Back in June, I blogged about why Chinese technology management professionals have started looking more closely at domestic vendors. One reason: a government-led push away from foreign IT vendors that is forcing global vendors to expand their local ecosystem to exploit new service models and improve service delivery. Chinese tech management teams should keep an eye on new trends and be aware of the benefits they bring.

I recently attended VMware’s vForum 2014 event in Beijing. The vendor has established a local ecosystem for the three pillars of its business: the software-defined data center (SDDC), cloud services, and end user computing. VMware is working with:

  • Huawei to refine SDDC technologies.VMware is leveraging Huawei’s technology capability to improve its product feature. VMware integrated Huawei Agile Controller into NSX and vCenter to operate and manage network automation and quickly migrate virtual machines online. Huawei provides the technology to unify the management of virtual and physical networks based on VMware’s virtualization platform. This partnership can help VMware optimize its existing software features and improve the customer experience.
  • Inspur to get ahead of hyperconvergence.The first partner for VMware Evo:Rail in China, local server vendor Inspur announced Evo:Rail system packages called the Inspur Cloud Ocean Data Center. Inspur has performed well in recent quarters, so this relationship will help VMware catch this emerging hotspot in China. Converged infrastructure has obvious benefits in China.However, the concept of hyperconvergence is still unfamiliar to Chinese organizations, as hyperconvergence vendors like SimpliVity and Nutanix have not invested resources in China. Right now, VMware and Inspur offer a good opportunity to gain knowledge and experience around hyperconvergence. Also keep an eye on Evo:Rail, but it will need time to prove its local capabilities.
  • China Telecom to plan cloud market.VMware will support China Telecom to provide hybrid cloud services, including IaaS and cloud disaster recovery. Most large Chinese organizations have started to build private cloud platforms to enable business transformation.China Telecom provides cloud services based on VMware products to help Chinese organizations better integrate its private cloud platform. China Telecom is the key public cloud and hosted private cloud provider in China market, this partnership can help VMware plans to get into China hybrid cloud market and promote its cloud products sale.
  • Lenovo to improve desktop virtualization delivery. Lenovo’s ThinkCloud-Lenovo Infrastructure Virtualization Client desktop virtualization solution is based on VMware Horizon. It aims to improve the enterprise mobility experience and access the cloud anytime and anywhere. After acquiring IBM’sx86 server business, Lenovo has started expanding its enterprise business from China out into the global marketplace. This can help VMware accelerate its end user computing business expansion.

VMware has set up multiple ecosystems in China for all of its product lines and is trying to create win-win situations with its local partners. As VMware’s CEO said, “In China, for China” — a good reminder to global vendors to keep and grow their business in China.