Deliver Your News to the World

VMware Makes Major Investments in Partners’ Virtualization Expertise through New Solution Enablement Toolkits, Enhanced Partner University and Solution Competencies


WEBWIRE

VMware Shares Services IP and Sales Tools to Accelerate Partners’ Virtualization Practices

PALO ALTO, Calif. - VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced Solution Enablement Toolkits (SETs), a suite of tools and assets designed to enable partners to create their own packaged solutions for repeatable and scalable value selling and delivery. VMware continues its investment in the VMware Partner Network with the new SETs, enhancements to Partner University and by creating additional training and certification options - including the VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) level – to further strengthen the Solution Competencies program. VMware is helping solution providers successfully migrate their customers to cloud computing environments by providing partners with world-class training and selling tools – and VMware solution providers remain dedicated to earning Solution Competencies to aid them in becoming trusted advisers to their customers.

“As we continue to shift toward an IT-as-a-service model, the mutual growth of VMware and our partners is imperative to guiding our customers on their virtualization journey to the cloud,” said Doug Smith, senior director, global partner strategy and programs, VMware. “We created SETs to help our partners accelerate the ROI for their competency training, take their solutions to market faster and increase their strategic value with customers. The fast uptake of Solution Competencies and SETs illustrates the value they can drive for our solution provider community, and we will continue to invest in our programs and the continued success of our solution providers.”

VMware Rewards Partners with New Solution Enablement Toolkits (SETs)

In addition to the continued momentum of the VMware Partner Network, VMware also announced the availability of valuable new Solution Enablement Toolkits (SETs). Designed to empower partners to take virtualization solutions to market faster, each SET contains a specific set of critical tools, templates, rich services intellectual property (IP) and assets that partners use to create their own unique productized and branded solution around VMware technology. SETs are built into robust libraries that are created to align with VMware Solution Competencies: Infrastructure Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization and Business Continuity.

The following SETs are available globally to solution providers with the corresponding competencies:

Infrastructure Virtualization Library

* VMware vSphere™ Jumpstart
* VMware vSphere Upgrade
* Microsoft Exchange on VMware vSphere
* SAP on VMware
* SQL Solutions on VMware vSphere

Desktop Virtualization Library

* Desktop Virtualization Assessment
* VMware View™ Pilot

Business Continuity Library

* VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager Jumpstart

SETs provide the tools for solution providers to virtualize more tier-1 applications for their customers, thereby migrating them to advanced stages of cloud computing (business production and IT as a service). The first wave of solution providers using SETs has reported two times sales growth (compared to solution providers not using SETs). Benefits of implementing SETs include:

* Partners close deals faster and increase margins on all types of virtualization and cloud solutions
* Partners benefit from accelerated competency ROI
* Partners can combine SETs with their own unique IP and branding for a true competitive differentiator
* Sales teams can more quickly and confidently sell VMware virtualization and cloud solutions

SETs have saved solution providers substantial time, effort and money when they package solutions to help their customers go to market. When solution providers invest in SETs, they can take advantage of VMware’s substantial investment in selling tools and services IP and save the time and resources needed to take their solutions to market.

“This approach is the single best method to enable partners to quickly ramp their VMware virtualization practices, from sales all the way through solutions implementations,” said Mark Hilz, president, INX. “This has allowed our sales staff to quickly adopt the best selling strategies while also allowing our engineering staff to quickly implement best practices around solutions delivery.”

“I thought this would be a good thing for us, but frankly, I expected it to be slow going,” said Ron Dupler, president and CEO, GreenPages. “I am floored by the quality of the IP and how it is presented. This is way, way more than I expected.”

Partners Continue to Invest in VMware Solutions through Partner University Trainings, Certifications and Accreditations

Within the past year, VMware introduced a newly redesigned Partner University portal, giving partners easier access to the training information they need to be successful with VMware virtualization solutions. Today, there are more than 3,500 partners with Solution Competencies, a clear indication that partners are making long-term investments in VMware solutions. On average, solution providers with at least one Solution Competency generate two to four times more in annual sales for the related product compared to partners without Solution Competencies. In addition, solution providers with at least one Solution Competency report an increased revenue drag of $15 of related solutions and services for every $1 of VMware solutions sold (compared to $11 without a Solution Competency).

Additional VMware Partner Network momentum includes:

* 18,043 people have completed VSP 4 (VMware Sales Professional) accreditations
* 15,083 people have completed the VTSP 4 (VMware Technical Sales Professional) accreditations
* More than 30,000 individuals have been trained on SolutionTrack to help them articulate the VMware virtualization strategy in 2010
* More than 2,600 attendees from around the world attended VMware Partner Exchange 2010

Availability and Pricing

SETs are available to solution providers that have completed the corresponding VMware Solution Competencies. For a limited time, SETs are available at no charge to solution providers that have achieved their Solution Competencies.

About VMware
VMware delivers virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes. With the industry leading virtualization platform – VMware vSphere™ – customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve agility, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2009 revenues of $2 billion, more than 190,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com

# # #

VMware, VMware vCenter, VMware View and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.



WebWireID123645





This news content was configured by WebWire editorial staff. Linking is permitted.

News Release Distribution and Press Release Distribution Services Provided by WebWire.