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Citizen Philanthropy in Action: “Sometimes It Just Takes a Smile”

Citizen Philanthropy in Action HERO

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Helping customers reduce their carbon footprint to build a better future

Why Leaders Need to Live Their Words to Drive Big Change HERO - VMware News and Stories

Walking the Talk: Why Leaders Need to Live Their Words to Drive Big Change

Why Leaders Need to Live Their Words to Drive Big Change HERO

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Architecting a Cloud-Smart Strategy

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VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram delivers VMware Explore Keynote

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Positive Impact of ESG is on Full Display at VMware Explore

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How to Navigate the Wild West of ESG Reporting

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From Cloud Chaos to Cloud Smart

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Becoming Cloud Smart: Learn from CVS Health

Sumit and Roshan HERO

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VMware Reports Fiscal Year 2023 Second Quarter Results

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VMware Blockchain is Bringing Ethereum to the Enterprise

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Joe Baguley, Vice President and CTO, EMEA, VMWARE

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At VMware, we believe everyone has something unique to contribute to our society. Our culture of service influences the way we interact with others — inside and outside of work — fostering empathy and building connections. We are all Citizen Philanthropists, empowered to support what is most meaningful to us through VMware Foundation programs.

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This month we checked in with Paulina Kostrzewska, Privacy Operations Senior Manager in Staines, to see what VMware’s Culture of Service means to her and to learn more about her recent Service Learning experiences:

Paulina: I joined VMware in January 2020, so I have been here for almost three years now. I learned about the VMware Foundation and the Service Learning program on my first day, as they were introduced to me during our New Employee Experience. Immediately, I saw the strong emphasis VMware puts on service, and how each of us can contribute to society in our own way.

During my onboarding, I heard about the <a href="https://mhfaengland.org/">Mental Health First Aiders</a> program in the U.K. and how VMware and Joe Baguley, our CTO in EMEA, sponsor a dedicated team of First Aiders in EMEA. Because I have history of my own struggles with mental health—which I’m very open about—and I also value volunteering, I was immediately interested in how I could become a Mental Health First Aider.

I feel lucky because soon afterwards, there was a call for new Mental Health First Aiders. We don’t often have calls for Mental Health First Aiders—yet, within my first few months at VMware, I got the opportunity. It seems it was meant to be.

I’m very open about what I’ve gone through because no one should ever need to go through that alone, whatever it’s precipitated by. I’m grateful to be part of a group of people who value mental health and are very mindful about how they speak to people inside and outside of work. This has given me a lot of humility and showed me that sometimes just genuinely asking a person, “How are you?” can open a discussion that they need in that moment.

Aside from Mental Health First Aider program, I participate in a variety of other opportunities through VMware, including the VMware Foundation’s Matching Gift program, and doing mock interviews with high school students preparing for interviews for jobs, internships, or further educational opportunities. In EMEA, our fantastic Legal team has engaged with an NGO organisation that helps kids regulate their citizenship status in the UK (<a href="https://supportkind.org/">Kids in Need of Defense</a>, KIND) and I couldn’t miss out on this opportunity as well. The spirit of giving grows deep within the Legal team, as together with other VMWare colleagues based in Staines, we joined the Thames Path Mighty Hike organised by Macmillan Cancer, and managed to fundraise over £1000 to support the cause.

I have never found this level of support and opportunity to participate in service in other companies I’ve worked for, and my friends are always amazed. For example, the Mental Health First Aider program took four days to complete, and my manager was absolutely supportive of me taking time off to focus on the qualification. For anyone who would like to contribute back to society, this is a gift.

I’ve always had an innate need to help people and to give back. Whether at work, with friends or in my community, I’ve always put emphasis on relationships and connections. The fact that VMware encourages us to go out and make a difference, and actually supports us through offering company-allocated time, well that’s something incredible! This has allowed me to bring my full self to work, with all the empathy and humanity that is part of who I am. For me, it’s about helping each of us recognize that we can have tough days and we don’t have to pretend that nothing has happened. To recognize that sometimes what people need is for someone to smile at them, or say, “Good job, tomorrow will be a better day.” This is what VMware helps us do here at the company and outside in our communities.

I will soon be spending a full day doing mock interviews with high school students. I’ve been preparing for this with other interviewers and the excitement we get from the organizer is absolutely palpable. I’m excited to spend time with the kids!

