Exploring Marvell’s Digital Transformation Strategy and Focus for the Future

On this episode of The Six Five - Insiders Edition podcast hosts Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman talk to Chris Koopmans, the CMO of Marvell, about the company’s rebranding efforts, their transformation initiatives and the product lines and services that Marvell is focusing on for the future.
In our conversation, Chris, Patrick and I explored Marvell’s recent pivot to focus on data infrastructure. Marvell used to build ethernet technology, hard drives and other technology, but Chris shared their belief that economies will be built on data infrastructure moving forward - which makes sense, especially for where we are right now. We often forget all of the networks and heavy infrastructure pieces that enable our smart devices. These would all be useless without massive compute power and information storage in the cloud. Marvell started to focus on delivering the right technology at the right time for the key infrastructure providers in the world. They offer storage, networking, compute and security - the four main pieces of fundamental technology required to build infrastructure.
Mergers and acquisitions are hugely important in the semiconductor industry. Chris shared that as Marvell pivoted to data infrastructure, the company had to figure out which existing product lines and services fit within the new strategy and where the gaps were. The ability to scale and scale quickly matters. They divested a number of businesses like their multimedia business which no longer fit. Marvell then acquired a few companies like Cavium and Avera Semi to help build the solutions and products that customers wanted. Chris talked about the unique position Marvell was in for all of these changes. They started with their strategy first and then made moves that aligned with the strategy - a smart move that has paid off.
The play for 5G. Chris, Patrick and I discussed the move to 5G networks and the need for more compute power. Base station vendors all over the world need a lot of new things to make 5G work including a massive amount of raw compute power. They need a partner that can offer higher core count and higher processing capabilities with acceleration capabilities directly connected through a coherent interconnect that enables the most advanced solutions - which is what Marvell offers.
Moving to cloud and data center. It’s no secret that data and computing have been moving to the cloud for some time - which is where the future is headed at Marvell too. We discussed Marvell’s OCTEON product line that has been coined as the data processing unit or DPU. It is the most widely deployed DPU in the world which is creating a very large opportunity for Marvell in the future.
The automotive revolution. Chris shared a little bit about Marvell’s journey into the automotive space. For years, cars were built piece by piece, all disconnected units coming together but still working separately. What we are seeing now is the need for ethernet-based wiring technology to be the high-speed backbone of the car with an ARM-based compute engine to deliver the necessary compute power to make sensors and other technologies in the car work. Marvell is focusing on building the internet technology in your car which is the next big piece of edge infrastructure.
Lastly, we talked a little bit about Marvell’s enterprise portfolio. In today’s environment - especially in the wake of COVID-19 - every enterprise is truly borderless. With cloud and mobile technologies employees can connect from wherever they are. Companies need to secure their networks and applications with intrusion detection and prevention which takes a lot of data. This requires the right storage, processing, high-speed networking, and security all of which are Marvell’s key intellectual property, so this is something they do really well.
Marvell’s transformation and growth over the last few years has been impressive to watch and they’re not slowing down anytime soon. If you’d like to learn more about Marvell and their initiatives check out their website. Also, Marvell is a keynote sponsor of the upcoming Six Five Summit. Be sure to register for that so you don’t miss any more exciting news from Marvell and the other amazing line up of speakers.