VMware Global Alliances Blog

Posted by Anne Catambay
Director,Global Outbound
Alliance Marketing

That’s the rating I give to our newly launched VMware® Solution Exchange (VSX).  Why? Because it’s an on-ramp that gives you the opportunity to discover, evaluate and expedite the buying process for virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions—all in one convenient place.

Want to know what others think about a product that you’d like to try? Use VSX to check out user-generated star ratings and real-world reviews.



Within VSX, you can quickly and easily:
•    Search the entire catalog of joint solutions
•    Explore rich, multimedia content, including YouTube videos
•    Engage directly with partners and developers
•    Purchase the right solutions for your business

VMware has more than 2,000 technology partners. Our partners have built more than 3,500 applications and 6,000 infrastructure products compatible with the VMware portfolio of products. Investigate new solutions or check out information about products that you already use.

Then come back and let me know how you’d rate VSX.

Posted by Gina Bollenback,
Global Alliance Marketing
Communications Manager

This week’s roundup highlights events coming up next week and new resources available to make your life easier:

Who to Follow for FlexPod at Cisco Live 2012 London (FlexPod)
If you’re attending or trying to keep up with FlexPod news and events at Cisco Live 2012, this post is for you. NetApp’s Freia Berg highlights the key FlexPod social media resources to follow.

Join Our Next #cloudtalk with VMware Knowledge Experts Chris Colotti and Massimo Re Ferre’ (vCloud Blog)
vCloud Twitter followers believe that security controls will move closer to protected resources in 2012. Do you agree? Join the conversation on January 31st to discuss the continuing evolution of cloud computing.

Voting Now Open for the top VMware and Virtualization Blogs (vSphere-Land)
Eric Seibert has launched his latest effort to identify the top VMware and virtualization blogs. Not only does your vote count, if you’re looking for valuable VMware resources his list is a great starting point.

Introducing Dell on VMware Solution Exchange (Inside Enterprise IT)
Dell’s Kong Yang is proud to announce Dell’s participation in VMware’s Solution Exchange, where customers can search, share, and discover information on Dell’s latest offerings with VMware.

Site Recovery Manager 5.0 Performance and Best Practices (VROOM! Blog)
VMware’s VROOM! Blog announced this week a new technical white paper about SRM’s scalability, recovery, and its performance in real-life workload simulations.

VMware customers, if you want to see anything specifically highlighted in this blog please respond in the comments section or on Twitter or Facebook. VMware partners and community, please let us know if you have any stories you suggest we highlight in future weeks.

Posted by Jay Workman
Director, HP Alliance
Marketing

VMware and HP Drive Virtualized SAP Landscapes into the Mainstream

With VMware and HP virtualization solutions, your SAP solutions-based development, test, training, and production landscapes can cost less and be more productive than within a purely physical infrastructure. From server consolidation and containment to business process and data center automation, the full range of virtualization benefits can be applied to all sizes of SAP deployments. 

Learn more by registering to attend the Webcast Your SAP Landscape, Virtualized, on January 31 at 8:00 a.m. PST, 11:00 a.m. EST, to understand the benefits of implementing a cost-effective, available, scalable, and secure virtualization platform for your SAP software landscape with HP ProLiant servers based on Intel® Xeon® processors and running VMware vSphere 5.

By attending this Webcast you'll learn:

• How an effective virtualization strategy provides a future-ready scalable landscape
• How to meet and exceed your SAP software landscape performance service-level agreements with virtualization
• How to lower your total cost of ownership while increasing availability, scalability, and security
• How virtualizing SAP software adds little, if any, performance overhead

Experts from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) and SAP will discuss SAP's recent announcement about virtualization as well as studies outlining the benefits of virtualizing your SAP software landscape. Register today!

Webcast Sponsored by:

Posted by James Lomonaco
Global Cisco Alliance
Marketing Manager

Last week Cisco reached a significant milestone with the Cisco Unified Computing System – reaching the 10,000 customer mark in a little less than three years since its announcement.  The Cisco UCS solution is purpose-built for virtualization and underpins significant VMware and Cisco joint solutions from server virtualization and private cloud with VMware vSphere 5 to collaborative desktop solutions integrating unified communications with VMware View.

With thousands of joint customers implementing VMware-based solutions with Cisco UCS, it seems like a good time to reflect on some of them by highlighting a couple recent posts and a customer white paper.  Learn how Lone Star College System achieved dramatic cost savings and rapid ROI with the post, Lone Star College System Moves to the Head of the Class with VMware, Cisco & EMC, how Seven Corners built a private cloud solution in the post: Seven Corners Builds Private Cloud Based on Cisco, NetApp and VMware Solutions and how VMware and Cisco enabled Metro Health to enhance patient care and reduce costs through improved workflows in the Optimizing Clinical Workflows with VMware View and Cisco VXI white paper.

For a more complete list of VMware and Cisco resources, you can visit the Cisco Alliance page on www.vmware.com.  And for the recent announcement from Cisco, you can visit the Cisco blog.  

