 Welcome back everyone, live coverage here. Day two, VMware Explorer 2023. I'm John Furrier with Rob Strecce, my co-host and leading the analyst at the research team for theCUBE called The Collective. And the story here is multi-cloud, generous AI, certainly a gift that just landed on the market. Everyone's excited. It's accelerating the cloud and on-premise and multi-cloud, we call SuperCloud. We have two great guests here that Chris Prasad, SVP and general manager, the cloud infrastructure business unit. You're driving a lot of the cloud change. We've got Prasad Sonoy, Vice President of Product and Technical Marketing. You guys are putting the pieces together. Welcome to theCUBE, great to see you guys. Thank you. We love theCUBE because we get to have the conversations and broadcast it live. We're sharing the data. You guys are really a big part of the VMware arsenal that's going to put out the cloud major pillar for the business and going forward. So, first, this is kind of a historic closing this VMware Explorer. We're closing this chapter of VMware's iconic rise as the Mount Rushmore of technology startups in Silicon Valley, going down in virtualization and the record, I witnessed in my career. It really is spectacular. The company really has been amazing. As the next chapter comes, you've got Broadcom making the acquisition probably the next 30 days or so, there's going to be an emphasis on execution, like you guys always are, but it's going to be renewed focus. Multi-cloud is resonating. We've been calling it SuperCloud. Again, AI has hit the table, which is another workload that everyone's focused on, which gives more visibility into the importance of cloud and multiple clouds. I look at it as a beginning of a brand new chapter in our evolution, right? And the key, kind of the killer application now that is driving it is the gen AI stuff. So, the multi-cloud, all the work that we have done on the infrastructure layer with Nvidia to provide accelerated computing, all of that is coming together to support the new generation of applications that are powered by gen AI. So, I think as we are ending one chapter, we are actually starting the next big chapter in the application world. Chris, talk about the impact of Nvidia. I saw Jensen on stage here, it was really, it was actually, he does his normal stick. He's really great on stick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it? I might buy one. I think he looks good. I'm a Jensen clone. I recommend if you have one jacket or most of the time. It was a moment where he also tipped his hat in a way. And if you know Raghu and Jensen, you know it was a moment of like, hey, hat tip, great job. That's why I highlighted the Mount Rushmore of tech companies. But really, he said, Raghu said, AI's was a runtime of multi-cloud. Now that got my attention. Runtime is a word that's used in operating systems. I've heard Amanda Blitzley work. We're the best scheduler, scheduler in another term. I mean, we're talking about an operating system here. And so like you see NVIDIA, how important are they in the cloud play for you? Can you explain their role? Yeah, I mean, if you think about Gen AI, right? Raghu made this point. You want to take the Gen AI infrastructure to where the data is, right? And so it could be on-prem. So when we say private AI, we don't mean private cloud. I think it's a very important distinction to make, right? What we mean is privacy of the data, choice of models, right? So customers can own their model and their data and their Gen AI apps. And so that's what private means. But you can run it on-prem or in any of the clouds. And we are set up with our infrastructure running on AWS, Google, Azure, all the public clouds, and on-prem. And so that's what Raghu was talking about. You put the NVIDIA enabled private AI foundation stack. In any of these locations. And take it to where the data is. Yeah, and I would, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, I said, you've had a tremendously strong partnership with NVIDIA, right? Even before Gen AI, right? Like, I call them ushering the world of like heterogeneous computing, right? Like the CPUs, the GPUs, and now the GPUs. And Gen AI is that killer app on the GPU right now from an enterprise perspective, right? In the commercial space, you've seen ChadGPD open AI. But in the enterprise space, I think the partnership of NVIDIA, which is really good at having these kind of infrastructure with us who can abstract the infrastructure and run this heterogeneous computing. Just a side point before we get into the question. Dave Vellante wrote a post three years ago called how NVIDIA is going to take over the data center. It's on our side, you can read it. At that point, the reference was that they're going down the road, not beyond GPUs. And at Jensen's SIGGRAPH keynote, he basically showed a rack of servers. And those weren't GPUs. Those were, that's a rack. That's servers. So that's a data center thing. A lot of IOs involved. That relationship super important. So I just want to make a point here. No, but I think what you guys are getting at is very super important. I think one of the things that VMware has always been strong at is the ecosystem play around this. And in fact, we have a lot of ecosystem partners on throughout the rest of the day today and highlighting a lot of that. One of the things that I want to understand was part of the driving, because you provide that infrastructure, that common infrastructure, it's not just a big three, right? It's not just GCBE and AVS and VMC on AWS. It's also you have, you know, thousands of cloud service providers around the world. This would look like an opportunity for them to also get in and play in that gen AI, especially from a, you know, sovereign cloud kind of effect. Yes. So it's, when we talk about the cloud, right? We include all the thousands of partners who deliver VCF based infrastructure and VCF has been enabled with the AI acceleration. So it's everywhere. Now you can tie it with the hugging face and all the models around it to run gen AI, right? That's the announcement. Rob and I were talking before you guys came on, I wanted to ask this question because we're getting down that road and glad you're here, Prashant too. What is the business plan for you guys going forward? Because the market is interesting right now. You're in a good position. Everything's clicking. I like how you brought Aria and Tanzu together. I think that's a good move. Perino was on yesterday, nailed that. I thought that's going to be very compelling, very understated, but that's going to, I think, flower into something great. That's going to set up the developer market, I think, to really be operational and land those apps somewhere. If you can string these clouds together with the distributed computing architecture, that is VMware, you can hit it. I think the target's clear. It's not only aspirational, it's gettable. What is the products that you guys are selling? What's the focus? What's the business plan for your group? Yeah, so I'll start with, first of all, the way we run in these clouds is different from setting up an abstraction on top of their software, right? We are running on metal from AWS, metal from AVS, with our stack running right on top of the metal. So essentially, you have on-prem, same stack, metal in AWS, metal in AVS, metal in Google, running essentially the VMware cloud foundation. So we have one common substrate that ties it all together, right? With vCenter, I saw SiliconANGLE talk about vCenter being a control point in the multi-cloud, right? That is indeed true. I mean, one of our architects was jumping up and down, saying, yeah, they got it. We get it a lot, we get a lot, we do get it. Thank you for pointing that out. Right, and so yeah, so that's a common substrate that we are building with a common control plane across all of this, and then we have a set of hybrid cloud services for operations, for developer consumption that run on top of this in a consistent way across all the endpoints at the same time. So you have a unified experience for customers to then access all these clouds. And then Tansu comes in, says, hey, developers, we are going to give you some abstractions so you can operate across all these clouds and it talks to all these endpoints in a consistent way. So that's the, I get the market super multi-cloud, super cloud, business abstraction. What's the business model? What's the product? How you guys, is it ecosystem driven? Take us through some of the execution pieces. Yeah, you want to start, I can start off by, so VMware cloud is what Chris was defining, right? So it's absolutely channel driven, partner driven, and VMware driven solution, right? We've always known to be providing that choice, an open ecosystem, but with a consistent platform for infrastructure operations and applications. So that continues to be there and it's going to be crucial for the multi-cloud world. But VCF is our software defined platform, right? vSphere, vSAN, NSX, the ARIA automation and operations aspect that John, you were talking about is what forms the VCF foundation. And we've done a lot of innovation. I think that's one of the surprises that our customers had starting off with John, like, hey, it's a new chapter. Are you going to keep innovating? And when I talk to customers in this event, they're like, wow, this is like, that's a ton of innovation that you've done right in our core infrastructure, right? So we haven't stopped doing that. But now with GenAI, you brought that same foundational innovation and helped usher the next set of killer use cases on LLM models, right? So that part I think is going to be very, very critical for us. And our business model is going to be, hey, buy software as a service, right? And subscription, which is, think of it as the VCF subscription. And you can take it to any of these endpoints, right? It's fully portable. You can take it to any partner. And then so customers have the flexibility. They decide where they want to run their infrastructure. They just do one transaction and buy the software as a subscription and voila. So I wanted to get it out there on the record because Rob and I have a reason for this. We are going to be talking a lot about this because this is the core jewels of VMware. You're running the core jewels, vSphere, vSphere. This is going to be the center of all the action. And this is with the focused execution that's coming. And this next chapter will probably be the engine that will float right at the other post. No doubt. And so take us through the mindset there. Yeah, I think in the next chapter, there will be a lot of focus, right? The hawk has been very clear about, hey, focus is very important. You know, vSphere, VCF, multi-cloud, that's going to be the center of gravity for the company going forward and certainly tons of kind of coming and helping with the applications landing on that platform. And there's going to be a level of simplification also, right? Like focus requires focusing on a few things and doing it extremely well. And I think as part of our pace of innovation, sometimes we've made things from a consumption standpoint and adoption standpoint, a bit more complex for our customers. Well, I think the abstraction layer is going to help. Running a super cloud will be, certainly, that's the multi-cloud implementation. You