergence of tools that bring the Kubernetes (K8s) patterns to new domains. Kubernetes has a lot of potential, and we will see an increasing number of systems leverage the manifest-based model popularized by K8s. This will help organizations address challenges in areas like AI/ML, stream-based processing, app integration, and other areas without having to make significant ‘full stack’ investments in platforms. As remote working gathers pace, one of the major trends we predict in the end-user computing space is the broad adoption and general acceptance of password-less authentication — something we believe is a “must-have” moving forward. VPNs are soon going to be a thing of the past as the pandemic has exposed its vulnerabilities to attackers.
What major trends are you forecasting in the channel market?
Our goal is to be the world leader in multi-cloud computing. Today, VMware’s business is truly empowered by our strong network of channel partners. With customers deploying their applications across multiple clouds, data centers, and the edge, our partners have the opportunity to engage with VMware more than ever. We are working with our channel partners, to help them grow their traditional business and take advantage of all of the interest and spending that customers are doing in new areas like modern applications, cloud, security. We continue to focus on our strengths in areas such as the core, data center, VMware Cloud foundation, hyper-converged, software-defined networking, software-defined storage. Partners should expect some new things to come out of these areas in the near future.
Which areas do you want to focus in the channel – skillsets – sales and marketing, vertical and technology practice development, service capability, etc.?
At VMware, we are committed to continuously evolving our partner program to adapt to industry demands and customer expectations. We launched the Partner Connect program in February 2020 to provide our partners with a single and consistent program experience with the flexibility and choice to realign their business models to meet their customers’ most pressing needs. In 2021, we launched the Customer Lifecycle Incentives Program, the next evolution of VMware’s Partner Connect Program to help partners facilitate the end-to-end digital transformation for their customers. We are giving our partners more support and tools to enhance their skills to help differentiate and transform their business and VMware practices. We are confident that with the right tools, our partners will be able to advise our customers better. We are also constantly evolving our approach with our customers in mind and the idea that they should feel confident when choosing to go with a VMware partner.
How are you helping your customers on their quest for digital transformation?
VMware is in a unique position to help customers on their digital transformation path wherever they are in their journey. We are helping our customers move to the cloud, taking advantage of multiple clouds, and doing so with our technology. The industry is moving toward a world of highly distributed, multi-cloud computing and a distributed workforce, and we are here to support our customers with freedom and choice to connect it all.