Posted by Gina Bollenback,
Global Alliance Marketing
Communications Manager

This week marks the second weekly roundup post highlighting the top news around the VMware Global Alliances Network. You’ll be seeing this post every Friday, focusing on product how-to’s, upcoming events, new joint solutions, partner news, and any other interesting tidbits that provide value to our customers.

This week’s roundup post highlights new partner products and tips for leveraging VMware and partner solutions to secure and streamline IT processes:

View Composer, Relocating Replica (Demitasse) - Alastair Cooke outlines in minute detail how to move between datastores when Tiered storage is in use on VMware View.

How to Properly Remove vSphere Datastores (boche.net) - Think you just right-click and select “Delete”? vExpert Jason Boche shares two options for following the correct procedure in a vSphere environment.

Upcoming Webinar: vSphere 5.0 Best Practices - This webinar, scheduled for next Wednesday, will look at the technical concepts and implementation processes for a vSphere infrastructure using EMC Isilon storage.

VMware View VDI Flash Calculator v2.7 Released (myvirtualcloud.net) - Andre Leibovici explains how his latest VDI Calculator may prove a valuable tool for those on the front lines using VMware View.

VMware customers, if you want to see anything specifically highlighted in this blog please respond in the comments section or on Twitter or Facebook. VMware partners and community, please let us know if you have any stories you suggest we highlight in future weeks.

Posted by Paige Schott
Global Sr. Marketing
Manager, Dell Alliance

 In 2012, an important area of focus for VMware and Dell, is our joint Cloud solution. In the Global Cloud Computing Adoption Survey conducted by CIO media, it was found that 88% C-level executives rated Cloud Computing as a priority for implementation over the next 18 months.  In the video below, Jeremy Greening, Product Manager for Dell’s Cloud IT Consulting Services and Matt Brooks, Cloud Strategist with Dell’s Services Office of the CTO demonstrate how the hybrid cloud can be supported in the Dell Cloud with vCloud Datacenter Service solution.

To read more on this topic visit the Direct2Dell Community blog.

Posted by Alicia Gaba,
Bluelock, Marketing Manager

Enterprise IT departments are facing increasing pressure to say “yes” to the business more often. They must provide better, faster service to their users while at the same time reducing costs. Given the sizeable investment of providing and managing the IT infrastructure that supports day-to-day operations, companies are taking a closer look at how to deliver IT services more cost effectively to the lines of business these services support. At the same time, CIOs are beginning to realize the strategic implications of the cloud and its ability to change the way they do business.

Bluelock and VMware are working closely together as strategic partners in order to deliver the next generation of enterprise-class hybrid cloud offerings. Based on the VMware vCloud Datacenter Service, Bluelock Virtual Datacenters provide the security, interoperability, and control that midsize and larger companies require to transform their datacenters into IT game-changers.

vCloud Director and vCloud Connector

Bluelock Virtual Datacenters take just minutes to set up, either through Bluelock’s managed services team or the VMware vCloud Director-based, self-service interface. The Bluelock Virtual Datacenter uses VMware’s cloud infrastructure technology, including vCloud Director, vCloud API, VMware vSphere, and vShield security. Using a common management and security model, IT can securely move workloads between internal datacenters and Bluelock Virtual Datacenters.

 VMware vCloud Connector enables Bluelock clients to move virtual machines, vApps, and templates between internal datacenters and Bluelock Virtual Datacenters with a centralized hybrid cloud management user interface. The vCloud Connector plugs into vSphere Client and allows administrators to access their consoles remotely; gain deep visibility into virtual resource allocation and consumption; and connect and manage all virtual and cloud environments.



SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE

Security is one of the biggest concerns for organizations that are considering cloud adoption. Bluelock’s advanced architecture and heightened emphasis on security offer the assurance that any applications and data moved to the cloud hosting environment will be adequately protected. Bluelock not only maintains important industry certifications and passes specific audits on behalf of its clients, but also helps clients to obtain vital certifications, such as PCI compliance, that will differentiate them in the marketplace. Bluelock Virtual Datacenters deliver consistent and auditable security and performance, as well as technical capabilities such as network isolation, role-based access control, and directory services integration.

 As enterprises evaluate the use of public and private cloud solutions, they also need to consider the security benefits and options offered by each.  While the hybrid cloud concept introduces new architecture considerations such as data migration, multi-cloud management, and distributed security models, it also presents new possibilities where security is concerned.

By determining the security requirements of your data, you’ll gain greater insight into which cloud model is most appropriate for your organization and whether your needs would best be served by an experienced cloud service provider. Table 1 shows an example of how an organization might weigh their cloud options for their particular context.

                                Source: Security in the Hybrid cloud: Putting Rumors to Rest (Bluelock and VMware whitepaper)

To learn how to deal with these security concerns, visit Bluelock’s resource center to access the cloud security whitepaper, Security in the Hybrid Cloud: Putting Rumors to Rest.

Posted by Gina Bollenback,
Global Alliance Marketing
Communications Manager

I am thrilled to begin posting a weekly roundup post highlighting the top news around the VMware Global Alliances Network. This post will be published each Friday and is designed to highlight upcoming events, new joint solutions, partner news, and any other interesting tidbits that provide value for our customers.

This week’s roundup post highlights new partner products and tips to help you streamline and secure your IT processes.

