Presidio: Fiercely Dedicated to IT Mastery

Written by Raphael Meyerowitz, VP, Office of the CTO, Presidio

2020 was quite a year, wasn’t it? More organizations and employees shifted to remote work than at any time in history, and some of these changes are bound to be permanent.

At Presidio, we’ve been busier than ever working with VMware to help our mutual customers modernize their IT infrastructure quickly, securely, and sustainably. And we go big. Presidio is a $4 billion company with more than 7,000 clients. Rather than specializing in any particular vertical, we’re fiercely dedicated to deep and broad engineering expertise in 4 key areas: modernizing data centers, security, the cloud, and digital workspaces.

We’ve been a global VMware partner for 17 years, and we grew our digital workspace business with VMware by 130 percent in 2020 alone. A lot of customers reached out to us because they needed to rapidly create a more mobile workforce. These are customers who trusted us already, and they understood that anywhere, anytime access to systems is only one consideration when dealing with remote work. Security also has to be addressed. Our customers’ systems can’t be jeopardized, so we need to provide the most secure devices and the most secure deployment.

Irrefutable Proof of Our Expertise

One of our customers is an insurance company that, like most, had lots of office-bound employees. They needed to ramp up from dozens of remote workers to thousands, and they needed to do so all at once. If we didn’t have all 7 VMware Master Services Competencies (MSCs), and if the customer didn’t already trust us on the services side, we wouldn’t have gotten them there.

What are MSCs? For us and our clients, that could literally be the million-dollar question.

MSCs are certifications offered through VMware’s Partner Connect Program that demonstrate proven expertise in a specific VMware solution area. There are now 7 of them, and Presidio is one of only a few companies in the world to master them all.

• Cloud Management and Automation
• Data Center Virtualization
• Network Virtualization
• Digital Workspace
• Cloud Native Apps
• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware Cloud on AWS

And here’s the thing: Our own customers have to sign off on them. It’s not enough that our engineers hit the books and the labs and pass an exam. They have to prove themselves in the wild, on real projects for real customers, before earning an MSC. We had to get more than 20 references from customers for each MSC.

It’s one thing to say we have a certification. It’s another thing entirely to get so many customers to tell VMware that we deserve it. And to earn all 7, we also had to get more than 50 advanced certifications from VMware. These are not entry-level certifications either; they’re extremely technical. 

And we don’t just certify a handful of people. Our entire company goes deep. Even the salespeople spend time on those MSCs. And since we have all of them, our skillset spans the entire spectrum, from digital workspace and network virtualization to security and automation. We aren’t only focused on the ESX layer or the hypervisor. We also focus on cloud native, VMware Cloud Foundation, data center virtualization, VMware on AWS, and automation. We know how everything relates to everything else. That’s how we can craft comprehensive strategies for our customers and build an IT infrastructure that’s both durable and flexible over the long term.

Full-Service Deployment of Full-Stack IT Projects

Organizations that focus narrowly on the cloud don’t understand much else. They often need to call for backup just to finish a project. We never do. Our long-term customers know through experience that no matter what challenges arise, even if they’re unexpected, we’ll be able to help them.

With more than 2,000 engineers, Presidio’s ratio of technicians to salespeople is much more heavily tilted toward the former than is typical. While customers can buy software from anyone, if they don’t have a partner that understands it and can implement it, they’re not going to use it. They won’t know how to integrate it with the applications they already use. Some vendors are good at selling software, but they aren’t full-service. They have a hard time deploying it. As soon as a conversation takes a deep dive, they’re lost.

Sometimes Presidio acts a bit like a general IT contractor. Our customers’ projects can involve 4 or 5 different vendors. They’ll want to integrate VMware into their backup environment, their cloud environment, their storage environment, and so on, and each of those involves different vendors. So when we bring our services specialization to the table, we’re not just focused on the VMware piece. We can manage and help customers with full stack projects.

It’s important to understand what modernization is truly about: future-proofing IT with agile, flexible, multi-cloud solutions that enable new digital business models.

We sell more than software solutions and services. We sell peace of mind. Our customers know that our engineering teams have gone through VMware’s rigorous MSC process, so they know they’re getting the right team every time.

Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to get in touch and see what we’re up to.

Your Next Steps

• Stay tuned for more posts from VMware Partners like Presidio that have earned all 7 MSCs.
• Interested in becoming a VMware Partner? Learn about the VMware Partner Connect program and how VMware MSCs can help your organization attract more customers and bigger engagements.
• Looking for a VMware Partner like Presidio? Find one using our Partner Locator.