The current economic scenario is shrinking the size of technology deals, forcing smaller players to consider new deals. How is VMware doing?
We’re getting very good numbers, but we’re moving the company to a more SaaS and subscription model. , SaaS and subscriptions pay with SIP. Therefore, the transition model from TCV to ACV or from CapEx to OpEX model is very relevant to this transition. Over the past 3-4 years, we have started this process. But it’s really picking up steam this year and last year. Therefore, there is a customer willingness to run a subscription model. This is how we completely turned VMware’s business upside down.
How big has AI been for VMware?
For our management portfolio, we have invested heavily in AI. Take a look at VMware Tanzu and Aria. Tanzu helps you build your platform, Aria helps you manage it – every little virtual machine (VM), container, network, little point of traffic. We collect billions of data points every second, which is incomprehensible to humans. That’s why we invest in AI/ML technologies to synthesize that data and transform it into information and insights. We have done a lot of pioneering work, both in the model and how it is applied.
Even experts say jobs will be lost due to AI innovation. your comment?
With every new technology came the threat of job losses. But more jobs have always been created. The nature of their work has changed. For example, at some point before the Internet, you had to know all your data. But when the internet came along, we needed to know how to find data and how to link to it. Still, the jobs didn’t go away. In fact, search volume skyrocketed. Likewise, when you think of ChatGPT, it just gives you a reaction to what you’re doing. This has also spawned an area called ‘prompt engineering’. This is a job where a generating system needs to be trained to provide good output. Thinking about “what is necessary” and “what is necessary” still requires human beings.
Developers will still be needed, but the nature of the work will change. And I don’t think I will lose my job. In fact, it’s revolutionary and I’m really excited about this power, I believe AI will create even more jobs.
What’s the most exciting part of the AI revolution?
I have always been interested in synthetics. Because we live on mountains of machine-level data. This was very difficult to interpret, and human-generated data was (again) difficult to synthesize.
ChatGPT, for example, allows you to understand the content there. Being able to generate some content is very powerful. So its uses are truly endless.
Are more customers talking about AI and AI-powered solutions after December 2022?
From time to time, some people ask. But when you explain how you are using AI and what you are actually driving, they are very interested. With AI at your side, instead of looking at a million points per second, you get actionable insights in a minute. Previously it would have taken him 10 hours to find something. A needle in a haystack. So it’s AI applications that customers are more interested in.
What are the roles and responsibilities of companies like VMware in the future AI trajectory?
That’s a big responsibility. This he has two parts. The first is that AI can cause harm, so we need to ensure responsible AI development. For example, many AIs have gender bias. So we need to think about how to remove bias from AI. Second, AI requires huge computation. So you have to answer questions like “How do I use this development?” and “How do I use these APIs?” more. For example, in the software development environment he uses the GPT-4 API, he needs a template for that. Obviously I’m not going to go and build everything. VMware can accelerate and simplify much of this development.
