Benja Bencharongkul (UIH); Na-pajra Umpudh (Cloud HM) and Ekpawin Sukanan (VMware)
Cloud HM has achieved VMware Cloud Verified status amid plans to roll out additional services to support increased enterprise demand for digitally-driven solutions across Thailand.
Such designation acknowledges partners capable of delivering VMware-based software-defined data centre infrastructure as-a-service, in addition to providing enhanced levels of consistency and performance for both traditional and containerised large-scale applications.
In joining a global network of more than 4300 cloud providers, Na-pajra Umpudh - speaking as managing director of Cloud HM - acknowledged that achieving such partner status represented a “monumental achievement” for the Bangkok-based provider.
“As one of the two providers awarded in Thailand, it underlines our resolve to provide our customers who are leading enterprises with a highly secure, high performance, and compliant cloud service built on the industry’s leading platform,” he said.
Looking ahead, Umpudh also unveiled ambitions to launch additional services in partnership with VMware in the coming months to meet increased customer appetite for artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions.
Specifically, new services include K8S as-a-service and VMware Marketplace on vCloud Director, built to allow businesses the opportunity to quickly deploy applications on virtual machines while achieving “higher performance and stability”.
“Partners that are VMware Cloud Verified provide organisations with complete and advanced VMware Cloud technologies, along with interoperability across clouds for greater advantage for their customers’ businesses,” added Ekpawin Sukanan, country manager of Thailand at VMware.
“Cloud Verified services delivered by VMware Cloud Providers can provide the efficiency, agility, and reliability inherent in cloud computing. We look forward to supporting Cloud HM as it empowers organisations with a simple and flexible path to the cloud.”
As the channel continues to grapple with the economic impact and uncertainty of Covid-19 - hampered further by fluctuating investment priorities - forward-thinking VMware partners such as Cloud HM are up-skilling in preparation for heightened customer demand across Asia Pacific.
Representing a silver lining amid almost 12 months of industry pain, the ecosystem is now armed with competencies and certifications, ready and waiting as businesses battle back from the brink to restart transformation plans.
To address such a shift in market dynamics, 75 per cent of VMware partners across the region are “planning or considering” increasing staff training in relation to technology skills during the next six months, with 41 per cent already pursuing additional certifications.
According to recent VMware findings - profiling 410 partners across 22 countries in Asia Pacific, delivered via Tech Research Asia - more than two-thirds of technology providers are increasing focus on the vendor’s hybrid, multi-cloud and end-user computing solutions, supported by increased training investment.
“We ran partner councils during March and April and received a resounding request to help the channel up-skill and re-skill,” outlined Uma Thana Balasingam, vice president of Partner and Commercial Organisation across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) at VMware, when speaking to Channel Asia in October. “Partners felt that this represented an opportune time to increase productivity and for employees to set time aside for learning.”
While tempting to hunker down and wait for the pandemic to pass, Balasingam said market-leading partners instead pursued the opposite approach – assuming central roles in transitioning customers away from continuity mode.
“We know the market has changed and moved beyond the first response phase of focusing on critical services and business continuity, to the adapt phase of resiliency and evolving systems, people and processes,” she explained.
“Now we’re seeing the third phase with customers adopting a ‘digital-first’ mindset to sustain a competitive advantage. We see a place for every single VMware partner but we’re also asking them to pick a sweet spot as customers seek to transform.”
In response to the pandemic - and increased appetite to up-skill - VMware pivoted channel enablement initiatives to double investment in partner education, closing the first half of the fiscal year - running from February to July - with 5000 certifications in Asia Pacific. This is in addition to a doubling, soon to be a tripling, of Master Services Competencies.
