5V0-61.22 pdf - VMware Workspace ONE 21.X Advanced Integration Specialist Updated: 2024

‘The mandate we were given from [Dell Technologies CEO] Michael Dell, [Vice Chairman, Products and Operations, Dell EMC] Jeff Clarke and [VMware CEO] Pat Gelsinger is, ‘When we do things with VMware and Dell EMC, we want it to be first and best no matter what we do,’” says Chad Dunn, vice president of hyper-converged infrastructure product management for Dell EMC.

VMware Cloud Foundation becoming available on Dell EMC’s leading hyper-converged infrastructure VxRail offering is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Dell EMC-VMware integration ahead, according to Chad Dunn, vice president of hyper-converged infrastructure product management for Dell EMC.

“The mandate we were given from [Dell Technologies CEO] Michael Dell, [Vice Chairman, Products and Operations, Dell EMC] Jeff Clarke and [VMware CEO] Pat Gelsinger is, ‘When we do things with VMware and Dell EMC, we want it to be first and best no matter what we do,’” said Dunn in an interview with CRN.

“What we heard from Michael, Jeff and Pat and the rest of the strategically aligned businesses is, ‘We want to do more like VxRail. And we want to do it deeper and more broadly across companies,’” said Dunn. “So when they say, ‘Go collaborate and make this happen’ – it’s really not just lip service.”

He said Dell EMC and VMware, which both fall under the Dell Technologies family of businesses, will drive technology integration even further to separate themselves from not only their hyper-converged competitors, but across various market segments. Dunn talks to CRN about VMware’s integration road map and Dell’s technology differentiation compared with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Nutanix.

What is the Dell-VMware integration road map and why is it a market differentiator?

When we get that mandate from Michael Dell that says, ‘We must always be first and best in terms of VMware, Pivotal, etc. integration’—we take that very seriously . We really can support you from mouse pads up to cloud infrastructure. We have a very broad set of solutions, but always with that commitment that we’re going to do things first and best with VMware. No one has that. The closest thing might be HPE and some of the things they do with Synergy. However, our mandate is to start to leverage those APIs and VxRail more as an operating system, extend across more platforms with PowerEdge [servers] and other hardware platforms within Dell EMC, and see more VMware technology in our first, best and sometimes only way, and extend into other components of the family like we’ve done with the SmartFabric Services and the Dell networking switches. It’s really hard to find anybody who’s going to have the breadth of our portfolio with a driving mandate to integrate it fully around a platform like VxRail. You’re not going to see [HPE] SimpliVity necessarily be at the center the HPE Synergy story—it’s a different thing. We made the decision that the Dell Technologies cloud vision will be VxRail.

Can you talk more about the ‘mandate’ from Michael Dell around VMware integration?

The mandate we were given from Michael Dell, Jeff Clarke and Pat Gelsinger is, ‘When we do things with VMware and Dell EMC, we want it to be first and best no matter what we do.’ We’re leveraging VxRail APIs that aren’t available to anybody else that really expose the value added capabilities in VxRail to VMware Cloud Foundation. That full-stack integration of life-cycle management of all of the hardware and software components at a cluster level, we’re extending those capabilities via API into VMware Cloud Foundation. It extends our southbound APIs into Dell networking switches to automate their deployment. We’ll continue to expand that even further. We believe [VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail] is the simplest and fastest way to get to a VMware hybrid cloud.

Talk about the advantage of co-engineering with VMware.

What we heard from Michael, Jeff and Pat and the rest of the strategically aligned businesses is, ‘We want to do more like VxRail. And we want to do it deeper and more broadly across companies.’ So when they say, ‘Go collaborate and make this happen’—it’s really not just lip service. They’re saying, ‘We want to see tangible R&D results and we want to see top-line and bottom-line results.’ Even in VxRail, we’re collaborating much more broadly and deeply with VMware, with Pivotal, with our Pivotal Ready Architecture—which has been very successful for us—with some of the other projects we’ve picked up with VMware like Project Dimension. It really comes down to having one boss and one vision that says, ‘We’ve got the most powerful IT portfolio on the planet at this point and we’ve got a massive sales force, and synergies across all these technologies and all these sales forces that make us uniquely positioned to help our customers do their digital transformation—whether it’s IaaS, Container as a Service, PaaS, Functions as a Service, IoT—it’s a really hard portfolio to match.’ Now with this singularity of vision across that portfolio that Michael is bringing to the table, we sort of look at all these tools we have in front of us and say, ‘There’s no reason why we can’t be wildly successful at this.’

What are your thoughts on Nutanix in terms of the hyper-converged leadership landscape?

Well, it’s us and Nutanix. They’ve got a very different approach of how they’re going about this. They’re sort of this software-only approach to some extent out of necessity because they don’t own an x86 platform—it’s Supermicro [servers] and then other OEMs. Nutanix will position it as a strength. It’s certainly a valid approach. We think that by having control of the x86 road map with our PowerEdge and other platforms and being able to do tighter, not looser, integration with the hardware is actually a benefit. We view tighter and deeper integration at the hardware layer as an advantage, not something to be avoided. If you look at a PowerEdge server, there’s between nine and 12 different pieces of programmable firmware on there that needs to be compatible with a version of VMware and the other software that’s running. VxRail gives you that full stack-integrity. It’s not just, ‘Do you have the right firmware, drivers, etc. on day two or three or 300?’ We’re updating that all in context and giving the user the confidence that all of those pieces are going to work together.

How does your networking SmartFabric Services stack up against Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Plexxi network fabric?

