 Hi everyone, welcome back to DTW 2021, theCUBE's continuous coverage of Dell Technologies World, the virtual edition, my name is Dave Vellante and I've been watching the ebb and flow and transformation of cloud strategies from on-prem suppliers for a number of years. And it started with an aspiration to compete with their own public clouds. And over time it became clear that customers wanted them to focus rather on their enduring foundational platforms and evolve those to bring cloud-like experiences along with simplicity and agility and flexibility to the data center. And there's no more prominent example than VMware cloud. We've shared the data with you all as part of our breaking analysis. Customers are leaning in, they're placing bets and the spending on these platforms is rising. And with me to talk about this are two CUBE alums, Fidelma, Russo, Senior Vice President and GM of Cloud Services Unit at VMware and Travis V. Hill, who's the Senior Vice President Product Management at Dell Technologies. Folks, welcome back to theCUBE, great to see you again. Good to see you, Dave. Nice being here, Dave. So Fidelma, let's start with you. We've been seeing the rise of VMware cloud and we see it in our ETR survey data that VMware's cloud offerings, as well as Dell's, Travis, have some of the highest momentum within your respective company portfolios when it comes to relative customer spend. So customers are voting with their wallets. Fidelma, what's the update, what do we need to know about VMware cloud? So as you saw, Dave, we just did a big announcement at the end of March on VMware cloud being our multi-cloud platform. We truly believe that this is what customers want. They want a consistent experience, not just on the public cloud, but also on-prem. And we're delivering that experience across a multitude of platforms. With that, our relationship with Dell Technologies goes very deep. We've seen a big uptake in the data center where customers want a cloud operating model that is just like being in the public cloud, but because of things like latency, compliance, data sovereignty, there are really those applications that need to remain on-prem and that's where VMC on Dell EMC comes into play. Great, thank you, Fidelma. Now, Travis, we've had this scenario out there we had to pivot, of course, to remote work and now we're sort of forecasting that clearly we're seeing spending coming back, but there's this sort of dual strategy where people have to invest in hybrid work meaning and they also have to invest in the data center because it's kind of been neglected over the last year. So, but the problem is that there's a staff shortage. There's a skills gap. And so people are sort of leaning more into managed services. They're definitely looking at OPEX models because it gives them more flexibility. So that's more important to organizations. What is VMware Cloud on Dell EMC and how does it address those needs? Yeah, Dave, I think you're spot on and VMware Cloud on Dell EMC is a joint solution from VMware and Dell to provide infrastructure as a service delivered and deployed on-premises. And that on-premises could be a data center, it could be a co-location facility, it could be an edge location. And the great thing about it, as you pointed out is that customers don't have to worry about managing the infrastructure because it's managed for them. And if you look at the offering overall it has VMware software defined data center stack with compute storage and networking coming from Dell comes with flexible billing options. And Fidelma talks a little bit about some of the workloads that are staying on-prem whether that be for data sovereignty or compliance or performance or latency or any of the other deciding factors that Fidelma mentioned. But the other great thing about this solution and to your point is that it helps customers that are in this hybrid world both develop and run both traditional and cloud native applications on a single unified infrastructure. So we're seeing a ton of momentum, a ton of interest in this solution and solutions like it. I mean, Fidelma it's actually kind of scary. I mean, it's like the entire tech business is now just everything's growing. I mean, whether it's on-prem, laptops, new security solutions to crypto. I mean, it's just crazy right now but the data center is on fire. You see the chip shortage, you see all kinds of investments going on and organizations as you pointed out they want a hybrid solution. What are the workloads or use cases that are the best fit for on-premises and can benefit the most from this cloud service that you guys offer? Where are your customers finding success? So where we found success and not surprisingly regulated industries and industries where privacy and security are paramount. So let's talk a little bit about healthcare and what we've seen on BMC and Dell EMC. There we've seen it deployed on-prem to provide online access to clinical records via VDI and also access to analytics from out of remote centers where the clinicians work. So that's one aspect. Another aspect is in energy where we've seen deployments happen and it happened not just in the data center but also out at what I would call the fat edge. And so not unlike what you would think as we move forward here. And what I would say is there is a thread that's common amongst customers in areas where they have maybe a very mobile workforce COVID I think has played into actually not just accelerating to the public cloud but also accelerating the need to have this remote operation of data center infrastructure on-prem. So as you said, both on fire and we're seeing the uptake especially within regulated and compliant at industry birth bills. Great, thank you. So Travis, of course, we all saw the news a couple weeks ago and it was no surprise Dell's spinning out VMware. And as part of that is a special commercial agreement associated with that spin out. But wonder if you could tell us, what is this joint offer? How does it inform us about the future of VMware and Dell Technologies Phenoma mentioned? It's obviously a great channel. Dell that is sells a lot of VMware technology. So how should we think about this relationship going forward? And what's the next phase of this partnership going to look like? Yeah, I mean, I don't know an easier way to say it than VMware is a key strategic partner for Dell. And this relationship enables us to deliver unmatched value to current and future customers on a continuous basis. And if you look over the last couple of years the collaboration across Dell and VMware has never been stronger. We have shown our ability to partner very, very effectively on things like the X-Rail. And so if you look at what we're doing with VMware Cloud on Dell AMC, it's really about radically simplifying customers' IT experiences so that they can focus on business outcomes. And we have teams here at Dell Technologies. We have teams at VMware. They're hard at work at taking this offer and scaling it in the market. And we're also working on a longer term integration of VMware Cloud on Dell AMC within Apex, which is really going to further simplify the experience for our joint customers. So I mean, I think the easiest way to say it is that we're both committed to delivering the best enterprise class infrastructure services to our joint customers, including hardware and software integrated together. And I think this is just the start of many good things to come. Well, it makes sense. I mean, guys have obviously developed muscle memory over the years. It's like for years at EMC prior and obviously Dell you kind of wanted to hang on. It was sort of tethered to VMware but the time is right for that for a lot of reasons. But I wonder Travis, how do you see VMware Cloud on Dell AMC? Particularly you mentioned Apex. There's Apex, you have Apex Hybrid Cloud that you've announced that Dell Tech World and Apex Private Cloud. How do you see that fitting in? Yeah, it's all part of a portfolio solutions that we have for our customers. Dell Technologies, you've worked with us for a long time, Dave. And we always strive to provide the best solutions for our customers to match their needs. And so if a customer determines that they require a vendor managed cloud service, they want that single invoice billing, that completely managed solution for them. The best offering is obviously VMware Cloud on Dell AMC. If a customer determines that they have the IT resources to manage the infrastructure, they want the flexibility to Anna and manage services later, Apex Hybrid Cloud or Private Cloud is the best solution. But the great news is that all of these solutions showcase the partnership between Dell and VMware as all of them have a major VMware component, showcases our joint solutioning and all of them are available today via Dell. And so the only thing I can say is there's more to come in the future. So stay tuned for exciting announcements in the not too distant future. Well, Phenoma, the great thing about VMware and Dell is you were in it, you got VMware. A lot of people look back and say, wow, we could have had that for 635 million or whatever it was. And now it's just amazing to see how that the transformation has occurred. And I'll tell you how I see it. I mean, you've got this huge opportunity, you call it core to cloud to edge. I just see this abstraction layer that can be built out and if I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times that the next 10 years of cloud aren't going to look like the last 10 years of cloud. So I'm wondering, but you have relationships with the public cloud players, you've got special relationship with AWS obviously, IBM, Microsoft, et cetera, et cetera. How do you see VMware cloud on Dell EMC relative to the offerings that you have with other hyperscalers with the public cloud? So we think it's a very important compliment. And so I think been around this industry long enough to know that there's never one size fits all and that I think we're just coming into the next innings in cloud. As you said, the next 10 years won't be like the last 10 years. VMC on Dell EMC is the perfect compliment to other VMC offerings on top of the public cloud. And so most customers end up with, they will have public cloud for some applications native, they will have public cloud with VMware on us and then they will have the need to have something either in their data center or at a colo. And for their VMC on Dell EMC is the only heterogeneous one that can operate with all of the VMware options on the public cloud. So we think this is a really important play for us and our customers and dovetails nicely into our portfolio. Yeah, we got a little bit of time left. I wonder if I get your opinion on this. I mean, I think that obviously the public cloud is growing faster than the on-prem piece of it, but the on-prem piece is so much larger. So just a few percentage point growth in the on-prem can mean so much more revenue and value. And I think people forget about that sometimes. I think the other thing is, I think for years people misunderstood that, oh, it's like, it's not a zero-sum game, I guess is what I'm saying. And my point there is, if I'm you guys, I'm like, well, thank you public cloud guys for spending tens of billions of dollars a year. It's like building the internet. Thank you for that. Now we can build on top of it. And that's where I see the next 10 years, the real innovation that you guys can bring. The public cloud guys, maybe they're going to try to dabble in that, but I'm not sure I trust them to run my whole estate. If I'm a big Dell customer, I want to know, okay, what are you guys going to do for me in VMware? What are you going to do for me in terms of expanding? And that seems to be the direction that you're going. Like Fadelmi said, it's early innings. That whole idea of abstracting all that underlying complexity away, it just seems to me a huge opportunity for you and your customers. Yeah, we agree. I mean, even if you think about, you made a very important point, it's not a zero sum game, applications and workloads are growing. They're being driven by the development of modern applications on top of container technology. And so with our Tanzi technology from VMware, deployed across multiple cloud endpoints, we give you a lot of choice on where you want to develop those applications. You'll see us embedding it in many of our offerings, including VNC on Dell EMC. And we're seeing a huge uptake on interest within the data center customers and within to start to develop modern applications on-prem. And so as you said, it's not a zero sum game and a few percentage points in uptake in data center will be good for everybody. Travis, you wanna add? Yeah, I think that's right, Fadelmi. And I think the other thing is, Dell and VMware have been doing on-premises deployments for a long time. And if you look at some of the core strengths that Dell has in terms of something, as critical as supply chain or services reach or what I call the ability to service, tens of thousands of customers at moderate to large scale, that's something that some of the alternative providers don't have. And so the more, and Fadelmi, I've talked about this a lot, the more that Dell and VMware can collaborate on these solutions, I think the stronger hand that we're going to have going forward. Yeah, on-prem and complexity, frankly, that's your home court. It's going to be really interesting to watch. Guys, great to see you again. Thanks so much for coming back in theCUBE and an awesome conversation. Really appreciate it and best of luck to you both. Thank you, Dave. Thanks, Dave. Thank you for watching everybody. This is Dave Vellante for theCUBE, our continuing coverage of Dell Technologies World 2021, the virtual edition, be right back.