Nutanix is the “primary choice” for VMware partners seeking to derisk their business, its VP of EMEA Channels has claimed.
Nearly 70% of VMware partners are increasing their focus on VMware competitors in the wake of its acquisition by Broadcom, according to research published last week by Canalys.
Since Broadcom got its man, it has reportedly ripped up partner contracts, taken the top 2,000 accounts direct and made layoffs, as it seeks to boost the virtualisation giant’s profitability.
Nutanix is being touted as a major beneficiary of the ensuing uncertainty, with investment firm William Blair recently upgrading its stock to ‘outperform’, citing a “tectonic shift” in the infrastructure software market.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Nutanix’s EMEA channel leader Adam Tarbox asserted that the pace of change had caused “a lot of uncertainty” in the VMware partner base.
“They’re not sure what all the changes mean for their business and therefore that creates concern for them around ‘what does the future look like for me as a partner, and do I need to start de-risking my business and look at alternative options’?,” he explained.
“And when they ask that question, Nutanix is well placed in terms of being the primary choice for helping partners de-risk their business.”
“Our programme rewards partners for bringing us new logos”
With a 100% channel mantra, NASDAQ-listed Nutanix saw revenues power up 18% year on year to $511.1m in the first quarter of its fiscal 2024.
There are two common roads into Nutanix for VMware customers, Tarbox said, namely around its hyperconverged or hybrid-powered infrastructure – where Nutanix claims to lead the market – and also as a direct competitor of VMware vSAN.
“Once you land on the Nutanix platform, the next piece is that we have the capability to provide customers with real choices. They can choose the hardware they want to land on, and which cloud they want to deploy their applications, data and workloads in – all the while retaining a consistent set of tools, processes and management,” he added.
Nutanix recently boosted the rebates it pays for partners who bring in new logos (including in cases where it’s already a customer of the partner, but new to Nutanix), Tarbox stressed.
Under changes brought in at the start of its fiscal 2024, sales staff and sales engineers within partners can earn up to 2% – or $7,500 – on a new logo deal.
“When they have customers that are concerned about the changes and are looking for alternatives, our programme rewards partners for bringing them to Nutanix,” he emphasised.
At the same time, Nutanix claims it also boosted deal registration discounts to 40%, while introducing an ‘outperformance’ rebate for top-performing partners.
“We’ve [also] introduced service rebates so that if a partner does have a customer that’s concerned about VMware and wants to migrate to Nutanix, they are eligible for claiming the rebate back for some of the services they would deliver as part of that migration,” Tarbox said.
What is Tarbox’s message to the VMware partner community?
“If you look at the top tier of partners on VMware and Nutanix’s programmes, we’ve got a really good overlap. Most of the partners engage with Nutanix already. So our primary focus is on supporting our long-term partners that have invested in Nutanix,” he said.
“Then there are partners that essentially aren’t Nutanix partners. And again, our message is very clear: we are a partner-focused organisation, and we’re here to work with and support any partner that wants to build a long-term sustainable business with Nutanix.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
