As a CIO, understanding the cloud ecosystem is essential for leveraging cloud computing for digital transformation, agility, and innovation.To understand why the ecosystem is so important for any move to the cloud, we spoke with the head of Strategic Ecosystem & Industry Solutions at VMware, Zia Yusuf.During the conversation, Zia explains the cloud ecosystem, why it's a challenging issue for many CIOs, and offers advice for migration planning and investing in the cloud.The discussion covers these topics:► What is the cloud ecosystem?► How does the cloud ecosystem drive customer success?► What are the roles and responsibilities of cloud ecosystem participants?► How is customer success different in the cloud from on-premises?► What are the business impacts of multicloud and hybrid cloud solutions?► How important is the ecosystem to cloud migration?► What is the role of ecosystem in innovation and cloud adoption?► Advice to CIOs on migration from on-premises to cloud?► How should CIOs plan and architect their cloud computing ecosystem?► What are the best metrics to use for evaluating a cloud migration strategy?Read the complete transcript: https://www.cxotalk.com/episode/cloud-ecosystem-guide-ciosZia Yusuf joined VMware in 2021 as VMware’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Ecosystem and Industry Solutions, responsible for building joint horizontal and industry-centric solutions with our ecosystem and alliances across Dell, global cloud providers (hyperscalers), global system integrators, and global ISVs.Prior to VMware, Zia was a Senior Partner & Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group (BCG)—serving as a core member of the firm’s Technology Advantage, and Technology, Media & Telecommunications practices. Before BCG, Zia was CEO of a leading IoT startup called Streetline, and an executive vice president at SAP where he served as head of the global ecosystem and partner group. Zia holds a Bachelor of Arts from Macalester College, a Master of Science in International Affairs from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.