Microsoft and IBM Execs Detail the IBM-Microsoft Cloud Partnership

foreign speaks we're talking about the partnership between IBM and Microsoft and what it means for companies looking to accelerate their Cloud Journey to discuss that I'm joined by two very special guests with me is Chris McGuire general manager of global Microsoft partnership for IBM Consulting Chris uh good to have you on board today thank you James happy Friday um it's it's great to uh to be here to discuss this really important partnership related even though we have the same last name go figure yeah somewhere hundreds and hundreds of years ago probably but yeah we are not related that is true I think you are right about that also with me is Ricardo Davila Global sales and Cloud leader at Microsoft Ricardo good to have you on board today thank you so much James nice to meet you I'm happy to be here with you and talked about the great things we are doing with IBM great about an Enterprise I.T you know companies cooperate sometimes they compete in the past IBM and Microsoft have been competitors in some sectors but now there's a partnership so what's driving the current IBM Microsoft partnership Ricardo what's the importance of the partnership yeah when I think about what's driving the current IBM on Microsoft partnership I mean there's many factors there are many uh but there are three that are top of mind for me uh from my experience uh the number one is I think there's a better company a slash exact alignment you know we we are getting to the point that for a couple of years now uh that the executives are really embracing each other and the companies are really willing to to work together that which is fantastic uh the second one is I think there's a better product and or solution alignment you know we we managed to identify where we overlapping and where we are not and where the areas of opportunity for collaboration from a solution perspective are and we are doing a pretty good job on that um and last but not least and I think it's probably the most important one it's just customer demand you know the customers are coming to both companies say hey we need you both to work together uh and that's an accelerator to the other two that I just mentioned would you add in terms of the importance of the IBM Microsoft partnership yeah I mean first of all on the on the IBM side it's important to recognize the fact that you know you know two and two and a half years ago we went through a significant transition at IBM we got a new CEO in Arvid um he's really been driving an agenda of openness and client preference uh which has led us down this path to uh align with with Microsoft and what we discovered as Ricardo described through our executive alignment was we are much better Partners than we are even close to being competitors um you know our clients are feeling the uh the benefits of us working together you know they have two giant I.T uh folks helping them with solve their problems and and bringing them Solutions and those two they had to listen to separately and make a decision now we work together to help solve those problems yeah clearly I I hear from a lot of clients so they want the openness they want the interoperability so that makes a lot of sense at that level um I I know that I've been on Microsoft are working together to support companies that need to accelerate their Cloud Journey let's talk about some of the offerings or joint Solutions you're working on together to help with that acceleration Chris what are some of the details sure that the big area for me is modernization whether that be you know Mainframe monetization app modernization or data modernization um that seems to be the hot button and that seems to be where we're very tightly aligned with with Microsoft and their strategy they're helping Drive clients to hybrid Cloud our expertise in hybrid Cloud really are aligning well as we look to you know help those companies make those finally you know they started their Cloud Journeys what four or five years ago and now they're getting to the point where it's getting real important as they really make those determination of mission critical workloads and where they end up we are working very tightly with Microsoft to make sure that the client gets everything they need from what stays where what goes where what workloads work best here lows work best over there um so it's just been a really unique partnership and really accelerated us working tightly with Microsoft regardless of some details about the The Joint solution what matters oh well uh yes I have a couple um I think what we've tried to do as well and Chris has been leading this in IBM is is identifying the biggest solution social buckets and in those solution packets they start defining what are the main services that we need to build together so if you think about the main solution buckets we think about apps and infra you know in which Chris was mentioning we have Solutions in apps and influence like for example Cloud Navy Services Azure migrating services admiralization and open shifts Services Etc we also have done the same thing for Solutions and their data and AI business applications security modern workplace Etc so we really like double click in each of those big packets and make sure that we have top solutions that our customers are demanding right now yeah I think it's important to add on there James that we actually reconfigured practice areas within IBM Consulting to align with the separate Microsoft solution areas that Ricardo just mentioned can you give a few tell us about that what does it actually mean Chris sure a prime example that is you know a source to pay is a huge you know customer Solution that's been hosted by various companies throughout the world for large corporations to help them you know you know complete that transaction and those Solutions are aging and and uh need modernizing and we co-funded and jointly developed a new era of source to pay solutions that we're offering to our clients and doing quite well with so that's one example of co-development co-investment and code delivery to our joint clients so I know that when it comes to Cloud adoptions uh certainly certain industries are struggling I think even in the year 2023 companies are facing some major headaches with Cloud I mean what is the IBM Microsoft partnership bring to those three to the table for those Industries Ricardo what's the value offered here well where do we where do you want me to start um there you are let's start from the top and I think it's these are probably the two largest companies with most experience on Enterprise over 20 30 plus years of work on Enterprise so we really know what it means to work with large companies around the world this is not a new 10-year or five year experience right this is 20 plus 30 plus years of experience so that is the main thing we know how to work with Enterprises and we know what they need uh the second one is a trial record of success and reputation on those Industries right that's what this company has survived for so many years uh the third one is the people and resources so it doesn't matter if it's only Cloud transformation we have all we have solutions for almost every single aspect of digital Journey uh and then last but not least is alignment across Solutions uh as I was saying I mean this is it's not a plan from discussion only we are beyond the platform providing surround Solutions as well for our for our customers so I think those are the main four uh four areas that I think are uniquely uh for the partnership between IBM and Microsoft Chris what is what is the IBM