It’s really the breadth of our offer. I actually used to work with a lot of those Plexxi people, like [CEO] Richard Napolitano. It’s great technology, by the way. The Plexxi stuff is really set up to automate things at a data center level. We want to be able to do that not just at the data center level, that is very important, but you also want to do that at the small deployment level, including things like a two-node, remote office/branch office and auto-configure the switch right up to data center deployments and to be able to use that common software in the switches and in VxRail. Since we control the OS in both of those cases, it’s very easy for us to do that.

How critical is VxRail for Dell EMC and VMware?

As you look at what Dell Technologies’ cloud platform is, the underlying infrastructure to that is always going to be VxRail as a building block. What this allows us to do is basically merge two product lines— VxRack SDDC and VxRail—with common hardware and a common hyper-converged operating system. So we have pretty amazing scale whether you’re a customer that wants to simply deploy VxRail for server consolidation or deploy Infrastructure as a Service, or layer in even more automation with VMware Cloud Foundation. We’ve been on this path for a while because we recognize how powerful that could be—that one engineering effort that underlies the whole cloud strategy of the company. Last year, we aligned the hardware in VxRack to basically be VxRail. We’ve been working on extending the software capabilities on VxRail to be more of a hyper-converged operating system with a very rich set of north- and southbound APIs that allow us to do unique integration such as with VMware Cloud Foundation.

Broadcom says it has already hosted its first integration planning meeting with VMware in order to ‘hit the ground running’ once it acquires VMware.

Leaders of Broadcom and VMware have already held an integration planning meeting as Broadcom looks to “hit the ground running” following the completion of its planned $61 billion acquisition of VMware.

In a recent letter to all VMware employees by Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Tom Krause, president of Broadcom’s Software Group, the two executives said the integration planning between the two companies is already underway with more in store in the coming weeks.

“We have a proven track record of successfully integrating the companies that we acquire, providing them with the resources needed to ensure sustainable growth and development as part of Broadcom. In fact, we already held our first integration planning meeting with the VMware management team, and over the coming weeks and months, we will be working closely together to ensure we can hit the ground running once the transaction is completed,” said Tan and Krause in the letter.

Broadcom said the two companies’ shared “engineering-first, innovation-centric cultures” will enable a “seamless transition” once the acquisition is completed, which is expected to occur by January 2023 at the latest.

[Related: Broadcom’s VMware Acquisition: 5 Key Customer And Cost Figures To Know]

Less than two weeks ago, San Jose, Calif.-based Broadcom unveiled its acquisition intent of Palo Alto, Calif.-based VMware for a price tag of $61 billion.

If completed, Broadcom’s software group will rebrand and operate as VMware, which will incorporate Broadcom’s existing infrastructure and security software solutions. In the current agreement, VMware currently has a 40-day “go-shop” provision that allows VMware and its board to actively solicit, receive, evaluate and potentially enter negotiations with parties that offer alternative proposals. The provision expires on July 5, 2022.

Broadcom’s Message To VMware Employees

In their letter to VMware employees, Hock Tan and Tom Krause said VMware aligns “incredibly well” with Broadcom’s strategy.

“In terms of how our values align, we appreciate that VMware’s culture is built on execution, passion, integrity, customers and community. We too share values like these. At Broadcom we prioritize accountability – to our customers, our partners, our shareholders and each other,” said Broadcom’s Tan and Krause.

The executives touted VMware as an “indispensable provider” of mission-critical platform technology with a blue-chip customer base and an “incredible innovation” engine.

“Of course, none of this would be possible without the VMware team, or the strong customer and partner relationships that you’ve built,” said Tan and Krause.

VMware Employees Ask: ‘Why Should I Stay?’

Broadcom told investors last week that it will increase VMware’s profitability by around 80 percent, from $4.5 billion last year to $8.5 billion in the coming years.

As part of its profitability plan, Broadcom plans to “eliminate duplicative administrative functions” across “IT, finance, legal, human resources and facilities,” – indicating that potential layoffs cloud be ahead at VMware.

In a recent VMware town hall meeting with employees, the company’s top executives were asked by VMware employees why should they stay with VMware if Broadcom takes it over.

In response to the question, VMware Chief People Officer Betsy Sutter said, “It’s quite exciting that Broadcom wants to create a software division, a software franchise and I think there’s huge opportunities for us there, obviously. The conversations that I’ve had to date with Broadcom, they are very interested in all things employee. They are very interested in our talent.”

Broadcom has agreed to deliver “continuing employees” – those who remain after the acquisition – “at least the same wage rate, or base salary,” according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company will also honor existing language around incentive pay, including cash and equity. Health, welfare and severance benefits that are “no less favorable” than the employee currently has will also be provided.

Hock Tan and Tom Krause told VMware employees in their letter that Broadcom is always searching for ways to drive innovation and Strengthen its product offerings.

“In recent years, we’ve looked to supplement our leadership in semiconductors by growing our presence in infrastructure software,” the executives said. “Together, we will be able to reimagine what we can deliver to our customers.”

The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar’s editorial policies.

Summary

Broadcom is the sixth-largest semiconductor company globally and has expanded into various software businesses, with over $30 billion in annual revenue. It sells 17 core semiconductor product lines across wireless, networking, broadband, storage, and industrial markets. It is primarily a fabless designer but holds some manufacturing in-house, like for its best-of-breed FBAR filters that sell into the Apple iPhone. In software, it sells virtualization, infrastructure, and security software to large enterprises, financial institutions, and governments. Broadcom is the product of consolidation. Its businesses are an amalgamation of former companies like legacy Broadcom and Avago Technologies in chips, as well as Brocade, CA Technologies, and Symantec in software.