get that done easily and you can put all that complexity underneath it. I want to get to hawk stay because he doesn't talk publicly about it. I saw his note here, but I've heard things and I've sourced this out. But here's a statement that I heard. It might not be exact. I'll read it for everyone. And then I want to get your reaction to where you guys are in the progress. Something to the extent of you make the statement in these private meetings and VMware, everything else, he says something like this. We want to make it so you can buy infrastructure from VMware, run it on partners clouds tomorrow, and then hyperscale clouds after that. Ultimately buy infrastructure, right? Simple statement. Where are you guys on that journey right now? I mean, that's no different than what we are doing now, right? We offer the VMware cloud on all the hyperscalers, right, to all the public. And then, like you said, thousands of other partners are delivering similar services, right? So what hawk is talking about is build an ecosystem, really accelerate that business. So it's not about defining a new product, taking customers somewhere else. It's about, hey, bring in a lot more of the ecosystem, the GSIs, all of that, to really push this and help customers deploy and be successful with it. That's what he's talking about. And I think it's bringing more of that to all of those ecosystems, right? Because I think even with V1 of VSAN Max right now, it doesn't run on the hyperscalers at this point. So you're- I mean, those are all roadmap items, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the focus though. Yeah, that's the focus. Yeah, he said yesterday in his little keynote, oh yeah, for ecosystem, billion dollars going ecosystem. I heard some rumblings last night, some of the dinner hallway conversation at the dinner. Everyone wants a piece of that action. Yeah. It's the scaling the go-to-market model, right? Like I mean, when we provide an very open ecosystem, the route to market also needs to be pretty broad and wide, right? Because our direct sales force is only going to talk to this many customers to be able to have VMware cloud. So having the broad ecosystem, whether it's our hyperscalers, whether it's our cloud service providers, whether it's our GSIs, whether it's our direct sales, he's going to really help build that. What are they buying? What's the ecosystem engaging with? Are they engaging with the product, design implementations? I saw some references, architectures out there on some of the GNAI. What's the engagement with the ecosystem? What's the plan to get them enthusiastic and confident that they're going to be at their business on this? I mean, the name of the game is customer deployments and consumption, right? So that's where it starts. So, you know, all the GSIs, being able to have the reference architectures, get customers deployed, help them be successful, help them be consuming the cloud, right? That's when you're in a subscription world, it's all about consumption, right? It's not the perpetual world where you can just sell software and then it sits on the shelf, right? So that's what he's talking about. Have the GSIs enabled so that we can not only sell at scale, but really help with the deployments and the consumption of the ecosystem. And I think part of it, we had one of your partners on yesterday talking about the certifications process, and how do you keep them, because again, VM, the being a VCP and a VCDX and all of those different acronyms in between has had so much... I know, but it's had so much cloud for so long. Now you see everybody on LinkedIn, okay, I'm an Amazon certified architect. How do you keep people in the ecosystem and others outside at those interested in this stuff and keep them where they want to be the cloud architect? They're looking at that. How do you bridge that gap for them as well with the products? Yeah, I mean, look, if you think about it, the combination of on-prem and all these multi-cloud endpoints is really a vast set of cloud infrastructure that customers are deploying applications on. It will rival any big cloud right if you combine all the on-prem data centers plus all these cloud endpoints that we have. So I think really it is what we have not done a real good job of is investing in these partners, helping them with their training, really having the force multiplier to really... So it's not about people not wanting it in their resume, it's really about we have been maybe a little bit diffused in our focus. And so I think what Hock is talking about is really go after it, really focus, enable them, train them, really get the scale that we are looking for. And there's demand. Yes, you see it right behind us. There's a certification and training program here. My calendar is filled with partner after one. You know, it's interesting that Rob and I were, Rob brought up a good point. He actually observed and brought it to our attention that cloud architects is becoming the new elite position. And v-experts, v-stand, v-mug users, you know, the old-school virtualization guys operating VMware are looking at the next generation from a career standpoint saying, am I going to be relevant? Because this is a relevance factor of psychology and position power. And so like, I don't want to just be an admin. We don't think cloud admin will be a job. I think that's going to be automated. Operations in and out operate things that can also be automated with humans. But the architect is the key role now. Because you have to look at the cross-cloud, super-cloud operating model, that's a systems thinking. I mean, remember agile design thinking? I think we're entering an era of systems thinking. And