Could Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware transform the chip vendor into a contender in the cloud race?

Broadcom Inc.’s planned acquisition of VMware has raised concerns about the brand disappearing or their research scope being scaled back. But some investors see it as a good way for the industry to consolidate and move forward.

“VMware is here to stay; the brand will stay … VMware customers will stay for years to come,” said Muddu Sudhakar (pictured), chief executive officer of Aisera. 

Sudhakar spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Lisa Martin and John Furrier at last August’s VMware Explore event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware could create a new hyperscaler. (* Disclosure below.)

Broadcom can offer chips; VMware can offer the OS

Using Broadcom’s vast chip-manufacturing capabilities and VMware’s reputation for software innovation, Broadcom may go on to create a new supercloud of its own. And by adding more strategic acquisitions and playing its cards right, Broadcom could become a force to be reckoned with in the cloud landscape, according to Sudhakar. 

“I think you’ll see Broadcom is the fourth vendor in the cloud race. You have Microsoft, AWS, Google, and Broadcom is actually going to compete with the four,” he said.

As well as making moves in the cloud market, Broadcom may be planning to innovate in healthcare too, with application development aimed at healthcare professionals. And, on top of healthcare, Broadcom may be looking at endpoint management to really offer revolutionary development in the space.

“A lot of players are there trying to do more consulting services. I think VMware has great assets and tools. If I’m Broadcom, my chip sets are going into the endpoint,” Sudhakar said.

Amongst all of the market development with supercloud, one may begin to wonder who will win and lose the battle and how Broadcom acquiring VMware will affect the end results. 

“I put Microsoft and Amazon as the winners,” Sudhakar stated. “Microsoft will win because in a true supercloud, your vision, back to hybrid cloud on-prem and public cloud, VMware disruption with Broadcom, as if there’s any bridge in the market, Microsoft will take advantage of it.”

Broadcom is acquiring VMware at the best possible time in the development of the cloud, and the acquisition is changing the landscape further, possibly making an opening for Microsoft Azure to partner with Amazon and VMware. More exciting developments are going to come with supercloud on endpoint devices as it is a relatively untapped market. 

Implementation of well-known programming languages such as Java may offer abstraction for developers, making programming on the supercloud an easier process for developers. Java did the same for hardware 20 years ago, and the same abstraction is needed on the supercloud. As an application vendor, it is a difficult and costly task to be customizing applications on the VM cloud. With abstraction, it may be possible to bring the amount of developers needed down exponentially.

“I think that’s where the market is saying that it’s going to open up a hybrid cloud player for Microsoft to enter what is to be a tight relationship with VMware and Amazon,” Sudhakar stated.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMware Explore:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the VMware Explore event. Neither VMware Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE