Dell VMware Integrations Will 'Accelerate' After Dell Goes Public

Dell EMC and VMware will have tighter technology ties than ever before in 2019 as the two companies are set to accelerate integrations around solutions like NSX, vSAN and Workspace ONE.

Tom Sweet, executive vice president and CFO of Dell Technologies, said becoming a public company on Dec. 28 will enable Dell and VMware to build out more solution sets that are closely integrated.

"You look at the number of solution workstreams that we have going right now with VMware -- whether it's around hyper-converged infrastructure or Workspace ONE in our client space or around what we're doing with vSAN and vSAN Ready Nodes – so across the spectrum, you're going to see us accelerate a number of these integrated solutions. We're optimistic and excited about it," said Sweet, in an interview with CRN.

Additional CRNtv Coverage: Tom Sweet Shares His 2019 Predictions

http://crntv.crn.com/detail/videos/crntv/video/5980503331001

"VMware is a great platform in the market in terms of their position in virtualized infrastructure, but you also think about what they're doing with VMware's NSX and the network, we have a lot of activity going on in the networking space. It's pretty exciting times," Sweet said.

[Related: Dell CFO Tom Sweet On Why Going Public Will 'Catapult' Dell Forward]

Sweet said Dell Technologies will simplify its capital structure after it becomes a public entity, which opens the door for tighter and faster integrations throughout its seven brands: Dell, Dell EMC, Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks, Virtustream and VMware.

"From a channel perspective, it should open up additional velocity as we think about how do we more effectively go-to-market and position integrated solutions. Because the world of today many times is, 'I don’t want three-tier architecture. I want a more simplified, less complex solution.' Therefore, VMware is a pretty significant part of that solution strategy for us," said Sweet.

Scott Miller, senior director of strategic partnerships for $10.4 billion solution provider powerhouse World Wide Technology, said it’s "very important" for the channel community that Dell Technologies drive better technology synergies next year.

"Customers love the technology components of the suite of companies that comprise Dell Technologies' portfolio because they are very applicable to solving our customers’ business challenges -- especially from the Dell EMC, VMware and Pivotal segments," said Miller. "But it needs to be easier to be consumed across all of those and more tightly packaged from a tech perspective."

Miller, who's Maryland-Heights, Mo.-based company is ranked No. 7 on CRN's 2018 Solution Provider 500 list and is a top global Dell EMC and VMware partner, said better integration will help shorten the sales and procurement cycles which "ultimately gets our customers access to the tech solution faster, and hence, faster time to market for their business outcomes."

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell owns 81 percent of VMware through its 2016 acquisition of EMC for $67 billion. However, VMware remains an independent company under the Dell Technologies umbrella.

Dell is leveraging its VMware relationship to go public through a VMware tracking stock swap rather than going the traditional IPO route to the public market. Dell Technologies is set to officially start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 28 under the symbol DELL.

While VMware technology is installed in many Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM environments, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell said his company is bigger and growing faster than the competition.

"If you look at our data center business, we are the largest and we're bigger than Cisco. Bigger than IBM. Bigger than HPE," said Dell in an recent interview with CRN. "If you look at the growth in the first nine months through the end of October, our data center business grew plus-22 percent. So we’re the biggest and growing at 22 percent. Then you say, 'Well what did Cisco grow?' Cisco grew like 5 [percent] or 6 percent. HPE grew 4 percent, and IBM was negative. So we're larger and growing a lot faster."