VMware : @ Microsoft Ignite Spring 2021

By Gregory Lehrer, vice president, strategic technology partnerships, VMware

March 3, 2021

This time last year, our customers were staring down a Herculean task. Almost overnight, IT teams were asked to retool systems and processes to support a fully distributed workforce. They rose to the challenge in heroic fashion. Today, they continue to innovate to support their organizations in an ever-evolving environment.

Many of these organizations have put their trust in VMware and Microsoft. By bringing the best of both companies together, we're helping customers deliver exceptional digital experiences by enabling any app on any cloud. We make these apps more securely accessible from any device. And for putting their trust in us, we humbly thank them.

Just as our customers' digital transformation forged ahead in the tumult of 2020, our partnership with Microsoft continues to steadily progress. As our customers (virtually) gather for Microsoft Ignite Spring 2021, we're excited to share updates on how our companies continue to collaborate in areas most critical to our customers.

A Flourishing Partnership

Today, Microsoft and VMware support thousands of mutual customers spanning all segments, geographies and industries.

With a shared passion for dreaming up and executing big ideas, we integrate and cross-sell technology solutions to drive customers' digital transformation forward. Our partnership enables customers to migrate mission-critical apps to the cloud, quickly scale infrastructure and enable instant access to data on any device. We do this without compromising user experience, productivity, management, cost or security.

Our partnership with Microsoft is all-inclusive and spans all our strategic priorities:

• App modernization
• Multi-cloud
• Virtual Cloud Network
• Digital workspace
• Intrinsic security
  

App Modernization

Over the past year, VMware and Microsoft unveiled several initiatives to help developers build and deploy powerful apps more quickly and with less headaches.

For instance, just a few months ago at SpringOne, we announced the general availability of Azure Spring Cloud, a fully managed Azure service for Spring Boot apps. Microsoft and VMware partnered closely on Azure Spring Cloud to enable customers to run their most critical Spring apps in production at scale with confidence.

At Ignite, VMware announced certification of VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid with Azure Arc. Faced with the demands of enabling remote workforces and delivering new digital experiences to customers, modern applications that can run on any cloud are now a business imperative. VMware believes Kubernetes will become the dial-tone for modern applications. This can only be achieved through a thriving ecosystem that promotes interoperability. By certifying Tanzu Kubernetes Grid with Azure Arc, we're teaming with Microsoft to help enterprises achieve the full potential of Kubernetes through a consistent experience.

Multi-Cloud

In the wake of COVID-19, organizations are increasingly adopting a multi-cloud strategy to help ensure continuity, resiliency, and cost efficiency for their business. As such, Azure VMware Solution continues to be an area of great excitement and momentum for both companies.

At last year's Ignite, Microsoft introduced the new Azure VMware Solution, which is now live in eight global regions. The platform continues to deliver for our customers as they more aggressively shift workloads to the cloud.

For example, Azure VMware Solution was instrumental in supporting global retailer Lucky Brands' digital transformation. Leveraging the company's past investments in Azure and VMware helped the retailer accelerate its cloud migration to minimize IT costs and ultimately improve the in-store and online shopping experience.