Opportunites for VMware Partners post-Broadcom Aquisition

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All right, this is going to be an interesting conversation because the Broadcom merger with VMware is going to close at some point, and this is all just my prediction and guessing. But I will guess, we had Dan Newman from Future Group on a couple of days ago, he talked about what's going to happen, what he believes is going to happen after the Broadcom acquisition closes. And I'm in alignment. I think if Josh Augers, the CEO of End2End, we'll get into what you do later, but Josh, my prediction is that Haktan is probably going to cut 50% of VMware jobs, like he is going to take an axe to the organization and make managers basically prove that they can't do their current jobs without 50% of the resources.

And I think one of his methods of doing this is that they're going to do something what we've seen similar to Dale, which is to take basically what we called commercial sales at VMware, so anything that's not large organizations, and push that sale out to the channel. So there'll be a lot less direct sales to VMware and a lot more to the channel. A problem with that is, I would say the VMware channel is already pretty stretched thin talent-wise. It's a classic resource problem.

It takes immense skill to develop and deploy architectures that meet the standards of today's hybrid infrastructures. So first off, I wanted to have you give us a lay of the land. Can you kind of explain the VMware kind of expertise certification ladder for us? Oh, sure, absolutely. So basically, we start with the VCP. I won't go through the lower-level associates, but traditionally, we start with the VCP, VMware Certified Professional. So this is the entry-level certification. If you have to sit a proctored exam, it requires a reasonable level of experience and training to get this level.

So I wouldn't say it's incredibly hard, but I wouldn't say it's easy either. So VCP is a reasonable level to achieve. That's probably, well, it's definitely by far the most common level. There's hundreds of thousands of VCPs in the world. I even have one. It's a big number. I have one, and I have a VCP. And you would know, it's not an easy exam, but it's not an impossible exam either. So it's a good level to test your baseline skills.

So above this, we have the VMware Certified Advanced Professional, or VCAP, as it's called affectionately. So the VCAP covers a lot of different areas, a lot of different tracks. So it's not just data center, it's also networking and desktop and things like this. So you have a design exam, which is focused around the architecture piece, and you have a deploy exam, which is the hands-on implementation skills. So these are really, in my opinion, the bar at which a partner wants to aim as a minimum, because that's showing you not only know the general layer, the VCP, but you have good skills in design and implementation.

So we'll pause here for a second on this, and this is the workhorse of the workforce, right? These are the folks racking and stacking equipment, banging out commands on the command line configurations. They're taking designs and making them real. They're usually the first line of troubleshooting. Absolutely. They are the lifeblood of the bar community. Absolutely. And I think one thing I talked about with Carl Childs, the VCDX Program Manager this week, was that there is a lack of VCAP-level certified people.

So the ratio, I can't recall off the top of my head, between VCP and VCAP, but it was a very low number. So there's 100,000 plus VCP, there's a very small amount of VCAP level above that. So it's very important to VMware, I think, and to partners and customers that we expand that VCAP level. So this is the first stress point of when Broadcom, I believe, is going to push out commercial sales to the partners, where the partners just need enough of this low-level talent.

And by low-level, I don't mean low-skilled, I mean low-level, the first level of defense talent to meet the demand of pre-sales meeting, initial consultations, qualifying deals, this level of blocking and tackling. So let's move up a level from VCAP. Yeah. So look, above VCAP, if you have two VCAPs in the same track, so if you have the data center design and the data center deploy, you get what's called VCIX, which is VMware Certified Implementation Expert. So there's not an exam for that, it just requires you to do two VCAPs.

So that really is showing you've got a good base in design and implementation. So there's a pretty valuable person, I would say, who can get that VCIX level, especially across multiple tracks, because one individual may have desktop VCIX, and they may have data center VCIX. So I would still call this kind of a very tactical level, though, because your VCIX, from a practical sense, you could say, I have a requirement for 10,000 desktops, and I'm going to deploy that within the data center, or hybrid cloud, or the public cloud.