My motto has always been, “You can’t work from an empty cup.” Look after yourself because you can’t give back if you are feeling overwhelmed and not ready for having tough conversations. And I think everyone needs to keep this in mind. Make sure your cup is full, and then you have the capacity to help others.

Mental Health Resources:

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Learn more about the VMware Foundation and see Citizen Philanthropy in Action <a href="https://blogs.vmware.com/careers/foundation">here</a>.

At VMware, we believe everyone has something unique to contribute to society. It's important that your cup is full so you can help others.

Citizen Philanthropy in Action: “Sometimes It Just Takes a Smile” - VMware News and Stories

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Leona O' Sullivan

In recent years, threat actors have adapted their tactics to focus more on specific operating systems that carry sensitive data, or where an attack can have the greatest effect.

On Thursday, Sept. 29, cybersecurity firm Mandiant announced a new, specialized variant of malware targeting vSphere. VMware prioritizes the security of its customers and has published a <a href="https://via.vmw.com/WuZ4jJ">blog with useful guidance</a>. The blog arms customers with ways they can address their configurations and processes to better protect environments from novel malware to begin with. The guidance also includes mitigation steps.

VMware and Mandiant coordinated on the announcement, and the investigation found no evidence that a VMware vulnerability was exploited. In most cases, finding malware is an indication that compromise has already occurred through operational security weaknesses such as unauthorized administrative credentials. Mandiant has named the malware artifacts VirtualPITA (ESXi & Linux), VirtualPIE (ESXi), and VirtualGATE (Windows).

Read the VMware blog to learn more: <a href="https://via.vmw.com/WuZ4jJ">Protecting vSphere from Specialized Malware</a>

How to Protect vSphere from Specialized Malware - VMware News and Stories

How to Protect vSphere from Specialized Malware

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druyak@vmware.com

Change always starts the same way: with an intention. But between that intention and the outcome you’re after are countless tiny actions that will ultimately determine success or failure.

Bridging the gap between intention and action is hard enough when you’re an individual. The job gets exponentially harder when you want to change an organization that needs to get many individuals marching in the same direction.

For leaders to succeed in creating this kind of change, they need to do more than transform processes — they need to transform people. But nothing can derail that potential transformation faster than a disconnect between a leader’s words and actions.

We’ve all seen this play out in our careers at one time or another. A change initiative gets rolled out to much fanfare, with a leader rallying everyone to get on board with a new mindset or approach. But a few months in, you see that same leader not living the principles they asked of you.

It’s hard to understate the risks to an organization when leaders don’t walk the talk. It creates a legitimacy gap, one where employees don’t believe what they’re being told or don’t take it seriously. That legitimacy gap can lead to low morale, disengagement, and ultimately subpar performance.

Put simply: When you’re a leader, your team isn’t going to follow your words — they’re going to follow your actions. This is something I remind myself of almost daily in my role at VMware. One of my most important jobs is to hold myself accountable to my words and to what I’m asking of my team. I can’t ask them to do something that I’m not willing to do myself.

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What does accountability look like to me? First, I try not to make hollow commitments. If I’m going to bring something to my team, I’m going to be personally bought in 100 percent. Second, I strive to be clear about what good looks like. I think about the tiny behaviors that are going to indicate we’re heading in the right direction, and I make sure to do them myself and recognize others who are doing the same. Third, I try to be as transparent as possible about what we’re doing and the progress we’re making against our goals.

Let me give you an example I’m working through right now. For the past several years, VMware has been undergoing its own transformation from licensing software to providing SaaS — Software as a Service. It’s a big change, one that goes far beyond how our products get accessed, and it’s especially important for our work in Worldwide Cloud Sales. We’re actively building a customer-obsessed culture, one that’s more about our customer’s successes than our own.

As a leader who is fully bought into this vision and wants my team to be as well, I know how important it is that I be an active participant in creating change. So I’m intentional about asking questions that I know my team cares about and that are instrumental to fully walking the talk: Are we measuring performance around customer-oriented outcomes? Are we prioritizing the right work streams? Are we aligning incentives correctly?

I can’t always fully answer these questions myself. But I’m constantly asking them of myself and of my leadership peers — and I try to be as transparent as possible with my team about where we’re making progress and where we’re falling short.

This is how I think about walking the talk as a leader myself. But what if you’re someone who is working under a leader who isn’t walking the talk? I see two things that can happen. One: you can recognize the disconnect and allow it to make you cynical. Or two: you can recognize the disconnect and get busy walking the talk yourself.

