Nutanix CEO On Why VMware Partners Are ‘Missing Out’

‘The market is coming to us,’ says Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami in an interview with CRN.

Rajiv Ramaswami: ‘The Market Is Coming To Us’

Nutanix’s new CEO, Rajiv Ramaswami, understands that the hyperconverged software star will not be able to scale and take market share from competitors without its channel partners.

“We value the channel a lot because, really, that is the only way we can scale. We don’t have a massive internal sales engine like some of our bigger competitors might have,” said Ramaswami in an interview with CRN. “We are completely dependent on the channel.”

Ramaswami said Nutanix is doubling down on channel investments and enablement such as streamlining the deal registration process, increasing partner-led opportunities and elevating services sales to the next level with company’s recently launched Elevate Partner Program.

“I want our channel partners to be self-sufficient in terms being able to close deals and being able to close transactions without requiring Nutanix sales reps in the process,” he said. “By simplifying this, channel partners can go off and transact independently -- that should help us scale and it should also help increase velocity for our partners.”

Ramaswami became CEO of Nutanix in December, following a five-year stint as VMware’s global Chief Operating Officer for Products and Cloud Services. With more than 30 years of IT executive experience, Ramaswami believes channel partners are the answer to scaling Nutanix to new heights. In an interview with CRN, Ramaswami talks about his channel strategy, simplifying Nutanix’s product portfolio and why VMware partners should start selling Nutanix.

If I’m a VMware partner who doesn’t sell Nutanix, why should I join Nutanix in 2021?

Because they’re really missing out on a big chunk of the market opportunity. We have leadership share in HCI (hyperconverged infrastructure). We’re growing rapidly. We have a single-minded focus on this market and we have more than 18,000 loyal customers and we have plenty of white space opportunity. So we are going to grow and our partners can drive significant new business by aligning with us as we grow.

Ignoring us, I think will mean that they’re just giving up on that piece of opportunity. Because ultimately, Nutanix is what the customers want. The customers have spoken clearly, they recognize Nutanix for having a great product portfolio and the customers we have are very loyal. If you look at it simply from the customer mindset, they like the Nutanix solution. So from a partner’s perspective, it would be good for them to sell the Nutanix solution to them.

I would tell a channel partner, please come along with us on our journey. It’s going to be mutually beneficial. There’s going to be tons of opportunity for us together. There’s partner growth opportunity in terms of our expanding portfolio and a huge amount of white space. The market is coming to us. Also the ability to sell services and build a great business with us. We want to work with you all.

With Nutanix not having a large internal sales organization, does it benefit partners in terms of more services opportunities and less channel-vendor conflict?

There’s no doubt it does. I think this is a huge potential value proposition for our channel partners. We are not going to compete with our channel partners on professional services engagements in our customers.

We are happy to enable our channel partners to get the competencies needed so they can actually build a great services practice on top of the products that we bring to the market. Our team is small. We are glad to have partners deal with us with their own services, whether it be prospecting, proof of concept, all the way to deployment and delivery services to cloud migration-type services – all of those I think are good business opportunities for our partners.

What are some simplification changes Nutanix is making that will boost partner profitability?

What I found is, our products are all metered at different basis. We have multiple products in our portfolio and each of them basically has a different metering. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simplify that a little bit and have consist [metering] for each of our products? That’s one change.

Second, I want our channel partners to be self-sufficient in terms being able to close deals and being able to close transactions without requiring Nutanix sales reps in the process. By simplifying this, channel partners can go off and transact independently -- that should help us scale and it should also help increase velocity for our partners.

How will you simplify the deal registration process for partners?

Obviously, we’ve had deal registration before, but now we are making it more streamlined. We want to make sure that it’s really leading to good new business for both us and the partner. We want to simplify the deal registration process. All of that is part of our Elevate [Partner Program] which focuses on partner competencies and training to increase the quality of partners working with us and partner enablement, including improving the deal registration process to increase volume.

We’re making sure that the partner is trained and trained on our broader portfolio, trained on the solutions, trained on the use cases that their customers are seeing and how to sell into that. Also, training them in terms of how to come along with us on our journey to subscription. Just as we are transforming our sales force to a subscription-oriented sales force, our partners have to make that transformation along with us as well. They should be focused on driving new ACV (annual contract value). They need to come along with us on that journey.