Gelsinger: New products will be foundation of channel success
VMware boss says he wants the channel to follow its lead with its expansion into new areas as he kicks off VMworld Europe
VMware chief executive Pat Gelsinger has claimed new product enhancements announced today at VMworld Europe represent a chance for the channel to move forward as his firm expands.
"As we continue to expand our portfolio, we ask - or challenge - our channel partners to step into these new areas with us," he said at the Barcelona event, which kicked off today when he made his keynote speech to an audience of 9,000, which included a record 6,500 channel partners.
During his address, Gelsinger made a number of product announcements and updates.
The firm unveiled the expansion of its vCloud Air platform into Germany where it will open a new operated datacentre which it aims to make available in the first quarter of 2015.
Speaking after Gelsinger, Bill Fathers, executive vice president and general manager of cloud services, said since its introduction a year ago, vCloud Air "has made significant strides to provide customers with a hybrid cloud platform they know and trust".
Gelsinger added that the software-defined datacentre was at the "heart of our strategy going forward".
To a ripple of applause from the audience, Gelsinger boasted of a new partnership with HP which will see the duo collaborate on HP ConvergedSystem 200-HC EVO:RAIL, which is aimed at helping organisations build datacentre infrastructure for virtualised workloads.
Gelsinger said: "We are thrilled to announce this new partnership with HP, and we worked hard to get it."
Also announced today at VMworld Europe was a series of new cloud-management offerings, such as the vRealise suite 6.0, and a number of updates to its end-user computing portfolio.
Speaking exclusively to CRN following his speech, Gelsinger said he wants his channel partners to move with it into these new areas as it continues to expand its portfolio.
He said: "Areas such as end-user computing and software-defined datacentre, hybrid cloud and new products like Virtual SAN and EVO:RAIL we think are critical to move forward in the channel."
"Our commitment to the channel is unwavering, now and into the future, and I would like to wish a continued thank you to our channel partners," he added.