Here’s the thing: Leadership isn’t something that gets bestowed upon you through a job title or a promotion. It’s something you can seize for yourself from any position inside an organization. That’s empowering — and it’s something every one of us can do to help create the change we want to see in our own lives, in our organizations, and in the world.

Nothing can derail potential transformation faster than a disconnect between a leader’s words and actions. They have to walk the talk.

Why Leaders Need to Live Their Words to Drive Big Change - VMware News and Stories

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Paula Hodgins currently serves as Senior Vice President, WW Cloud Sales, at VMware. As the leader of the worldwide Cloud Sales Team, she and her team work across the sales and partner organizations to sell the entire VMware Cloud Portfolio, drive time-to-value for both enterprise and commercial customers and lead VMware’s evolution to become a Multi-Cloud leader. In February 2021, Hodgins joined VMware as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Global Accounts and Telco Sales. In that role, she successfully led a team of trusted advisors focused on driving value and leading transformation for VMware and its largest and most strategic global customers. Prior to joining VMware in 2021, Hodgins was President of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Canada. As the top executive in Canada, she ran all customer segments and supported some of Canada’s largest companies and government agencies through their digital transformation journeys. Hodgins also spent 13 years at Microsoft, where she held multiple leadership positions working across global, US and Canadian subsidiaries. Most recently, Paula led Azure sales in the enterprise customer segment at Microsoft Canada, moving some of the country’s largest companies to public cloud for the first time. Hodgins holds an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree in Media and Communications from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with her husband, Gary, and two children, Dylan and Danielle.

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Paula Hodgins

Many people still perceive climate change and ESG initiatives as areas that can only be addressed at a much higher level of influence, beyond the control of day to day jobs and efforts. However, If you take a closer look at how change is taking place over the years around ESG, the power of action no longer exclusively rests with large corporations and governments - it sits with people and communities. If working at VMware has taught me anything, it’s that we need to accelerate our ideas into action, choosing the role we want to play, tracking our progress, and making choices now to drive positive impact for the long term! 

Personally, having a daughter accelerated the need for me to actively do something that would help drive an impact. Being a part of VMware’s global technical account management team, I integrate a customer success program to ensure that our solutions, products and services are really helping businesses achieve the right outcomes, while providing valuable feedback to our engineering and product teams. In short: I’m a customer advocate looking for ways to help customers improve their businesses and, as such, I started exploring how I could use this position to make a difference. I’m very grateful to have opportunities like this platform to be able to voice my aspirations and dreams of a better future. 

Helping customers achieve sustainability goals

I joined VMware around eight years ago, and in 2020 I was very lucky to become a member of the Office of the CTO (OCTO). As a member of the OCTO and a sustainability ambassador at VMware, I gained the opportunity to understand different ways of how our VMware solutions can help customers with avoidance and reduction of their carbon footprint. Leveraging a bit of my previous experience as a TAM, I can provide customers with rich technical environmental analysis for optimisation and platform health, so I started working with amazing colleagues and partners to look at how their configuration data can also investigate and pinpoint areas for decarbonisation improvement. This is where the same type of telemetry can be used to measure, monitor and benchmark customer’s carbon footprint, extracting accurate business insights to help transform their environment and help them achieve carbon reduction goals. But this is only the first step. 

As more companies digitally transform, maintaining accountability towards sustainability targets is becoming more critical. As a whole, ESG and corporate sustainability are part of a very topical boardroom conversation in many large organisations, and we are already seeing green agendas driving enormous change in the ICT industry. There is endless potential for decarbonisation and continuous improvement due to the rich data available - companies just need to know where and how to find it. 

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Being a Sustainability Ambassador at VMware

At VMware, we hold <a href="https://news.vmware.com/company/vmwares-culture-built-epic2-values">the culture of EPIC2 values</a> very close to our hearts and strive to focus on Execution, Passion, Integrity, Customers, and Community in every facet of our job functions. We apply these as key principles to become a force for good, promoting change in our lives, in our customers and within our community. Putting into practice, initiatives like VMware’s <a href="https://news.vmware.com/anz/esg/vmwares-2022-esg-report-how-were-accelerating-into-action">yearly ESG report </a>help us keep in check with our progress and goals.

Other Sustainability Ambassadors that are part of the team come from various lines of business, but the core message prevails: to help everyone become more conscious about sustainability, and to help customers meet sustainability goals through services and solutions. 