Securing Virtual Machines in the Cloud (Thoughts on Cloud)
As cloud adoption continues to accelerate, IBM’s Manav Gupta describes the security challenges posed by virtualization – and how to minimize the risk.

Vblock Unified Infrastructure Manager/Operations 3.0 Released (Virtual Geek)
EMC’s Chad Sakac announces one of the first new products for 2012, outlining how it can help simplify Vblock and make IT administrators’ lives even easier.

VDI Steady State Workload with VNX FAST Cache (myvirtualcloud.net) 
Andre Leibowitz’s new video demonstrates how VNX FAST Cache, when paired with VMware View Linked Clones, can streamline VDI processes.

VMware customers, if you want to see anything specifically highlighted in this blog please respond in the comments section or on Twitter or Facebook. VMware partners and community, please let us know if you have stories we should highlight in future weeks.

Posted by Brian Forbes, VMware, Sr. Director
Alliance Marketing and Julie Eades,
VMware, VP of Global SMB Marketing

Brian Forbes: VMware traditionally has focused on enterprise software solutions. Why the focus now on SMB customers?

Julie Eades: It is certainly the perception that we are an enterprise software company, but we have a very strong SMB customer base that is growing year-over-year. The reason? Our solutions benefit both large and small companies alike.  Companies of all sizes can realize the same cost savings and business agility from implementing VMware solutions.  Whether a large organization or a growing startup, companies are looking to lower costs, increase IT flexibility and grow without complexity while ensuring that their IT environments and businesses run without any downtime, even when disaster strikes. 

With the focus on SMB, VMware can address the specific evolving needs of these customers by delivering a comprehensive suite of solutions tailored for SMB customers and channels.  Our ultimate vision is to offer our partner community a simple way to provide IT services to their SMB customers and at the same time make IT more easily consumable so that SMBs can concentrate on growing their businesses instead of worrying about how IT works! 

Forbes: What are the two main reasons why an SMB should look to VMware for their virtualization and cloud computing needs?

Eades: Just two?  That is tough…each customer situation is unique, but if I had to narrow it down I would say that customers who choose VMware work with the proven market leader in virtualization and enjoy the benefits associated with the industry’s most mature and reliable technology.  And with virtualization as a foundation to your cloud, many of the leading public cloud service providers run on VMware.

In addition, VMware delivers a range of virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions designed to meet the unique needs of small and midsize businesses.

But I don’t want to stop there.  Given the focus of this blog, I want to highlight our partners.  We have the most knowledgeable partner ecosystem with specializations in infrastructure virtualization, business continuity and desktop virtualization to help customers of all types and sizes. 

Forbes: Is the strong performance and feature benefits associated with VMware products really required for a small or midsize business?

Eades: What we find is that just because a business is small or midsize, doesn’t mean they want to settle when it comes to mission critical business systems.  In fact, we see even very small businesses (1-99 employees) upgrading from our entry-level products, Essentials or Essentials+, to enterprise suites. 

Businesses today, including SMBs, see technology as a business differentiator.  This is especially true within certain industries, like hi-tech, business services, education and finance. Today’s SMBs have similar needs as enterprise customers.  They are just as concerned about availability, performance, security, manageability and scalability as their larger peers, and are looking for the same benefits.

That said, with our added focus on SMB, we are working with our customers and partners to further define the IT needs and characteristics of SMBs and to create, package and deliver the right solutions for their business.

Forbes: Where are you seeing SMBs adopting cloud computing?  

Eades: Several SMB studies from various sources such as CompTIA, a non-profit trade association advancing the global interests of IT professionals and companies, as well as analyst firms have shown that of the SMBs who have adopted or plan to adopt cloud, the most common cloud services are storage/backup, email, document management and collaboration.  And the most cited benefit of a cloud solution is cost and flexibility.

This aligns with our expectation that SMBs are looking to external service providers for cloud services and also rapidly adopting SaaS as their initial deployment.  As they gain more confidence in cloud, we expect further expansion into available services.

Forbes: What does VMware have planned in 2012 specifically for the SMB customer base and how do our Alliances impact this?

Eades: We have many good things in store around the globe for the SMB customer base, starting with several product promotions in February. We also have an exciting new marketing campaign that will hit all major markets in Q1 called “The Real World Advantage Campaign”. Several channel and alliance partners have customized the campaign for their own use and more intend to do the same.

In Q2 our VMware Forums (vForum) kick off in the Americas and EMEA regions – these are large, one day, free events where companies can come and learn about virtualization and cloud computing.  SMB IT teams can access real technology in the vForum hands-on labs and speak to experts at the VMware booth. 

Then in Q3 San Francisco hosts VMworld, where we expect almost 20,000 attendees and we always see a large SMB contingent participate.  And finally in Q4, Barcelona hosts VMworld Europe followed closely by the APJ Forums, where we continue to be impressed by the number of attendees learning about VMware technology.

Everything I have just mentioned provides opportunities for our Alliance partners. They can join our events, run joint campaigns and augment our promotions.  Our partner ecosystem is incredibly important to us at VMware and we look forward to continuing our close relationship with our alliance community in 2012.