Alister Dias (VMware)
Four months into the local launch of VMware Cloud on AWS, the service has been tracking steady growth, with 18 partners now on-board across A/NZ and increasing customer interest.
At the time of the launch in August, key partners on both sides of the Tasman were involved including Outcomex, Data#3, Datacom, Fujitsu, Telstra, Revera, IBM, Accenture, Computer Concepts, CSA, DXC Technology, Dimension Data, Rackspace, Parallo and Perfekt.
Since then, this has stretched out to include AWS specialist start-up entity CMD Solutions.
CMD has been operating for about three years with a specific focus on DevOps and security, and was founded by current managing director Andre Morgan, director of strategy and architecture Adam Durbin and director of operations Fabio Carvana. The company has a presence in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra.
“Our senior experience goes way back and we’ve got a history of doing progressive things on VMware, and realised its ubiquitous usage in the market," Morgan said.
"Now that there’s the VMware Cloud on AWS offering, it will really enable us to take a holistic approach on helping our clients to adopt cloud.
“Our client base is in the enterprise and one of the reasons we can help them to fast track their cloud adoption is because we’re focused on using automation to embed security controls for compliance programs, whether they’re a government, APRA (super funds) or PCI (finance) regulated entity.
"Clients can be challenged in how they adopt these controls and a strong security posture without sacrificing all of their dynamic scalability and agility that they get from adopting the cloud.”
Morgan said CMD was witnessing demand across all organisations looking to improve their compliance and revenue generating capabilities.
“A lot of companies want to get out of physical management of data centres or hardware etc. and that’s where we can see VMware Cloud on AWS enabling them with a very low risk approach to migrate to the cloud using a familiar technology platform,” he said.
As a result of signing up to VMware Cloud on AWS, and to align with its go-to-market strategy, Morgan said it has hired a couple of more staff, growing the company to about 40 people.
“We’re going to continue to grow and we’ve got a high focus on being a quality organisation. We’ll be really focused on growing in line with the demand in the market for the VMware Cloud on AWS offering,” he said.
On the global front
Partnerships such as the one with VMware, is a key pillar in DXC Technology’s strategy, according to managing director for A/NZ, Seelan Nayagam.
And the same goes for VMware, CEO Pat Gelsinger last year said its deal with DXC would be worth more than US$100 million in the years ahead.
Globally, DXC was one of the first partners to jump onboard with VMware Cloud on AWS. The two companies also collaborate to co-create solutions such as a digital workspace called MyWorkStyle. Locally, DXC has about 125 VMware certified staff.
“We have a number of hybrid cloud solutions using VMware technology and now with the new partnership around VMware Cloud on AWS, it’s massive for us,” Nayagam said.
“Looking at the current market landscape, everyone wants to go to cloud. But the biggest impediment has been around the application migration and total cost of ownership as they try to do that.”
Nayagam hinted that there were customers lined up and ready to use VMware Cloud on AWS with ongoing discussions about the types of workloads that will be going onto it, but no names can be revealed at this stage. VMware has already demonstrated a live customer migration of 100 VMs with five clicks.
“The first year that VMware Cloud on AWS was launched and the lessons that were learnt from that first year, I’m glad we were at version five in Australia, and not one. We know we’re ready to go,” VMware A/NZ managing director Alister Dias said.
“We’re not anticipating the teething problems that our global organisations would have had in the first 12 months.”