Envisioning a sustainable future

It’s great to see that the next generation is very passionate about climate change. However, for solving a global problem like climate change, we need to see more collaboration and unified approach across countries, industries and geo-political leadership. It would be phenomenal if formal regulatory bodies from different countries and organisations created measures to help govern and ensure proper carbon tracking and reporting. It is unfortunately very deregulated at the moment, but with a global standard to work towards and reliable data, we could be in a better position to help progress worldwide standards and define frameworks for everyday consumption of carbon. 

We all live a highly consumer-driven lifestyle, so let’s imagine this future for our next generation: if we could check the carbon footprint of each commodity as an “energy star rating,” wouldn’t it help us envision the real cost of it and reevaluate our choices, pushing companies to also change how they make their products? I’m thrilled to see that some businesses are already taking steps in that direction, like some of the biggest banks, who help customers track their personal carbon emissions via their banking apps. Some of our large mining and resources customers in Australia have announced and are working towards significant targets such as 50% carbon reduction by 2030, expanding into their scope 1 and scope 2 carbon footprint contributions which could amount to a lot, given the industry output. We have a range of great customers taking a long-term view, where <a href="https://cloud.vmware.com/providers/zero-carbon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">VMware and our Zero Carbon Committed</a> partners are actively collaborating and helping with their sustainability business outcomes.

So as you can tell, data and actionable business intelligence with green metrics are just one of the ways that technology can be used to build a better future. Now I pose the question back to you: how do you envision a sustainable future? 

Thinking of more ESG initiatives, I am also pleased to share that VMware’s 2022 ESG Report is now live. You can find out more about our initiatives and commitments <a href="https://news.vmware.com/anz/esg/vmwares-2022-esg-report-how-were-accelerating-into-action">here</a>.

Helping customers reduce their carbon footprint to build a better future - VMware News and Stories

Tas Tareq

Double-click into the concept of “cloud smart.” Take a closer look at the architectural evolution, from single-cloud to cross-cloud services.

In today’s rapid pace of change, businesses that adapt quickly have a huge advantage. In multi-cloud environments, businesses gain agility for profound reinvention.

There’s freedom of choice as business needs and technologies change. There’s flexibility to quickly move things around and scale up or down. There’s access to leading-edge technology from cloud providers.

There are also new problems to solve in a multi-workload, multi-cloud and multi-workspace environment. IT leaders must learn and oversee different cloud operating models and tools and avoid common pitfalls: Are IT teams working in silos? Are there gaps in security? What about outdated infrastructure and monolithic applications? How does it all fit together?

It’s a phase of cloud adoption referred to as “<a href="https://news.vmware.com/vmware-explore/from-cloud-chaos-to-cloud-smart">cloud chaos</a>.” Despite all its potential, multi-cloud complexity can actually slow down innovation and inhibit new revenue growth and profit. But there are antidotes!

“What we realize is that it's fundamentally an architecture issue — that we need to move away from relying solely on single-cloud services and embracing what we call cross-cloud services,” said Kit Colbert, chief technology officer for VMware, at VMware Explore.

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“’Cross-cloud services means that we move those capabilities up, so now we can have the same networking, security and solution, for example, across multiple clouds, including private and edge,” said Amanda Blevins, vice president and chief technology officer for VMware Americas.

“And by embracing these technologies,” Colbert continued, “we can get you to ‘cloud smart.’”

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Cloud smart, explained by VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram, is the next stage of cloud adoption. Multi-cloud strategies in this phase are mature and sophisticated, and as a result, organizations see the bottom-line benefits of cloud.

Below, look at key <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3vKenLkmvI">cloud-smart strategies Raghuram outlined</a> and how cross-cloud services support each approach.

1.      Accelerated Application Development

Cloud-smart organizations are getting better and faster at building and operating cloud-native apps. There are three key areas ripe for innovation:

Cross-cloud <a href="https://news.vmware.com/releases/vmware-explore-2022-tanzu-cloud-native-apps">app platform</a> services are a holistic, empowering solution for developers and platform operators alike. It’s a self-service experience. There’s automation and end-to-end security for the entire app development process. There’s greater visibility into the software supply chain. There’s a foundation for building and operating a modern container infrastructure at scale across any Kubernetes and any cloud.

Meanwhile, IT has “near real-time data, cost, automation, and operations all under one roof” using unified <a href="https://news.vmware.com/releases/vmware-explore-2022-multi-cloud-management">multi-cloud management</a> services. “Those insights that we need to operate efficiently and effectively going forward — this is where it's at,” said Carter.

2.      Consistent Enterprise Infrastructure

As enterprises transform and run workloads across clouds and at the edge, “there are some challenges here, as well,” Blevins said. “We want to make sure that we can meet our enterprise application requirements. We might want to do data center extension or cloud migration, and of course, we need to be able to recover from disasters like ransomware.”

<a href="https://news.vmware.com/releases/vmware-explore-2022-cloud-edge-infrastructure">Cross-cloud infrastructure</a> and <a href="https://news.vmware.com/releases/vmware-explore-2022-networking-security-multi-cloud">networking and security</a> services are a great start to a cloud-smart approach here. “It’s all about that consistent enterprise infrastructure for resiliency, performance and scalability — ubiquitously located across on-prem, all the major public clouds and out to the edge,” said Dave Morera, senior technical marketing architect for VMware. “You can uniquely protect your applications by stopping lateral movement of attacks. You can rapidly migrate and modernize your applications.”

3.      Frictionless End-User Experience

Now, all these apps built must be accessible and secure for a hybrid, distributed workforce. “We don't want to have a poor user experience,” said Blevins. “We don't want to have fragmented security. We want to make this easy on our operational teams.”

Cloud-smart organizations use cross-cloud <a href="https://news.vmware.com/releases/vmware-explore-2022-anywhere-workspace">anywhere workspace</a> services. “It enables all employees seamless and secure access to any app on any device from anywhere,” said Teresa Chen, product marketing director of digital workspace solutions for VMware.

With the anywhere workspace, IT can automate processes like onboarding devices, managing app entitlements and updating firmware. They can resolve issues faster using intelligence and machine learning. “This is a clear testament of the efficiency and simplicity it brings to IT,” said Chen.

Apps are at the center of what organizations do. Multi-cloud environments are the reality where it all happens: where companies create, deploy, operate, secure and access applications.

Everyone’s in this multi-cloud universe together: DevOps, DevSecOps, security professionals, platform operators, cloud architects and executives. And it’s together, that cloud-smart companies will make the cloud work the way it should — with more options and less complexity, more choice and no compromise.

<a href="https://news.vmware.com/vmware-explore/from-cloud-chaos-to-cloud-smart">Chart the journey now from cloud chaos to cloud smart</a>, and learn what the journey looked like for <a href="https://news.vmware.com/vmware-explore/becoming-cloud-smart-learn-from-cvs">one cloud-smart company</a>.

Double-click into the concept of a cloud-smart strategy. Take a closer look at the architectural evolution, from single-cloud to cross-cloud services.

Architecting a Cloud-Smart Strategy - VMware News and Stories

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VMware's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives were front and center at VMWare Explore 2022 as more than 10,000 VMware customers and partners converged in San Francisco to learn about the latest multi-cloud innovations and solutions. As attendees engaged with new technologies, they also learned how ESG topics such as sustainability and equitable workforces are driving more value than ever before in today’s digital business. 

Throughout the three day program, VMware executives, partners and customers demonstrated how VMware puts ESG into action, and they shined a spotlight on the uniqueness of the company's ecosystem and its role in running the world’s critical IT infrastructure.  

VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram's opening keynote highlighted VMware’s <a href="https://cloud.vmware.com/providers/zero-carbon">Zero Carbon Committed</a> initiative, a collaborative effort that taps the enormous potential of VMware’s public cloud partner ecosystem. VMware's groundbreaking program advances sustainability across the industry by promoting public cloud providers who are committed to achieving 100 percent renewable energy-powered data centers by 2030, and by connecting them with VMware customers who have net zero goals.

VMware Explore 2022 guests also enjoyed numerous breakout sessions and workshops focused on ESG, including:

ESG is top of mind across the VMware ecosystem and the industry. As customers dive further into their multi-cloud strategies, they can expect to see more innovations that add value by enabling both ESG and business goals.

Did you miss VMware Explore this year? You can still view the above sessions on demand, along with many more, by visiting the <a href="https://www.vmware.com/explore/us.html">VMware Explore 2022 webpage</a>. For a complete list of ESG-related sessions at VMware Explore 2022, check out the <a href="https://myevents.vmware.com/widget/vmware/explore2022us/1657224332783001DHkw">ESG Playlist</a>.

How ESG topics like sustainability and equitable workforces are driving real in today's digital businesses.

VMware shares impact of ESG initiatives at VMware Explore 2022

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ESG impact featured at VMware Explore 2022

Are you confused about ESG metrics? You’re not alone. The number of different standards and frameworks for ESG reporting across the globe mean that it’s still a wild west for any business trying to figure out what and how to measure their ESG impact.

Confusion further reigns when you consider that reporting is still not mandatory in every country, although this is <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/business/why-companies-need-to-act-now-to-get-their-esg-house-in-order-3434324">due to change from this year</a> for all UK private companies and limited liability partnerships, and potentially in the near future for U.S. companies if the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-46">proposed rule changes</a> are approved .

Despite a lack of universal concrete obligations, reporting is important for any business wanting to track how they’re performing against their ESG goals. Especially when you consider that shareholders and other stakeholders increasingly demand accountable transparency to provide key insights for operational imperatives such as reputation management and talent attraction.

For the latest blog in our <a href="https://news.vmware.com/category/down-to-earth">Down to Earth series</a>, I discuss how – without clear, mandatory guidance on what and how businesses should be reporting on ESG – business leaders can put in place metrics that will help them achieve their goals.

Given the lack of one universally agreed framework, there is a lot of overlap between the ones that do exist. My advice to business leaders is to get to know the categories and unique data points in the frameworks that are specific to your industry and look for focus areas of overlap.

For example, within the technology industry, VMware is typically categorised as software and IT infrastructure across multiple frameworks<a href="#_edn1" id="_ednref1">[i]</a>, which places extra emphasis on cybersecurity, data privacy (customers and employees), Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) data, intellectual property protection, how to manage risks in a changing climate (including rising greenhouse gas emissions) and what we need to anticipate to make ourselves more sustainable and resilient. While every company should disclose a variety of ESG metrics as suggested by leading frameworks, the crucial focus areas specific to your industry are a good starting point when building your ESG reporting muscle.

Get your timing and audiences right

While there is no definitive guideline on the cadence of reporting, current best practice recommendations suggest internal reporting to the CEO, executive team and Board of Directors on a quarterly basis and an external ESG report for other stakeholders annually. Key audiences to keep in mind for external reporting include shareholders, employees, partners, suppliers, and community stakeholders. Your internal and external reporting should be treated as an opportunity to inform and engage, as well as to further operationalise ESG practices throughout your organisation.

Although best practices on reporting guidelines are in flux, we are already seeing proposed mandatory regulations that are putting specific dates in the calendar for reporting, often in line with traditional financial disclosure submissions. This trend of aligning ESG reporting with traditional financial reporting is often called “integrated ESG reporting”, and it encourages businesses to mature their internal processes in advance of upcoming regulations. In the UK, reporting of climate-related risks and opportunities <a href="https://www.icas.com/landing/sustainability/non-financial-reporting/climate-change-reporting-to-be-mandatory-for-largest-uk-entities">became mandatory</a> for the largest UK companies from 6 April 2022 and we’ve had mandatory <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/gender-pay-gap-reporting">gender pay gap reporting</a> since 2017.

Transparency is rewarded when it comes to ESG reporting. With ESG Raters and Rankers (third-party organisations that score businesses on their ESG performance based on either publicly available data or surveys filled out by the business), the more transparent you are the higher the score awarded.

ESG Raters and Rankers are mostly used by investors to help benchmark performance between companies, and they can also make or break whether a company can be included in certain indices on the stock market. For example, VMware earned placement on the Dow Jones Sustainability indices (DJSI) due to being recognised for our high ESG scores judged by S&P, which manages DJSI. Raters and Rankers can also help companies reflect on their own performance and identify opportunities for improvement.

Of course, transparency can be uncomfortable, particularly when there are no universal mandatory reporting guidelines to adhere to. However, transparency is useful as it can reveal both successes and areas to further develop and mature. Showing transparent progress even if you’re struggling to achieve your goals is encouraged and rewarded, so long as you’re showing that you have a plan. After all, ESG is a journey, and reporting is one step among many along the way. 

Prepare for future reporting now

While we wait for mandatory reporting to be regulated and set in stone, the best thing we can do as business leaders is put in place robust voluntary reporting now. Businesses that ensure their reporting follows best practice even before it becomes mandatory, will be one step ahead and remain set up for the future.

Do your research, find those overlaps, talk to your peers and don’t be afraid to show your successes and failures along the way. Put the work in now and you’ll be far ahead of the competition.

