Dell’s “Dazed and Converged” dodgeball team might not have won the charity v0dgeball tournament that kicked off the event, but VMworld itself was a huge win!
It is always great to be with our amazing partners and customers at VMworld. This year, I had the privilege of meeting with dozens of Dell partners and key customers, small and large, from around the globe, working in diverse industries. We spoke in one-on-one meetings, at social events, on the show floor, and in the halls of the convention center.
Those conversations provided a lot of insight into how customers are leveraging Dell and VMware solutions to accelerate their businesses and achieve their goals. For instance, a number of customers I talked with are using Dell Ready Nodes for VMware VSAN to support VDI deployments and as platforms for core IT transformation.
It’s always interesting at events to see what customers are most eager to learn and talk about. Based on the level of interest in our solutions with VMware, we’re on the right track.
I fielded a lot of questions from customers and partners about the newly announced Dell Validated System for Virtualization, the industry’s most flexible converged system to-date, which allows customers of all sizes to accelerate their journey towards converged infrastructure.
Customers were also very interested in the results of recent performance testing done on the all-flash FX2 VSAN configuration. Folks walked up to our hands-on display (which our team dubbed the “petting zoo”) in the HCI Zone specifically to talk about that particular offering. Customers crowded around to see the inner workings, and it was often difficult for staff to get near the hardware to have discussions!
Finally, it was exciting to see such great energy and enthusiasm around the Dell Blueprints program! VMware is a cornerstone of the Virtualization Blueprint, and it was energizing to sit down with customers and explore how utilizing Dell Blueprints and converged systems can help them along their journey to digital transformation.
All in all, this year’s VMworld really drove home the “incredibly vibrant ecosystem” that Michael Dell attributed to VMware during his interview on the Cube (you can watch the whole thing below). I look forward to another year of continued partnership with VMware worldwide, offering customers enhanced solutions that both support them now and help them grow in the future.
You can catch up on our newly expanded solutions on our VMware page, and follow us on Twitter at @DellAlliances to keep up with the latest news. And please join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. CDT for an exciting announcement that touches our VMware partnership!