Dell Technologies Channel Chief Joyce Mullen is exiting the data center hardware giant on August 14. Separately, VMware Channel Chief Jenni Flinders quietly exited the hybrid cloud software company in June.
Dell owns a majority stake in VMWare ($VMW). The departures were unrelated to one another. The exits were first reported by CRN and Channel Futures, respectively.
Both technology companies continue to perform reasonably well during the coronavirus pandemic -- though Dell and VMware have each taken steps to closely manage their finances amid the economic uncertainty.
Dell Channel Chief: The Update
Mullen is a 21-year veteran of Dell. She climbed from director-level service delivery roles 20 years ago to VP-level roles focused on small businesses, sales, software and marketing through 2010. From there, Mullen has held VP, senior VP and president-level. positions in the alliance and channel areas.
Mullen indicated that she's exiting Dell to become a member of a senior leadership team at a smaller company -- though she didn't reveal the firm's name.
Dell is seeking a successor to Mullen, but has plenty of channel bench depth in the meantime.
Moreover, Dell has been performing reasonably well during the coronavirus pandemic. For its first quarter of 2021 ended May 1, 2020, revenue was $21.9 billion -- essentially flat with Q1 compared to Q1 of fiscal 2020.
Within the channel, Dell has built a strong reputation for enabling MSPs to succeed in vertical markets, according to ChannelE2E research.
VMware Channel Chief: The Update
Meanwhile, Flinders exited VMware on June 11. She led the hybrid cloud and IT management software provider's channel partner program for roughly two years. Flinders has a strong reputation in and around the IT channel -- and previously helped Microsoft to build out its cloud-related partner program during the dawn of Office 365 and Microsoft Azure.
Sandy Hogan, senior vice president of worldwide commercial and partner sales, now leads VMware's Worldwide Partner Organization. Hogan joined VMware in May 2020, and previously held key posts at Cisco Systems, HERE Technologies and Rackspace Technologies -- the cloud MSP that's now ramping up for a potential IPO.
Also at VMware, the company has hired Roger Egan as VP of Americas for VMware Tanzu -- a Kubernetes play that counters Red Hat OpenShift from IBM. Egan has ample experience for the role. He previously held container and open source-related posts at Docker and Red Hat. Most recently, he was executive VP of global sales at Siemplify -- which develops a cloud-native SOAR (security orchestration, automation and response) platform for MSSPs.
VMware Business Strength, Software Acquisitions
Meanwhile, VMware's business has held up well during the coronavirus pandemic. Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 (ended May 1, 2020) was $2.73 billion, up 12 percent from the corresponding quarter in Q1 2020.
VMware has remained in aggressive acquisition mode. Recent purchases include:
- Blue Medora's True Visibility suite, which provides a potential boost for vRealize Operations partners.
- Datium for disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS).
- Lastline, a network detection and response (NDR) cybersecurity startup; and
- Nyansa for AI-based network analytics, monitoring and remediation software capabilities
And don't forget VMware's big Carbon Black acquisition -- inked in 2019 for cloud-based endpoint protection and cybersecurity company.
Dell, VMware: Compensation Plan and Ownership Model
Although Dell and VMware continue to perform reasonably well during the pandemic, both technology companies are carefully managing their finances.
Both companies recently confirmed plans to temporarily freeze employee salaries, cut executive pay and suspend 401K retirement matching plans.
Moreover, Dell has been exploring potential plans to fully spin off or absorb VMware in order to more fully unlock the value of Dell's hardware and VMware's software business.
Dell, VMware Customer and Partner Conferences
Both companies have also shifted their customer conferences to virtual events for 2020. VMware VMworld 2020 is scheduled as an online event that runs September 29 through October 1.
Also, Dell Technologies World is expected to be an online event sometime in October 2020, though specific dates were still pending as of this writing.
