VMware Inc. is setting an example for how a company rooted in on-premises data centers can branch into cloud. Partnerships with the likes of Amazon Web Services Inc., IBM Corp. and Google Cloud Platform are helping to rebrand its image. Which of these deals will actually transform VMware into a cloud staple going forward?

Two years ago, “the world thought that Amazon was going to completely destroy this company,” said Dave Vellante (@dvellante, pictured, third from left) co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. At the VMworld 2017 conference in Las Vegas this week, the chief executives of these companies literally hugged on the keynote stage as they spoke about their partnership. Vellante unpacked this and other VMware cloud partnerships with co-hosts John Furrier (@furrier, right) and Stu Miniman (@stu, second from left) and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor, left).

VMware’s stock is up, and customers are warming to its multicloud message, according to Townsend. “Three or four years ago, we were like, ‘Is OpenStack going to eat VMware’s lunch?'” he said. “VMware has turned the tables and become […] that consistent cloud layer — at least for that legacy way to do IT.”

‘Optical deals’ cloud vision

VMware is billing itself as the common operating system for any workload on any cloud with the aid of its partnerships. And while its huge ecosystem now includes cloud giants AWS, IBM and Google, VMware says it values all of its partnerships equally. But AWS CEO Andy Jassy’s remark at the conference may raise some questions, according to Furrier.

“This is not an optical deal,” were Jassy’s words. “Who was Andy Jassy talking about when he was looking at the VMware customers and saying, ‘This is not,’ implying others are?” Furrier asked.

“I’m not sure that he was necessarily throwing shade at anyone specifically,” Miniman said. Jassy was simply highlighting the 18 months of hard engineering work that went into the integration. In other words, this is shaping up to be a substantive and profitable deal for VMware, despite concerns about AWS sucking customers into its services vortex, Miniman added.

Nor does VMware’s IBM partnership appear to be just for show. “They’ve got a lot more experience with VMware,” Vellante said. “They’ve been shipping for quite some time.”

Was Jassy hinting at Google’s and VMware’s just announced partnership to bring Kubernetes container orchestration on-premises with Pivotal Container Service, known as PKS? “Optical” or not, it is a long game, Furrier stated. Google has big brains, but it has not solidified its cloud identity yet, he added.

“A couple of years ago, Google was saying, ‘We’re just going to be that data analytics cloud.’ Now, of course, they’re trying to be a big player,” Miniman added.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VMworld 2017. Neither VMware Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE