I would be surprised if they tried to acquire Nutanix anytime soon
Don’t be. He has to talk about the partner strategy because currently that is their strategy. But the important point is they are acknowledging hybrid is a real requirement (big big requirement for our customers) and they really don’t have an in-house solution and are relying on partners. What he is not telling is, he is ceding revenue, control of the account and solution to the partners or at least sharing it.
Now, Google is not happy about its cloud business, hence they hired thomas kurian from Oracle. Now, Thomas has to grow the business, and if something is very very important to your customers and you are relying on partners to offer that solution, would you continue to rely on them or address it in-house?
The reason you rely on partner is because it is not important for your customer or you don’t have core competency. Now, companies don’t develop core competency from scratch, rather they acquire. In this case, unless the partner is driving revenue for Google, there is no real benefit for Google to rely on partners and not come up with their own solution.
Pandey doesn’t seem like a guy who wants to be acquired
Product guy turned CEO, is going to be proud, hands-on and to a greater degree requiring control over product development. But, someone who is proud can be pragmatic too. The competition is fierce and big. “an existential threat or an too good to pass” could change his mind.