VMware: Brexit isn't a challenge for us

published 12 September 2017

VMware is feeling bold in the face of Brexit, with three of its top executives claiming it is having no visible effect on the company's business during a press conference at VMworld Europe 2017 in Barcelona.

Asked by IT Pro whether the current economic and business environment following the Brexit vote is causing any disruption for VMware in the UK, Jean-Pierre Brulard, VP and GM for EMEA, said: "We haven't seen any impact in our UK business ... and we continue to invest in the UK invest in resources and invest in partnerships.

"We are quite positive about it. All the UK companies and the public sector as well, [which is] a significant portion of our business in the UK continue to invest in our technology. And I will say they need more than ever to be competitive and IT's helping them a lot to be competititve and to be innovative."

Brulard added that compared to the rest of Europe, the UK is still leading the charge in adopting VMware technology.

Joe Baguley, VP and CTO for EMEA, added: "You'll see with us announcing that our first instance in Europe of VMware Cloud Services will be in London is a good indication of our investment in that being an important market for us going forward."

VMware CEO, Pat Gelsinger, pointed to other big technology partnerships as indicators that business in the UK is booming, despite the Brexit vote.

"The big partnership with IBM and Lloyds is another great example, so we're actually seeing quite a lot of momentum from UK customers," he said.

Their comments are in contrast to some others coming from the tech industry. HPE CEO Meg Whitman said earlier this year that although investment is still ongoing, the climate of uncertainty caused by the Brexit vote was causing a slowdown in business in the UK.

Jane McCallion is Managing Editor of ITPro and ChannelPro, specializing in data centers, enterprise IT infrastructure, and cybersecurity. Before becoming Managing Editor, she held the role of Deputy Editor and, prior to that, Features Editor, managing a pool of freelance and internal writers, while continuing to specialize in enterprise IT infrastructure, and business strategy.

Prior to joining ITPro, Jane was a freelance business journalist writing as both Jane McCallion and Jane Bordenave for titles such as European CEO, World Finance, and Business Excellence Magazine.