that's different than what we've seen before. What's your reaction to that? As you were saying, it's not just a cloud architect. It's a super cloud architect to use your word, right? It's not easy. And we talk here a lot about technology, but I think one of the biggest obstacles or a challenge that our customers see is the skill set, right? Like there are very, very few folks in the world here who are like an Azure, Amazon, Google, IBM, VMware expert to stitch all these together and create this, we were talking before the show, the OSI layer, right? Like what is the OSI layer for this multi-cloud? It's not easy to do. So I think a lot of focus on us is to truly create that single multi-cloud platform, help certified trained folks create that well-architected framework that customers can deploy and then drive that option in consumption, right? It's going to take us a while, right? You're going to tell me what the platform engineering solution is. Yeah, that's the rise of platform engineering. Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, it's the people who understand how to target the right infrastructure for the right application. So you have to have application knowledge. You have to translate that into what do you need in the infrastructure? And it could be the architect roles, but they have to span both sides and be credible. In the past, the infrastructure guys were like, you know, in their silo, there's the application. Now you have to bridge that, you have to speak the language, you have to talk Kubernetes, you have to talk GNAI, you have to, you know, and then provide the infrastructure that maps to the needs of the application, right? And if you do that, you're enabling devs. Yes. And then everyone's shifting left or doing whatever and they're in their CICD pipeline. And that's the new infrastructure. And I'm really glad they changed the term. Rob, you brought this up at KubeCon last night, Amsterdam, they changed it from the Google term. SRE to platform engineering. They kind of, I mean, they kind of broaden the definition, but remember, SRE, it brought in a whole, brought in a lot more infrastructure because there was infrastructure ops and other things that have come in, dev ops. I think platform engineering, to your point, is way broader than just, hey, it's the infrastructure, it's the security, it's the, you know, dev tooling and things of that nature. And I think that's where, you know, some of the messaging here that's been. And we have a platform engineering team in November. That provides a platform for the internal SaaS services and what not. You can see we're pretty excited by this. Rob and I have been doing a lot of work on this. You can see a lot more content coming out. We think that this is a seminal moment in the industry as this new infrastructure layer is the new OSI model for this next generation. And the folks watching OSI change the game on proprietary network operating systems. I think as more environments come in, the need for some standards, de facto or driven by developers and driven by platform engineers, that's where the next focus will come from. Developers already won. They're driving standards. They decide which is best based on what works the best. If best, absolutely right place. I think platform engineering is going to drive. Platform engineering is going to drive and dictate what the standard is going to be. And I think that if you have your ears on listening, we're going to hear that. So that's our focus. Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, we did a quick survey, a hands survey in one of the meetings and there was around 30 to 35% who had platform engineering. So it's an evolution. It's getting there, but it's starting. And by the way, we were saying on theCUBE yesterday, you can watch some of the sessions with clips. Data is going down the same road as security. Data supply chain, data quality, legal issues, guardrails. These are the words we're hearing in conversation. That's essentially a security. Yeah, more with the GNI. Data developers. Because once you train a model, your data has gone into the model, isn't that right? Well, congratulations on all your success and all that hard work is going to pay off as this chapter VMware closes. Final word, put a plug in for the group. What are you guys excited about? What's on your mind? The guy, I think on two fronts. I think there is, with the GNI, there is our infrastructure, all the work that we have done in the recent years with NVIDIA and so on. You now have the application that is really going to take advantage of it. That's very exciting for us and our customers. And then we are all looking forward to the acquisition closing and the next big chapter going forward. Continue to be the de facto platform for the super cloud, right? The super cloud platform. So that's going to be exciting for us. Well, it sounds like you're going to be keynoting our next super cloud four event. Great to hear that, Sean. Hey, thanks so much. You know, I always say there's always an inflection point when the hockey stick kicks up. I think we're at a moment now where it feels like we're getting close. You don't know where you are on that curve, but it feels like we're close. Yeah, yeah. All right. Guys, thanks. We're a little bit over, but very important conversation. Thank you. The core VMware and all the new products and business units are going to be pumping on all cylinders. Soon we're going to close the next chapter, close this chapter and open the next chapter. It's theCUBE. Bring it all to you here. I'm John Furrier, Rob Stretcher, Dave Vellante, and Lisa Mart on the other set. We'll be right back after this short break.