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Broadcom’s new Cloud Service Provider invite-only partner program goes into effect on November 1. Ahead of that date, and following the company’s VCF 9 announcement, we spoke with Rackspace Technology’s Director of Strategic Alliances, Hannah Duce, about the company’s ongoing partnership with Broadcom and where opportunities still lie for VMware customers.
Why Rackspace sees opportunities ahead for VMware customers
Rackspace offers a variety of products and services tied to the Broadcom ecosystem, and Duce says they continue to see demand for those solutions.
“We launched a few new VMware-based offers a year or two ago, and those have really picked up steam,” Duce said.
Now, she says Broadcom’s recent announcements regarding the availability of VCF 9.0 have bolstered her confidence in the solution.
“I mean, frankly, I’ve worked with VMware for years, but I was pleasantly surprised. Multiple of us were pleasantly surprised about all that they’re putting into [VCF 9.0], like private AI,” Duce said. “They are rolling in all these different features that I thought they’d still remain separate, and they’re like, nope, it’s part of the value.”
“As a very large provider and partner with them, we’ve been, from the technology aspect, really happy with the improvements that they continue to make,” she added.
Partners supporting partners: how Rackspace is working with channel partners not invited to new program
Rackspace is a longstanding partner of Broadcom-VMware, and the provider is one of a shortlist invited to remain within the program after November 1 of this year.
Broadcom emphasized in a statement to Channel Insider that the streamlined Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VMware resell partners announced in June 2025 will continue beyond October 31, 2025. It is only the VCSP program that has been affected for partners not within the European Economic Area.
Duce told Channel Insider that she left VMware Explore with confidence in how the partnership will move forward under the new program and commitments from leadership, which focus on customer outcomes.
According to Duce, Rackspace collaborates with partners on various pathways to support their customers in retaining VMware solutions. That includes partnerships in which Rackspace sells the licenses to the client. At the same time, the initial provider adds wraparound services to the deal, thus remaining a core partner to the client while still allowing the business to leverage VMware environments.
Duce also said the company is always working on “creative” ways to partner with other partners and resellers on data center work, referrals, and other tangential business in the virtualization sector.
“I think that there’s more to play out in that space over the next six months or so,” Duce added.
As Duce looks forward to future growth, she also reflects on the silver lining of the complexity Broadcom has brought to many partners and users: more businesses are thinking about their technology in strategic ways.
As we have covered before, whether businesses are looking to migrate off Broadcom or stay within the ecosystem, discussions around optimizing infrastructure and planning for the future are necessary for long-term success.
“I think optimization is still super key in all this, and I do think it triggered or re-emphasized an optimization focus,” said Duce. “I do think there’s a vendor lock-in conversation that this has also uncovered that was already going on, but making sure that business resiliency is considered is good for everyone.”
To that end, Duce also highlights that Rackspace’s approach to VCF and all of its offerings is not rooted in the technology itself.
“The value we’re able to provide in all of this is that we work on talking about and delivering an outcome to our customer versus a technology,” said Duce.