I have the skill to do the basic design, and the hands-on capability to actually deploy that solution. Yeah. Absolutely. If partners were all at that level, that would be a great achievement. I don't think it's easy for all the partners to get there. In fact, my personal opinion is it's very difficult for most partners to get to that level, which is why they're not there. That's basically the gap, as you say, the bottleneck. So we're already at the bottleneck, and there's a layer higher than that.

There is. So there's the VMware Certified Design Expert. So this has actually been around for about 15 years. It's not a new certification, and it's designed for the enterprise and solution architect. So you actually have to submit documentation to VMware, which is reviewed against a blueprint. If that is up to a certain standard, you are then invited to present that to a panel of experts to see if you're capable from an architecture perspective, from a consulting perspective, and then you're granted VCDX, assuming that you pass that exam.

So there's only 300 in the world. And this to me is very disappointing. I did VCDX. I've got two VCDXs actually, and I would have hoped by now there would have been 2,000 VCDXs. Because I think it's an incredibly valuable skill set. It teaches you a lot about what you don't know, and therefore you can get better. So that's where I think the VCAP and VCDX level needs to be accelerated significantly. So with that, with all BAR partnership programs, we can look at Cisco as one of the kind of premier models.

, CCNPs, all these acronyms. You need a certain number of each one to qualify for not just discounts, but deals. Like when NSX came out, you had to have a VCDX on staff that understood NSX just to sell NSX. So this is a bottleneck and something that Broadcom will have to deal with when they go to push out sales to the channel, the partners. But you think you have a solution to this, or at least a partial solution? Yeah, absolutely.

I definitely think it is a solution, in fact. I think it's very difficult to train people up to a VCDX level because there's not a lot of VCDXs who can mentor. There might be partners who don't want to mentor other partners. There might be a whole bunch of reasons why it's difficult to get to that level. And I would say the biggest barrier is the effort. I don't think it's an unachievable level. I'm not some genius that has managed to achieve it.

I've just put the work in. So it's just a high barrier to entry. So when I founded End-to-End Enterprise Architecture, I thought, why not bring together multiple VCDXs so that we can provide that service primarily to other partners and provide partner-to-partner services so my team can complement the great work the partner's already doing and fill in the gap, whether it be NSX, to your point, or whether it be a new solution or a complex solution. Or, in the event something's deployed and there is a critical situation that needs management or re-architecting, we can come in, solve that situation, hand it back to the partner, and then the customer gets a great outcome, the partner keeps the business, and we get some business as well.

So kind of VCDX as a service. Absolutely. You could call it that. We should use that acronym, actually. You can be part of my marketing team, how's that sound? There you go. So, you know, I know a couple of your VCDXs, like there's only, like you said, there's only 300 in the world. You'd be surprised where they work. A lot of them work for VMware, a lot of them work, actually, now for AWS, because it is a very transferable skill set.

It is, as you stated before, you're just showing what you don't know, but it is at a architectural level and you could take this skill and apply it to almost any cloud technology. Yeah, you can. So I think the really important thing about VCDX is it's, while it is a VMware expertise, for sure, if you took 80% of that certification, it's transferable to anything else. So a lot of VCDXs, like you say, went to hyperscalers and have been very successful because the methodology is the important part.

The physical layer or the technology piece, in my opinion, is the easiest piece to learn. The methodology in that approach is by far the harder piece. So what we're going to do is help customers, especially on multi-cloud journeys, where there's lots of different physical layers, being the hyperscalers or the on-prem or hybrid setup, we're going to help deliver that outcome where partners might not have simply the time. There's one partner who reached out who actually has a VCDX. They simply just don't have the time to deploy some of the work, so they would like to engage a trusted partner like us to help complement their workforce.

So it's not just to provide a skill set that's not there, it's to complement the existing skill set. Now, this has traditionally been a no-fly zone, partner-to-partner partnerships have been a no-fly zone in the past because there's this cherished asset that each partner had, which is the relationship with the customer, with the end customer. How have you been able to overcome that kind of political barrier? Well, I think it's just through a genuine interest to help the customer. So if I'm honest, if I just take the business off, let's say it's your customer and you're missing a skill set in NSX, and I just come in and wipe you off the floor and take over.

Well, the customer's lost your value, and yes, they've got some value from me, but wouldn't it be better that they have both? Because obviously you've known them for a while, you know the ins and outs of their business more intimately, I can just come in and complement that. I get business, you get the business, the customer gets the best of both worlds, I don't see a problem with that. I actually think it's a benefit to me as a business as well, because I might not have a resource in whichever location that you're operating, but I can fly someone in who can help on the project, or they can do it oftentimes remotely as well.

So I think it's a win-win, I don't have a problem with it, and I think when I sit down with partners and have that conversation, most don't have a problem with it either. So how do you enable the overall growth of the skill set? Because I think this is absolutely an example of a rising tide lifts all boats. How do you grow the capability within the partner ecosystem? So to my point, if a customer doesn't have, or a partner doesn't have the skill set, we might come in, we'll do the design piece, we'll come in and do checkpoints throughout the project, and then we'll do an operational verification at the end.

So throughout that process, the partner might not have the skill to implement part or all of that design, so we would simply encourage them to shadow that opportunity, that implementation, and we would upskill that person throughout that journey of that project. In addition, we also have VMware Certified Instructors who can run VMware official training, or if a customer or a partner needs us to create a bootcamp or a training course for a certain topic very specific to their environment, it might be a service provider, then we can just create that content for them, deliver that, and mentor them specifically on technology, which is not necessarily aligned to a VCAP exam or a VCDX exam, it's just a business outcome.

Yeah, so much of this is not the technology as you mentioned, you know, it's, if this was a technology, we could just literally buy data centers as a service, and it's not that simple. It's not. It is a lot about local regulations, there's geographic latency concerns, there's kind of business process concerns, all of this is what I call a last mile business. And you can't simply go to the cloud, you have last mile issues, and you need expertise with boots and shoes or sandals on the ground to solve these problems.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, I was at the VCDX Town Hall earlier this week, and obviously in a room of brilliant people, so I always like going to those events, but one of the people gave an example where, to your original point about VMware doing direct sales, they were saying, well, yeah, VMware were doing a great job, the NSBU would come out and sell NSX and talk to the value and they did an amazing job. But the customer actually didn't have a partner to tie it all together.

So the technical solution, NSX is fantastic, it's well proven, it's great reference architectures, but like you say, it's the last mile. So you've got the customer requirement, you've got the solution here, but you need the enterprise architecture and you need the solution architecture in the middle to actually bring it together. So what Broadcom may or may not do, I happen to agree with you on that point, I think they will push out a lot of that business, whether they do or don't, VMware should be doing this middle piece if they want their top end customers to get the great outcomes.

And if VMware aren't doing it, they should give it to partners who have that capability. So obviously I'm biased, I've started a company to do that piece, but to me, if a partner or if a customer does not have a partner with enterprise architecture skills and solution architecture skills, then regardless of how good VMware is doing technology wise, and in my opinion, their innovation has been fantastic the last few years, then it's not going to deliver the outcome that we expect. So this piece in the middle is important.

And if a partner has a gap in one or both places, or even a small subset, well, I'm happy to fill that gap. So Josh, I really appreciate you stopping by the CTO Advisor Studio to share your journey as an entrepreneur. I always love it when I see people from the community take a leap of faith, start businesses that truly differentiate and help customers achieve their end goals with this technology. com. Josh, how will people get ahead to end-to-end? com, and you'll have end-to-end.

All right. com. Until then, talk to you next, CTO Advisor Studio.