VMware and TD SYNNEX have revitalised their partnership, taking a much more strategic approach, helping more partners to understand, learn about, and take VMware’s broad range of cloud, infrastructure, management, and security solutions to market
2021 has been a big year for VMware. Having been part of Dell Technologies for the past five years, it is now, once again, going its own way. The split had been coming for some time and over the past few months, VMware has set about revitalising its channel plans with renewed verve and enthusiasm.
As part of that, VMware and TD SYNNEX affirmed their commitment to each other and have transformed their partnership to deliver extra value and support for partners. ‘We have gone through a lot of change and what’s been so pleasing to see is that, over the last 12 months we have transformed our partnership into one that is truly joined-up. We’ve worked very, very hard to re-ignite our relationships with VMware partners,’ said Rachel Paterson, business unit manager for VMware at TD SYNNEX.
Working together
The companies drew up a completely new business plan and value proposition. ‘We agreed that we would both invest – in the partnership, in people, in enablement, and in a programme that could help partners transform and understand the true opportunity with VMware, and take advantage of all the new products and solutions that the company has acquired and developed over the past few years.’
TD SYNNEX Accelerate programmes are designed to help partners get up to speed quickly on the opportunities and solutions available from a specific vendor
TD SYNNEX created a special Accelerate programme for VMware. (TD SYNNEX Accelerate programmes are designed to help partners get up to speed quickly on the opportunities and solutions available from a specific vendor.) This provides partners with access to a unique set of resources and support that enables them to learn about new VMware products and propositions, and develop both their technical and sales skills, thus expanding their potential.
Making a difference
The re-setting of the partnership and joint investment has made a huge difference, said David Merritt, distribution manager at VMware. ‘Our engagement now is much more strategic. We need to bring more partners onboard to take our advanced technologies to market and we have made significant investments with TD SYNNEX to develop our wider partner base. That’s paying off. The growth is good, we are seeing more partners coming on board, and our advanced solutions being taken to market much more by partners. The resource, commitment and capability is there – and we are ready to grow even more.’
One of the challenges that VMware and TD SYNNEX had was that many partners still had the perception of VMware as being a provider of virtualisation software and little else. While that part of the business is still there, the realisation has well and truly dawned for most partners that VMware has much more to offer in addition to vSphere and a hyperconverged infrastructure platform.
Our engagement now is much more strategic. We need to bring more partners onboard to take our advanced technologies to market and we have made significant investments with TD SYNNEX to develop our wider partner base
As well as providing secure virtual workspaces, VMware also has app modernisation, networking automation, and cloud infrastructure and management capabilities. It has a significant security business too, having acquired endpoint security business Carbon Black in 2019. It has since fully integrated Carbon Black into Anywhere Workspace, bringing together Workspace ONE and VMware’s SASE (secure access service edge).
A new phase of growth
Now, with the prospect of becoming an independent entity once more, (the deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter of calendar year 2021) VMware is entering a new phase of growth and development – and it will need partners more than ever to achieve its ambitions. Partners will, of course, need to invest some of their own time and commitment to engage on the VMware channel programme. TD SYNNEX is ready to help them do that, said Rachel Paterson, and emphasised that both TD SYNNEX and VMware are committed to supporting partners over the long term.
VMware Accelerate is much more than a simple enablement programme
‘VMware Accelerate is much more than a simple enablement programme. We’d expect to be working with a VMware partner for a year or more – from the initial assessment and discussion about the outcomes they want to achieve, through to setting out a strategy and business plan and executing on that. It’s an end-to-end support programme.’
Whether the partner has some VMware experience and knowledge or none, TD SYNNEX will go through the entire process, offering assistance wherever it is needed – to gain accreditations, to plan and carry out marketing campaigns, or any other aspect of the business. The results that partners are achieving through the programme are exceptional, she noted. Most partners – once fully enabled – achieve significant double-digit growth in the initial quarter of driving their VMware business.
Pivoting to SaaS
Over the next 12 months, TD SYNNEX’s plan is to bring more partners on board for VMware and to start developing an ecosystem of businesses that have complimentary skills in different areas. Cloud is very much the focus for the future and VMware is itself transforming, pivoting to a software-as-a-service business model. Once it becomes an independent business again, it will have greater agility and with the strategic, yet flexible relationship it has with TD SYNNEX, David Merritt believes the two companies will be able to do even more to help partners.
TD SYNNEX has the capability to move fast – and we are going to need that
‘There is so much opportunity and being independent again is going to have a big impact. One big benefit of our relationship now is that it is agile and adaptable. Things change very quickly in software and TD SYNNEX has the capability to move fast – and we are going to need that – and all the other services and platforms it provides for automation and aggregation, as well as enablement resources – over the next few months.’
How M247 became a successful VMware cloud service provider
Originally a hosting company, M247 saw that customers wanted to break free from separate cloud, connectivity and security contracts. It needed to offer them subscription-based access to services and set itself a goal to transform its business in just two years. To build the cloud service platform it needed, M247 committed to the VMware Cloud Provider Program (VCPP) and worked with TD SYNNEX to transform its business.
The depth of engagement and co-operation between TD SYNNEX and VMware enabled M247 to go from a standing start to on-boarding customers in just six months. Inside 18 months, it was well on the way to achieving VMware Enterprise Level. You can find out more about M247’s successful transformation by reading the full story here.
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