Microsoft and VMware: Accelerating Migration to the Cloud

Recognizing our 2020 Global VMware Partner Technology Innovation Award Winner

Each year, VMware recognizes a distinguished group of global partners with the VMware Partner of the Year Awards. The awards honor partners that deliver exceptional innovation and results with VMware solutions and are divided into several categories, each with a global winner and three regional winners. The Technology Innovation Award was added as a new category in 2020, with a single global winner.

The 2020 Technology Innovation Award goes to VMware Principal Partner and Technology Alliance Partner, Microsoft, in recognition of the company’s outstanding deployment of VMware technologies in the cloud.

“We are so excited that Microsoft is the winner of the Global VMware Partner Technology Innovation Award,” says Merrie Williamson, Vice President of Azure Applications and Infrastructure at Microsoft. “It further strengthens the collaboration between our companies to modernize the cloud and accelerate customer migrations.”

Helping customers transcend the status quo

Microsoft Azure is one of the world’s largest cloud services. Microsoft deploys and manages Azure services and applications through Microsoft’s data centers and offers software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS). Customers can run Azure across multiple clouds or in a hybrid environment using the frameworks and tools they choose, including those from VMware.

Together with VMware, Microsoft helps customers transcend the status quo with offerings that give mutual customers the ability to rapidly move their on-premises environments to the cloud on their own terms, improving user experiences, bolstering productivity, hardening security, and accelerating digital transformation. With a commitment to putting customers first, the partnership spans the entire range of VMware offerings, from those for App Modernization to Cloud, Virtual Cloud Network, Intrinsic Security, and Digital Workspace.

The flagship solution of VMware and Microsoft is Azure VMware Solution (AVS). Built to leverage the scale, continuity, and rapid provisioning of an Azure global infrastructure for VMware workloads, it provides instant access to Azure backup and disaster recovery services, on-demand access to added data center capacity, and the ability to modernize applications within the native Azure environment using familiar tools. It does all this while lowering IT costs. Migration is rapid and seamless, with no rearchitecting or retooling needed. Customers can choose to migrate and modernize incrementally or all at once.

“VMware and Microsoft have created cloud infrastructure solutions designed for every workload,” says Williamson. “We empower customers to innovate as they embrace the cloud at their own pace, supporting them no matter where they are on their journey. Our partnership builds upon itself as we work together to create new products, market them, and sell them using an integrated story that highlights the strengths and value of our solutions.”

Handling the migration surge with speed and grace

When two of the most trusted technology leaders partner, it marks a turning point for their customers. With the COVID-19 pandemic, that turning point came at a crucial moment. “We hear from customers who need to rapidly respond to dramatic changes,” Williamson says. “More people than ever are asking us how they can modernize and scale their data centers in the cloud. That’s where our solutions come in.”

Migrations to the cloud have been surging in response to the pandemic, with central offices closing and millions of home offices springing up all at once. With the need to shift to a work-from-home model, many customers were looking for a solution to help them accomplish that as quickly as possible. Those customers are leveraging VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure with Windows Virtual Desktop as a way to provide more secure remote work for their employees while saving on IT costs.

One mutual customer is a multinational company with 50,000 employees. It was using VMware solutions on-premises when the first COVID-19 lockdowns and travel bans went into effect. The company had to move to the cloud as fast as possible to support every region where it does business. “They have better capabilities now,” Williamson says, “such as a new approach to disaster recovery and improved IT resiliency and reliability. On top of that, we were able to finish the work in a matter of weeks.”

Looking ahead

In the face of the current global challenges, Microsoft and VMware quickly established themselves as a solid partnership that customers can count on.  “This award is so valuable because it represents the importance of the future of the VMware and Microsoft partnership, as well as the future of the customers that we’re serving,” Williamson says.

Your next steps?

1. Stay tuned for more spotlights from the 2020 VMware Partner of the Year awards just like this one.
2. Use our Partner Locator to find/locate other Principal-tier partners like Microsoft and find out how you too, can become a VMware Principal-tier partner to help drive your business success.
3. Learn more about the Azure VMware Solution.