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Learn more about <a href="http://www.vmware.com/company/esg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">VMware’s ESG strategy</a> and read VMware’s <a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/docs/vmware-esg-report-2022.pdf">2022 ESG Report</a> to see the progress we have made toward our 2030 Agenda goals.

<a id="_edn1" href="#_ednref1">[i]</a> VMware’s 2022 ESG Report was prepared with consideration of ESG data frameworks and standards including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol), Principles of the United Nations Global Compact, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

If you're confused about ESG metrics, you're not alone. Learn how and what businesses should be reporting.

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Joe Baguley is VMware’s Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for EMEA, joining VMware in July 2011. He helps develop and communicate VMware’s strategy and vision with customers and partners, using his wealth of experience to help organizations reduce costs and better support users and business needs. As part of VMware’s Office of the CTO and its representative in EMEA, Joe assists VMware’s customers in understanding how to use today’s advances in technology to deliver real business impact and plan for disruptive technologies of the future, as well as working with them to inform VMware’s R&amp;D processes. Joe is a recognized leader within the European technical community and is considered one of the world’s most influential IT global leaders, currently positioned 26th on Tenfold’s global list of the top 79 Chief Technology Officers. He speaks regularly at industry events, including The Economist’s Innovation Summit, to the broadcast media, including BBC World News and BBC Talking Business, and appeared in the Computer Weekly UKtech50 and the Information Age Top 50 Data Leaders. He has played a key role in CloudCamp and other events, communicating how cloud technology fits into the broader IT landscape. Joe previously spent 10 years at Quest Software where he was CTO of EMEA, shaping its direction and strategy. He is a member of VMware’s Executive Sustainability Council, a formalized component of the company’s Corporate Sustainability Strategy to provide insight and oversight, and to drive cross-company initiatives. In addition, Joe is also on several advisory boards at the European Commission and ETSI and is a founding committee member of the Data Centre Specialist Group at the British Computer Society, which helped shape the European Code of Conduct for Data Centres. Joe is based in the U.K. with a remit across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

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Joe Baguley

A key theme at this year’s <a href="https://www.vmware.com/explore/us.html?src=ps_62842e3f6213d&cid=7012H000001Kc4GQAS&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0oyYBhDGARIsAMZEuMsQL4ByQrq95bAvH0wOkgNWohwKGYtHprr3NQJkWslYoMERZh90FVgaAnf8EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds">VMware Explore 2022</a> focused on how organizations navigate the challenges of moving from “cloud chaos” to “cloud smart.” With a cloud smart approach to building multi-cloud architectures, enterprises have the freedom to select the right cloud for the right app<a>. </a>(VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram shared additional perspective on <a href="https://news.vmware.com/vmware-explore/from-cloud-chaos-to-cloud-smart">cloud smart</a><a>.)</a>

During this year’s General Session, we discussed this journey in detail with one leading organization and VMware customer – <a href="https://www.cvshealth.com/news-and-insights/articles/health-care-from-the-heart">CVS Health, one of America’s most innovative health solutions companies</a> with more than 9,600 pharmacy locations nationwide and over 300,000 employees. 85% of Americans live within 10 miles of a CVS pharmacy location, with 4.8 million consumers visiting a location daily, and 45 million unique digital consumers further expanding its online reach.

I was honored to be joined on stage at VMware Explore by Roshan Navagamuwa, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of CVS Health, to learn more about how CVS Health leverages a “technology forward” cloud-smart strategy.

During one of the most uncertain periods in recently history, <a href="https://www.cvshealth.com/news-and-insights/articles/our-covid-19-response#:~:text=As%20a%20leading%20health%20solutions,administration%20to%20millions%20of%20people.">CVS Health played an instrumental role in responding to the challenges of COVID-19.</a> Since the pandemic began, it has administered more than 50 million vaccines and more than 32 million COVID-19 tests. The company continues to embrace innovation in order to meet the health needs of customers, including increasing mental and virtual health services.

Begin with a focus on organizational goals.

As Roshan put it, “We started with our imperatives as a health care business, which are to drive improved outcomes, lower costs, higher levels of engagement, and broader access to high quality care. Our initial focus was making the consumer experience easier and more convenient, leveraging smarter and more efficient technology.” He stressed the importance of enabling colleagues across CVS Health with the tools and capabilities they need to keep customer promises in a dynamic and fast-paced environment. Underpinning these consumer and colleague capabilities are cloud-based platforms and automated processes.

