Scale Computing CEO Jeff Ready said there is a Broadcom-VMware ‘Rip and Replace’ surge taking hold among partners and customers.
“It is just blowing up,” said Ready. “It’s hard to stay ahead of the inbound requests from VMware partners and end users looking to move to Scale. It is a four-times increase sequentially month to month [in inbound inquires] and an eight- to 10-times increase from a year ago.”
Scale Computing is moving aggressively to capture the Broadcom VMware customer and partner windfall with a VMware “Rip and Replace” promotion that gives partners a 25 percent discount on any VMware licensing that moves to Scale Computing. “That is margin for the channel,” said Ready.
For end-user customers, Scale Computing has agreed to match the equivalent price of the existing VMware licensing contract, said Ready. “What that means is the end user does not have to take a financial risk to move to Scale,” he said. “We are making it easy for both customers and partners to move to Scale.”
Scale Computing has signed up hundreds of partners looking to move to the company and expects to potentially move thousands of partners to its virtualization platform, said Ready.
Ready said he is on a mission to show partners and customers frustrated with the VMware experience that Scale Computing is the best company to do business with, with not only the best technology but the best partner and customer experience.
“What I am looking to establish now is we are the best company to work for both for the end user and most importantly the partner,” he said. “Because it is obvious to me that Broadcom doesn’t know how a partnership should actually work. Because if they did, they wouldn’t just throw these guys out. It is just insane to me.”
What is Scale Computing seeing with regard to partners and customers wanting to move off VMware?
It is just blowing up. It’s hard to stay ahead of the inbound requests from VMware partners and end users looking to move to Scale. It is a four-times increase sequentially month to month [in inbound inquires] and an eight- to 10-times increase [in inbound inquiries] from a year ago. This is people reaching to us inbound on their own in absence of marketing programs or anything special. We are seeing 10 to 20 partners a day inquiring with us about moving business to Scale from VMware.
We are seeing a lot of partners that went all in on VMware feel like they got burned and are now looking at Nutanix and Scale with a spot for both of us. I see partners that don’t want to go all in on either of us because they don’t want to get burned again.
There are spots where there are some overlaps between Nutanix and us, but there is also a lot of differentiation. When you look at the midmarket that we have always openly embraced and edge computing, we have a lot of strength there. But we also do a lot in the enterprise. Obviously, different partners define enterprise different ways.
Scale Computing has always championed a 100 percent channel go-to-market model. How do you feel about what you are seeing from VMware?
Everything that is happening is awesome for Scale, and I’m thrilled about that. We are 100 percent channel. But from a personal standpoint, it makes me angry. I know these partners. There are some mega-partners like WWT that are affected by this, but the vast majority of partners are just getting [burned]. It makes me angry for them.
Obviously, Broadcom is not VMware culturally and it is not like the founders of VMware are still there. But it pains me to see partners who have built a whole business around VMware and basically made VMware what it is today just tossed out like yesterday’s garbage. That’s just crazy to me.
But we are here to help. We have programs in place now for partners who are bringing customers over from VMware. We’ve got significant discounts for those partners [Scale Computing is offering a 25 percent discount on Scale Computing Software and Services and Advanced Training and Certification]. We are also providing free tools to do those actual migrations from one platform to the next. For the end users, we are extending free Scale licensing equivalent to whatever you have left on your VMware contract.
What specifically are the discount terms of the Scale Computing VMware Rip and Replace program?
We are giving partners a straight-up 25 percent off the top discount on licensing for any customer coming from VMware. That is margin for the channel.
We are also providing the tools to provide the migration for free. They get those tools for free.
For the end user we are extending our licensing to be equivalent to what they have remaining on their licensing. What that means is the end user does not have to take a financial risk to move to Scale. We are making it easy for both customers and partners to move to Scale.
The customer that has a boss that doesn’t understand technology at all can now go to that boss and say, ‘We have to get off VMware. Here are the reasons. But we have a solution and we are not going to lose money,’ That is what the boss is always worried about. So we are covering the customer. They are not going to lose money [moving to Scale].
So we are going to partners telling them, ‘Look, we have got a program in place to incent you to bring customers to Scale, and we have got a program in place to give you the tools to do it. So everybody wins. The customer doesn’t lose money. They can save face. They don’t get [burned]. The partners come over and they can experience Scale for the first time. Or if they have been here before that is fine too. Bring those customers over. Everybody wins. That is how we built that program.