NatChat - Navigating VMware in a Changing Landscape: What Tech Leaders Need to Know Before Their Next Renewal

In this episode of NatChat, Jordan Checker is joined by Natilik’s Multi-Cloud Solutions Architect, Nick Diesel, to explore how the VMware landscape is changing and what it means for organisations approaching their next renewal.

The conversation focuses on the practical impact of updates to licensing and the partner ecosystem, and why renewal is no longer a straightforward, like-for-like decision. Instead, it’s a point to step back, reassess, and make more informed choices about how your environment should evolve.

They discuss what’s changed, where VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) fits, and why engaging early, optimising your environment, and having a clear adoption plan in place are key to getting the most value from your investment.

If you have a VMware renewal coming up, our team of specialists at Natilik offer a VMware assessment to help you understand what’s changed, review your current environment, and identify opportunities to optimise before you commit.

→ Click here to book yours

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Welcome back to another episode of Natchat. I'm your host, Jordan, and I'm a multi-cloud specialist here at Natilic. I'm joined today by Nick Diesel.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Nick, do you want to say hi and introduce yourself? Hi everyone. So yeah, it's Nicholas Diesel here. Um of the multi-cloud essays at Natilic.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Brilliant. So the theme of today's podcast is navigating the VMware landscape. We're going to talk through the recent product and partner changes from Brocom, how we can help customers realize value from their investment in VCF or VMware Cloud Foundation, and how customers can engage Natilic ahead of their renewal. So Nick, to kick things off, it'd be great if you could talk through what's changed in the world of VMware since they were acquired by Brocom.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yeah, sure. So obviously, since Brocom's uh come around and purchased uh VMware, there's been a couple of changes uh both to licensing type of product uh and more importantly, the um partner landscape. So they've ended up canning a lot of the old licenses that we used to get in terms of perpetual licensing, moved everything through to subscription, and um, yeah, they've end-of-lifed a lot of different products um over the past year and a bit, um, moving it to a much more streamlined package of products. Um, so one you mentioned is VCF, so VMware Cloud Foundations and uh a few others along the line. Um, but yeah, they've uh recently done quite a bit of partner change, so they've got rid of a lot of partners, unfortunately, um, and uh specialized into only a few partners left in terms of transacting with Broadcom. So it's made it very interesting for clients.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

And what challenges is this bringing to customers when they approach their renewal?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Well, customers are finding out that um, you know, along with the licensing changes, um, you know, one that most people should know is that they've moved from a uh per processor to a per core basis. They've moved uh from a perpetual to a subscription model. So, you know, what you used to be able to renew, just basically say, listen, renew my existing product doesn't exist anymore. Um so clients have to transition to a new product, and that's causing a lot of challenges because, as I said, with some of the new products, it becomes a bundled product. So you're getting a lot of products included in that as well. Um and you know, the licensing models changed, the packaging models changed. So it becomes a little bit of a minefield if uh clients don't engage early.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

And I mentioned VCF at the start of the call, and you've touched on it slightly, but it'd be great to give our listeners a quick overview of as to what VCF is, what's included within VCF.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Yeah, sure. So VCF is uh the new premier product that sort of comes from VMware. It's known as VMware Cloud Foundations, and it's the one product that uh VMware would like everyone to renew too because it is the one that has the most value to it as a complete product. So it includes your traditional vSphere and vCenter, obviously, so that you can run normal virtualization and things, but it includes a lot of other products as well that are now being bundled into it. So what used to be ARIA is now included in it as well. Uh it's been rebranded as part of VCF operations and automation. Um and then there's some other products as well, included to make your you know, your on-prem journey uh a lot easier. So your NSX for your virtualized networking, your vSAN, uh, which is now VCF uh storage, is included in that as well. And that obviously gives you HCI on-prem. So it's all leaning towards your sort of on-prem private cloud. Um, and it's everything included in that. So your SDDC, which is your software-defined data center controller, is part of that as well. Um and it just makes a complete package, everything from you know deploying your servers locally, integrating with cloud, running vSAN to create your HCI infrastructure, your networking on top of that, your virtualization, and you know, it even includes uh your Kubernetes infrastructure. So Tanzu is included in it as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

A really comprehensive set of suite of products, then I think it tends to be your one-stop shop.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

So it won't it's the like I say, the premiere product from VMware. Um it is licensed per core, and uh that gives you pretty much everything you need in the entire stack in terms of getting your you know digital private cloud up and running.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Okay, so moving on to partners and I suppose the partner landscape within Broadcom. You mentioned at the start there's now been a reduced number of partners in the UK that can actually transact VMware renewals for customers. So why does the choice of partner matter now more than ever?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah, so Broadcom's gone through the process of sort of trimming down the partner landscape to partners that used to just transact that didn't have any skills in terms of developing uh the client and you know, sort of adopting the product and actually realizing the value of the products moving forward. So they've gone through the effort of minimizing down to a few key partners that are highly specialized in terms of VMware. So they have the skills, the knowledge uh to be able to both transact VMware and help clients deploy it, make the most of it and support it ongoing. So those those particular partners that have been named in that are, you know, very specific around the adoption, very specific around ongoing support and you know, fully managed services included.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Okay. And I think we've seen it with some of our customer engagements, but from a technical perspective, what can go wrong if renewals are kind of treated as purely like a commercial exercise?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

