Kyndryl: The largest manager of VMware assets is busier than ever in the cloud

With more than 80,000 employees and serving more than 75% of the Fortune 100 and customers in more than 60 countries, Kyndryl is uniquely qualified to speak to the rapidly evolving infrastructure needs of enterprises. It’s a reality David Simpson, senior vice president of Cloud Practice growth at Kyndryl, knows well.

“At Kyndryl, we have a long and extensive track record of designing, building, managing, and modernizing the complex, mission-critical information systems organizations around the world rely on every day,” says Simpson. “Working with a strong and extensive cadre of partners and many thousands of customers – from new innovators to the world’s most established and successful brands – our teams are hard at work addressing the challenges and the opportunities emerging in light of transformative computing trends that are accelerating and growing in importance across the globe.”

The depth of the company’s solutions suite and services offerings reflect the scope and breadth of these challenges and opportunities and encompass applications, data and AI, the digital workplace, core enterprise systems, networks, the edge, and cyber resilience and security. All are supported by a deep bench of IT and cloud experts within Kyndryl Consult, a global network of technology strategy and implementation consultants with extensive experience helping customers create a winning digital transformation strategy, an enterprise architecture that ideally addresses their unique needs, and the culture required to realize its full potential.

This applies to all of the industries Kyndryl serves. These include the automotive; banking and finance; energy; government; healthcare; insurance; manufacturing; retail; technology, media and telecommunications; travel and transportation; and chemical, oil and gas.

Kyndryl’s cloud portfolio consists of a full range of offerings in four focus areas: cloud consult, public cloud, private cloud, and modern operations. Kyndryl’s experts also provide the insights and real-world experience needed to help organizations across the spectrum of cloud maturity, from those who want to start their cloud journey to stalwarts committed to refining their IT infrastructure with an extensive portfolio of managed cloud services.

“We pride ourselves on being a trusted partner our customers can turn to when they must navigate an IT environment that is marked by new developments that impact each organization in unique ways,” adds Simpson. “That reality is particularly apparent when you look at the hybrid, multi-cloud approach that is increasingly prominent today.”

The need for hybrid, multi-cloud acumen – is greater now than ever

Simpson stresses that as many customers have matured in their cloud migration journeys, many have already moved most of their easy “lift-and-shift” workloads to the cloud and are now looking at second- and third-wave workloads that demand a more nuanced and specific approach that takes into account the particular strengths and limitations not only of different cloud approaches – private, public and hybrid or multi-cloud – but also the specific clouds offered by major hyperscalers and niche or industry-specific cloud providers.

“As customers have come to look at deeply integrated and expansive workloads, most have come to realize that using one cloud is not an option,” says Simpson. “We recommend they look at the characteristics of the workload, the data requirements, and determine the best platform for each workload across a public, private, and traditional IT landscape. We provide the capabilities to help organizations be productive, secure, technically and financially manage across a hybrid landscape.”

Simpson notes that enterprises are rightly being more strategic. More specifically, he stresses that a true multi-cloud program empowers organizations to seek best-of-breed technologies, experiment with new innovations, fill performance gaps – for example, those related to quantum computing – engage with cloud providers in specific geographies to address sovereignty, performance, and latency needs, and importantly to keep certain mission-critical workloads on premises.

“On one hand, we are living in a time in which edge computing is driving more than half of data and infrastructure outside of the data center according to IDC,” says Simpson. “On the edge is where workloads and use cases drive revenue and customer sentiment, but they all require local or on-premise resources to perform well. When you also consider efforts to mitigate data privacy laws, embrace new applications of high-performance computing, utilize virtual desktop infrastructure, and continue to get the most out of existing core, on-premises systems – among them customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, and business intelligence assets, we clearly also live in a time when there is a corresponding drive to keep data within enterprises’ four walls. This, and AI workloads that require self-learning applications and intellectual property not be exposed to the internet, is driving private cloud adoption even as the hybrid cloud approaches proliferate.”

Notably, Kyndryl’s work to address the needs of public,  hybrid, and private cloud strategies draws on its experience with customers. It also relies on partnerships, such as the extensive relationship with VMware, and its expertise and use of VMware by Broadcom Technologies.

“Over the past two decades we amassed many thousands of VMware certifications and created a corps of VMware experts – all while working closely with VMware’s development teams,” adds Simpson. “Today, we oversee more VMware assets than any other provider and are more excited by their future than ever, particularly as we look at the singular capabilities of VMware Cloud Foundation and its application with Kyndryl Bridge, our AI-powered open-integration platform that lets enterprises observe, integrate and orchestrate their entire technology environment with ease. As a Broadcom Pinnacle Partner, we can further help our customers realize the full benefits of our collaborative efforts and innovations while still using the proven technologies they know and trust.”

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