Nutanix CEO: 5 quotes that raised partner eyebrows as he sat down with CRN
Rajiv Ramaswami on increased public cloud caution, partner growth hotspots and why Nutanix is no longer just an HCI vendor
Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami spoke freely about takeover rumours, rival VMware and his partner vision during a wide-ranging interview with our sister title CRN US.
The exchange came following rumours linking Nutanix with a possible takeover bid from HPE, and upbeat quarterly results from the HCI vendor showing a 15 per cent annual revenue rise.
Here we round up some of Ramaswami's more eye-catching or surprising soundbites from the interview, which can be read in full here.
"We are no longer just a HCI company"
What was Ramaswami referring to?
Nutanix is shifting its rhetoric to reflect the fact that the vendor now has a much wider play than most people give it credit for, Ramaswami said.
"We are no longer just a HCI company. We are a hybrid multi-cloud company. We provide a complete cloud platform. We help our customers run applications and workloads, wherever they like to run them: on prem, in the public cloud, in the edge locations," he said.
Nutanix has a new CMO [Mandy Dhaliwal] who Ramaswami said is "doing a great job of changing our narrative".
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Nutanix CEO: 5 quotes that raised partner eyebrows as he sat down with CRN
Rajiv Ramaswami on increased public cloud caution, partner growth hotspots and why Nutanix is no longer just an HCI vendor
"We are flattered by all the attention we're getting. And in some ways, you know, it's a testament to the fact that we're doing something good in the marketplace."
What was Ramaswami referring to?
While maintaining that it's "not appropriate" for him to comment on possible takeover talk, Ramaswami scotched suggestions that there could be a connection between those rumours and recent governance changes Nutanix has made.
"Public companies, as they get more mature, typically will declassify their board. So typically, in classified boards, you get a portion of the board to stand for election every year, and then a declassified board, everybody stands for election, the same year. And we made that change as well," he said.
The takeover talk is merely a sign that Nutanix is doing "something that our customers like," Ramaswami added.
"We're trying to help them continue to simplify their infrastructure. Help them walk in the cloud, with a cloud platform. We're going to provide them freedom and flexibility of choice and delight. Our NPS score continues to be at 90 plus. So that's really what we're focusing on, on the financial front," he said.
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Nutanix CEO: 5 quotes that raised partner eyebrows as he sat down with CRN
Rajiv Ramaswami on increased public cloud caution, partner growth hotspots and why Nutanix is no longer just an HCI vendor
"They think before they go. It used to be people just go into the public cloud. Now, it's ‘Yeah, I still want to go to the public cloud. But I want to do so carefully. And I want to think about how I'm going to optimise my costs or my security or my data management."
What was Ramaswami referring to?
Asked about where Nutanix will find success in 2023, Ramaswami pointed to increasing customer caution around the move to public cloud - echoing recent results statements from the likes of AWS.
"What we're seeing in the marketplace is that is a strength of ours. We help them do that. Operating across multiple clouds is complex. We make it simple. We make it effective for our customers to operate in this environment and get the best of private and public clouds," he added.
"By delivering a single platform, it's simple, consistent, and you don't have to have three different teams manage each of your three different cloud environments."
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Nutanix CEO: 5 quotes that raised partner eyebrows as he sat down with CRN
Rajiv Ramaswami on increased public cloud caution, partner growth hotspots and why Nutanix is no longer just an HCI vendor
We do have a campaign out there around the theme ‘VM Where?'"
What was Ramaswami referring to?
Ramaswami was questioned about whether Nutanix needs to get more aggressive in going after customers of VMware - which is in the process of being acquired by Broadcom.
Nutanix's approach to customers is to show that it understands their concerns and is "here to help", he said.
"With respect to the opportunities that we see as a result of Broadcom and VMware, I think that's a very real opportunity," Ramaswami added.
"We have seen significantly more engagement with our customers over the last six months since the Broadcom acquisition was announced, and customers are concerned about potential price changes, potential innovation and roadmap changes, and support changes. What we're hearing from the partner community again, is that, you know, they're also equally concerned about how they're going to be supported going forward."
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Nutanix CEO: 5 quotes that raised partner eyebrows as he sat down with CRN
Rajiv Ramaswami on increased public cloud caution, partner growth hotspots and why Nutanix is no longer just an HCI vendor
"We'd like [to see partners] do even more from a generation perspective, so our channel partners are able to go out there, identify deals, work with our customers and be able to go drive those themselves"
What was Ramaswami referring to?
"Pretty much all" of Nutanix's business gets transacted through its partners, Ramaswami said, with Nutanix not doing "much direct business at all".
But Ramaswami broke partner business into ‘partner-generated' and ‘partner-fulfilled', stressing that he is eager to increase the former.
"That part we would like to build. We would like to invest in our partners, help enable them to do that," he said.
"Both enable them and make it worthwhile for them to do that, from a compensation perspective and margin structure perspective for our partners. We want them to be driving more business for us."