The journey to cloud smart requires taming complexity.

CVS Health’s cloud journey initially began with its digital and analytics team, expanding over time to include its broader community of application developers. Use cases grew quickly from scale-scale opportunities to products and experiences that are now core to the business.

In early stages of the cloud journey, teams worked with speed and loose coordination in a federated governance model. A few years ago, however, Roshan described reaching an inflection point with large independent implementations within each cloud provider that led to increased cost and complexity.

Roshan’s team took a step back and reset to a more enterprise-optimized approach by consolidating into one team managing an integrated hybrid multi-cloud service and centralized controls and governance. Today, CVS Health leverages a more cohesive hybrid multi-cloud operating model focused on its priorities of ensuring reliable, secure operation with financial control and accountability; an increasingly better developer experience; and reusable products that are easier to integrate.

All of these capabilities ultimately enable business value with the agility needed to deliver on CVS Health’s mission; an example can be seen in their ability to quickly build and integrate health equity analytics into its COVID-19 response, distributing millions of vaccines to underserved populations.

Break down silos as technology teams continue to converge in function.

Roshan and I also discussed the trend of convergence among technology teams. I know from my own conversation with many customers and CIOs that a common challenge has been organizations keeping cloud teams in their own silos. Many “cloud first” enterprises have set up a variety of siloed teams – public cloud operations, platform engineering, and private cloud teams. While the formation of these teams has helped organizations cultivate specialized skill sets, it has also often created complexity, confusion, and chaos.

Roshan shared how CVS Health tackled this challenge, converging multiple teams into a more cohesive cloud services team. This helped streamline a number of burdensome processes, optimize workloads, and drive more automation – ultimately shortening the journey from idea to working software. This was also true of the team’s approach to strengthening the colleague experience. “We converged disparate teams that delivered and supported colleague technology into one team, focused on colleague experience,” Roshan said. “We were intentional about the technology choices best suited to support a mobile workforce and our retail team members – especially our front-line health care workers like pharmacists and nurse practitioners.” As he shared with us, streamlining the colleague experience has allowed their focus to be centered on patients rather than burdensome manual processes.

VMware’s portfolio of cross-cloud services enables organizations to navigate their own journeys to cloud smart and ensure accelerated app dev, consistent enterprise infrastructure, and frictionless app-access experience.<a id="_msocom_1"></a><a id="_msocom_1"></a>

The promise of multi-cloud is enabling organizations to focus their time, energy, and resources on innovations that improve customer experience and accelerate growth. I was inspired to hear from Roshan how embracing the potential of cloud smart has helped to enable CVS Health’s impact in delivering consumer-centric health care.

Learn more about our <a href="https://news.vmware.com/vmware-explore-2022-media-kit" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">latest innovations announced at VMware Explore.</a>

With a cloud smart approach to building multi-cloud architectures, enterprises have the freedom to select the right cloud for the right app.

Becoming Cloud Smart: Learn from CVS Health - VMware News and Stories

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As President of VMware, Sumit Dhawan leads the company’s go-to-market functions including WW Sales, Strategic Corporate Alliances, Customer Experience and Success (CXS), Global Industries, Marketing, and Communications. With over 25 years of experience in the tech industry, Sumit is a seasoned executive with a proven track record of building and running market-leading businesses. He is a strong advocate for delivering an exceptional experience to customers and partners, and for supporting diverse teams, inclusive cultures and equitable environments that encourage the best in everyone. &nbsp; Sumit previously served as VMware’s Chief Customer Experience Officer, managing global teams responsible for professional services, technical support and customer success. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive Officer of Instart, a startup delivering innovations in web application performance and security services. &nbsp; Before leading Instart, Sumit served as the general manager of VMware’s End-User Computing business, establishing the company’s leadership in mobile and unified endpoint management and desktop virtualization. He has also held a number of executive roles at Citrix spanning the engineering, product development, marketing, and general management functions. &nbsp; Sumit holds an MBA from the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, and a BS in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

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Sumit Dhawan

Over the past decade, challenger brands have shaken up the status quo in the business world by pioneering a digital-smart strategy, centered on accelerating innovation via software in the cloud. There are unique qualities that distinguish a digital-smart business: an ability to harness machine learning to turbocharge business insights; a focus on taking automation to the next level; and an obsession with driving the next leap forward in employee engagement and productivity. 

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