VMware and IBM have announced an expanded partnership to help global clients and partners modernise mission-critical workloads and expedite time-to-value in hybrid cloud environments.
The expanded relationship includes making IBM Consulting a VMware GSI partner, with the companies intending to deliver new jointly engineered IBM and VMware Cloud solutions.
Together, the companies are planning to help clients in regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare and public sector address the cost, complexity and risk of migrating and modernising mission-critical workloads in the cloud.
Companies, including those in regulated industries, are looking to modernise core business workloads to create better experiences for their clients and comply with industry regulations, the companies state. Further, the current economic climate makes refactoring applications for cloud unrealistic for many organisations, driving increased emphasis on a more agile modernisation strategy.
Overall, the planned IBM and VMware offerings are intended to increase choice and flexibility for companies to execute their digital transformation strategies.
Howard Boville, Head of IBM Cloud Platform, says, “In today's market, organisations want to modernise and transform operations quickly. But modernisation and innovation cannot come at the cost of security and trust built with clients.
"Together, IBM and VMware are supporting our mutual clients in regulated industries by offering something no two other companies are delivering to more easily leverage hybrid cloud services securely - wherever and however they wish to run them.
Mark Lohmeyer, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Infrastructure Business Group at VMware, says, “With IBM and VMware, our customers get a combination of innovation and consulting experience based on decades of close collaboration and experience in meeting the business challenges of thousands of customers around the world.
"This ongoing collaboration will enable us to better streamline the user experience for our mutual enterprise customers looking to run VMware mission critical workloads that require higher levels of security, resiliency and compliance support in financial services and regulated industries.
This latest news builds on the two company's longstanding relationship, having collaborated over the past 20 years to help clients realise technology goals. The companies expanded partnership includes:
IBM Consulting named Global Systems Integrator (GSI) for VMware: As part of the expanded partnership, IBM Consulting is now a GSI Partner for VMware to help clients accelerate their business transformation and hybrid cloud journeys. IBM Consulting will provide services to migrate, modernise and manage clients' most important workloads across any hybrid, multi-cloud environment in an open, more secured way.
This is critical for clients who are running applications across more than one cloud and are looking for the deep skills and expertise required to help with the security, management and reliability needed in these environments.
Expansion of VMware and IBM Joint Innovation Fund: Since launching the IBM and VMware Joint Innovation Lab in 2018, 20 hybrid cloud and AI-focused projects have been completed to extend the capabilities of IBM Cloud and address client needs for mission-critical VMware workloads. For example, the creation of a VMware-enabled reference architecture was developed and integrated into IBM Cloud for Financial Services offerings.
The Lab brings together engineering, sales, marketing and enablement capabilities from both companies and is a co-innovation engine for solving client problems. The new agreement will expand the Labs innovation pipeline for another three years with funding for the development of joint products and solutions.
Availability of IBM Cloud Satellite wherever VMware Applications run: IBM and VMware are collaborating to enable IBM Cloud Satellite for VMware. For workloads that need to remain on-premises, IBM Cloud Satellite now supports VMware workloads in any environment where they run, bringing the enhanced security and open innovation of IBM Cloud services to the clients datacenter. IBM Cloud Satellite brings a secured and unified layer of cloud services for clients, in any environment.