I attended Dell Technologies / World 2019 this past week. Held in Las Vegas, the show hosted its largest list of attendees yet. I’m told that nearly 15,000 people attended the conference to learn about the combined innovations at the family of companies that includes DellEMC, VMware, RSA, Pivotal, Secureworks, Virtustream, and Boomi. Expedient is a DellEMC Platinum Partner and a VMware Cloud Verified Partner, so my interests were focused on announcements and opportunities to strengthen those relationships. The collaboration among the two organizations presents some exciting opportunities for our organization, and for our clients who are moving forward with digital transformation initiatives that require innovative solutions.
Expedient has worked with both Dell and VMware for more than a dozen years. Our team’s experience integrating and operating the components of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) needed to deliver value to clients has positioned us to take advantage of the synergies being created by the strategic collaboration of DellEMC and VMware. Expedient clients have been leveraging hybrid computing configurations for years, including the use of public and private cloud resources. Our multi-tenant (public) solutions have offered a cost-effective way for clients looking to consume IaaS so they can put more of their focus on business processes and applications. Others still are using dedicated (private) solutions for a higher level of control and compliance with government and/or industry mandates.
Multi-cloud Solutions for your Business
The lines of demarcation between on premises and off premises workloads continue to converge as our partners at Dell Technologies invest in developing products that codify operation of these environments. At Expedient, we’ve followed a similar path of innovation to create solutions that solve specific challenges for our clients. Some examples include:
- Our On-Site Private Cloud with Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution, which offers the same converged infrastructure built on Dell and VMware components that we use to operate our multi-tenant cloud points of delivery (POD), at the location(s) chosen by our clients.
- Our VMC on AWS offering, which provides a hyperscale option for clients that have data sovereignty requirements and when on-premises conditions are not adequate to provide an ideal computing environment.
- The Expedient Enterprise Cloud, which delivers a public cloud experience with the familiarity of VMware technology on Dell hardware.
A highlight announcement from the event came when Michael Dell was joined on stage by VMware CEO, Pat Gelsinger, and Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. The technology leaders described a new collaboration between Microsoft and VMware that would, for the first time, officially bring VMware software to Microsoft Azure, much in the way that VMware did with AWS in 2016. Solutions like these enable choice and the best opportunity to match workloads to the most ideal cloud operating environment.
Importantly, this collaboration should serve to enhance client experiences because multi-cloud approaches–a paradigm in which different vendors are chosen for their unique differentiators–are becoming more prevalent. At Expedient, we see the demand from current and prospective clients regularly and this acknowledgment by our key partners will accelerate our opportunity to assist. Expedient is also a long-time Microsoft Partner.
Azure VMware Solutions are built on VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and will offer clients the flexibility to seamlessly run existing VMware workloads in Azure without the need to make significant changes. Organizations leveraging modern application development approaches using native Azure services will find that this will streamline their development processes for workloads that fit best on Azure. Complemented by Expedient Enterprise Cloud and its support for Kubernetes, which offers a predictable cost structure and a variety of managed services to support client outcomes, clients can create end-to-end solutions.
Building Strategic Relationships to Foster Collaboration
While at the event, Expedient Chief Technology Officer, Ken Hill, and I spent some time with Michael Dell to discuss these recent announcements and their relevance to cloud service providers (CSP) like Expedient. Meeting with a variety of Dell leaders at the conference affords us the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the strategy and approach to work together as true partners.
Organizations need choice and flexibility for their future infrastructure operations in support of current and next generation applications. Expedient—together with partners like DellEMC, VMware, and Microsoft—is creating relevant solutions that meet our client’s needs, delivering the business outcomes they’re looking for.
As Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Rosenson is responsible for overseeing organizational functions that drive growth at Expedient. Jon additionally acts as an external spokesperson conveying the Expedient story. Follow him on Twitter.