So if clients are looking at um, you know, their renewal is coming up and they just want to renew and they just don't give it much thought and um, you know, actually assess it, um, they can end up paying a lot more than they need, or they can end up moving to a different product, which um, you know, is not going to be a great idea because VMware is quite specific in the way it works and it can be a bit of a headache migrating through to alternative products. So I mean engaging early in terms of your renewal is definitely key. Um, like I say, it has changed so much in terms of moving from perpetual to subscription, and then even the licensing model and what's included in the product is super critical on you know, engaging early and making sure you fully realize the value of what you're purchasing and you're purchasing the correct thing. You know, looking at right sizing your VM so that you're not purchasing more than you need to, making sure you're purchasing exactly for the infrastructure you require. Um, it's all exact key, so you don't waste money unnecessarily.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

And I suppose from from the customer engagements that we've had so far, um, you know, we would certainly call ourselves a safe home for VMware renewals. Correct. Um, you know, what does that mean in practice outside of the things that you may have already touched on?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah, so we've had we've had a number of clients come to us saying, listen, you know, the line the landscape's changed. What's going on? What do we do? And um yeah, taking the clients through that process, you know, is it a process of assessing their existing environment, their existing licensing, and you know, actually understanding where the client's going in the future and looking at that adoption plan in terms of adopting those products from VMware on the new renewal. Um, so actually working with the client on that is super key. And I've seen it with a number of clients saying, listen, we don't know what to do. And in the end of it, when they actually do renew with VCF, they are informed. They know exactly where they're heading. They've got an adoption plan moving forward to adopt those products and make the value out of it. Um yeah, it gives them clear direction in terms of their private cloud.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

You mentioned it a couple of times there, adoption plan to customers that might not know what that is. What is that and what is the value behind it?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Yeah, so the adoption plan is something specifically put in place to realize the value of VMware's products, included in VCF. Um, so as I said, there's a couple of different products included in VCF. So most clients will look at it and say, oh, I just need VMware or I just need virtualization. But there are so many more products included in VCF that bring value to your organization, whether it be in VMware operations, which used to be the old ARIA, looking at traffic flow analytics, uh, looking at automation built into the back of that, the Kubernetes structure that's built into VCF now, or you know, even vSAN and NSX, for example, that's now included in VCF. It has been rebranded, but it's what everyone should know. Um and making the most of all those products and realizing the value of it, clients can actually cut down and slim down their existing infrastructure, perhaps consolidate a lot of different uh technologies that they currently run into a single VCF package. So it helps reduce cost, reduce overheads, reduce complexity. Um, and it's about adopting that value and adopting the product uh moving forward so that they can fully realize the value of their investment in terms of VMware. Because VMware can be your one-stop shop in terms of full software solutions.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

So, how does our technical depth actually differ to a more sort of kind of transactional reseller that a customer might have worked with in the past?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Yeah, so I mean we have a lot of technical expertise here at Natalic. Um, and you know, as I said, Broadcom have cut down some of their partners into more specialized ones. So the partners that have stayed are highly specialized and technical. And here at Netalik, we are no different. We have the ability to do a full VMware audit, um, assess your environment, help you migrate to the latest products, and then help you adopt all those products, whether it be standard uh VCF9 adoption, uh, which will take on the new product, STDC manager, whether you're looking at NSX deployments, you're looking at micro-segmentation with that, you're looking at Kubernetes. Uh, we have a full technical team behind us to be able to implement and then as well support and maintain that going forward. So we offer fully managed services on that as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

And once the renewal, I suppose, is is kind of sorted, what can a customer expect from Latilic in terms of workshops, engagement, like what other things can they expect from us to help them realize the value of their investment in VCF?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

100%. So I mean your VMware renewal is not just a clean, straightforward renewal anymore. It is a journey that we take clients on and uh we very much go on that journey with you. So everywhere from assessing what you currently have, looking at the best renewal process for you, uh, identifying those licenses, helping you through the renewal, and then like you said, the adoption plan. So it's continuing on that, helping you implement the product, making sure that the value is realized out of all the different products, see where we can consolidate where net where necessary or where needed to help you save costs and you know lower your uh lower your spend, and then help you maintain that going forward with fully managed services and things. So yeah, we we offer the full end-to-end package.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Yeah, and I think for me that's really important to our customers. And I think really where personally I see a lot of value to our customers, you know, we're not just uh a renewal house, we are here to help take customers on a journey and realize the value of VCF and how it can be adopted within their organization. So really good points. Um so if I'm a customer, I've got a renewal approaching in maybe six months' time. Um, what should I be doing right now?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Definitely engage early. Uh, we are noticing that um, you know, VMware is engaging early with clients at least three months ahead of time. So, you know, it's it's going to be a conversation both with your Brocom account manager and Natalic, and we can help facilitate that conversation um as well and you know have a chat with them as well so that we can make sure everything is aligned up, um, do the assessment ahead of time to make sure that the core counts are correct, making sure that we're rendering you into the correct product and you know making sure you get the value you need out of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Brilliant. Well, I think that's it for today. Um, Nick, thank you very much for your time. I've really appreciated getting into the weeds of it with you. Um, hopefully, for all of our customers and prospects out there, you found, I suppose, the content that we discussed today really interesting. Um, we would welcome you guys getting in touch. If there are any questions, feel free to reach out on hello at natilic.com um or direct through your account director. And I'll leave it at that. Thank you for your time.