Microsoft Project I should bring to the table for some companies that really need it I think avocado he's touched on it is as these clients go through these Journeys and I call them Journeys because whether it's a cloud Journey or transfer digital transformation Journey whatever that journey is it's a journey it's a long journey um and you know what we bring together is you know using sap for example as you know historically uh IBM has managed uh so many large Enterprises sap environments and you know Microsoft put together you know a a an offering years ago around moving those workloads off of sap and and on-prem to the cloud and hosting them in Azure and we've worked very tightly with Microsoft to build joint offerings for those clients to help them decide what workloads what parts of sap will easily flow into into Azure what parts need to stay on Prem and then how those things work together so it's a real combination of IBM technology IBM Consulting and uh and Microsoft and Microsoft Solutions uh we're jointly building uh you know things for sap to to kind of wrap and innovate sop for the for clients as they need to do more with that data and that's really what it's all about is is working together with Microsoft to help clients get to those you know those actionable insights that they need to get to to make critical business decisions say that a certain company has a multi-cloud deployment you know one part is on a Microsoft and there's on IBM and the client is saying Hey I want you two companies to work together even better is it about a multi multi-cloud deployment or not necessarily it can be for sure I think you know Ricardo and I've worked through that quite extensively where the clients had all four Cloud providers and up to five right and we work very well you know with you know helping the clients you know decide what workloads go where and you know we know the strength of azure we know that you know the strength of Microsoft's history long history of very secure environments so we tend to help them prioritize their workloads in a way that that are even going to fit and fit with the different clouds that they currently have contracts with Ricardo can you speak a little bit about a possible multi-cloud deployment with the two companies and how that might work I find that'd be really interesting um I think it's hard to find a single Cloud uh company I think most of the companies are multi-cloud and and living in that we just partnered with IBM we just tried to find the spacing which we can provide this solution for that specific customer uh obviously understanding that for us uh Azure is the prefer Cloud but uh but I think this this is you will be surprised that there are more companies than not with having multiple hyperscalers at once no I think very few companies if any anymore really have one single Cloud the world is so multi-cloud uh speaking of the world of where it's going uh I think companies want to know what's happening in the future let's look ahead I mean how do you see the IBM Microsoft partnership evolving I mean what are the future priorities look like to you you know sustainability security Chris what's going to be big here in the future I I think those two are huge I think like I said modernization uh is the other massive play for us together um you know we are we are working very tightly with with Ricardo and his team to put together a five-year strategy you know our goal here at IBM is to be uh in the very top tier of Microsoft partners and I think their strategy is the same for us we've done a tremendous amount of growth in two years I use the analogy of you know two years ago we were a rocket ship sitting on a launch pad with no fuel um and nowhere ready to go a bunch of holes a bunch of things we've outfitted that rocket we've launched that rocket we're well into orbit uh you know we've climbed the ladder at Microsoft as far as rankings and how they rank their their GSI Partners um we had our you know we've had unbelievable results in the last two years as far as growth together and we look forward to that growing we're continuing to invest at IBM we did a couple big uh Acquisitions last year one was nudesic a a pure play Microsoft systems integrator that specialized in in solutions for the U.S market we've taken them in we've expanded what they do for us they're operating very much as our Microsoft level of expertise we added nordcloud in Europe same thing tons of Microsoft soft uh you know uh expertise that they bring to the table and that's really added to you know our current you know account teams and what they can do bringing those others into the into the fold has really helped our clients understand that we are completely dedicated to working with Microsoft and and the security piece you may have touched on a little bit a little bit is she that like large in the future in particular very large and I think that that's where we're very complementary you take what we've got with our with our in IBM you know uh Security Solutions and how well they work together with uh with Microsoft Security Solutions um we are uh Ricardo and I are making sure that every single solution that we're co-building or Co developing uh security is an underlying component uh The Joint security is an underlying component of that solution what do you see when you look at the future of the IBM Microsoft partnership what's coming in the years ahead um many things I think the first one is that we are setting up the partnership in a way that we are providing Solutions we are building our providing solutions that are going to help companies now uh and as well as in the future so right now we have Solutions across the big buckets that I just mentioned especially around migration modernization uh we have we are setting that we are setting the the solutions for the future as well when it comes to security that you just mentioned Mainframe is a big area of opportunity for us and underpinning all that is open AI which is big big for both of the companies so as Chris was saying we are working on a five-year plan right now I need every solution that we are thinking about is how do we include security underpinning all that an open AI underpinning all that as well so um I don't want to speak too much about what's coming I just want to make sure that people understand that right now we have the solutions that are going to set them up for the future also we are looking into Industries as well you know so a specific solution for certain industries like FSI public sector uh retail Etc but those are the kind of things that we are uh setting up a partnership for for the next year to come no I mean certainly companies are very concerned about now I mean that's that's what matters the most one more thing I think if you don't mind yes we are two big companies that we have a ton of Technology as well so we are also thinking on what are the technological innovations that we can think about you know those big technology how do we get them together to come up with a better product for customers or or to think about areas in which we can partner beyond the Consulting business as well uh but we are trying to work with IBM Olaf inclusive uh obviously uh Consulting me the Cornerstone interesting Chris Ricardo I think you said it it's going to be a really interesting sector to follow in the years ahead uh thanks for sharing reach out today and I hope the two of you come back and talk about us again sometime thank you Thanks James thank you so much for the mutation James nice to meet you

This transcript was generated automatically from the video's captions and may contain errors.