The software king of the world Microsoft is rather pleased with VMware’s post-acquisition pricing changes.
Microsoft executive vice president and chief commercial officer Judson Althoff said the “the greatest gift of all” and had boosted Microsoft’s cloud migration business.
He said, “everyone wants to get off of VMware and into the cloud.”
Althoff said that Cloud migrations, although less glamorous than other priorities, was where “all the money is.”
He highlighted the ongoing “migration opportunity” and promoted a specialised offer with Azure VMware Solution (AVS). This offer aims to help customers overcome VMware pricing challenges and move their licenses to the cloud.
A VMware representative stated that VMware remains a strong partners with Microsoft, supporting license portability for AVS. Customers can use VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) licenses on AVS and in their data centres, moving subscriptions as needed.
During the MCAPS Start for Partners event, Althoff outlined four pillars for AI transformation projects: enriching employee experiences, reinventing customer engagement, reshaping business processes, and bending the curve on innovation.
He also mentioned three partner growth strategies: Copilots on every device, AI design wins with every customer, and securing the cyber foundation of every customer. Two areas with large short-term revenue opportunities are sales of Microsoft 365 products and migrating customers to Microsoft products.
Althoff shared new data on partner growth, including over 23,000 partners selling Copilot and an 82 per cent increase in Data & AI partner designations.
Microsoft has 195,000 resellers of its “modern work” products, with half also selling security products. Partners have delivered more than 12,000 migrations and modernisation projects.
Microsoft announced more incentives and resources for partners, including over $150 million in investments for Azure Innovate and an additional $90 million to accelerate security growth.
