VMware Global Alliances Blog

Posted by George Gerchow
Director, VMware Center for
Policy & Compliance

Hi everyone! I’m in beautiful SF today attending the RSA Conference. If you are not familiar with this conference, this is the premier Security Conference in the world. One solution that I am really jazzed about is on display at the RSA booth in the Expo Hall, integrates a number of core configuration compliance related technologies from VMware, EMC and RSA.

This IT Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solution leverages EMC’s Network Configuration Manager (NCM) and Storage Configuration Advisor (SCA); along with VMware’s vCenter Configuration Manager (VCM) to automatically and continuously collect and evaluate configuration compliance across Network, Storage and Compute layers within the data center. The cherry on the top is RSA’s Archer eGRC solution which integrates the results of these domain specific configuration management offerings and provides a consolidated, integrated and comprehensive view of IT configuration compliance across the entire data center.

With this solution, teams responsible for ensuring the configuration compliance of the IT infrastructure across the entire enterprise can begin to achieve a coordinated view of compliance across all infrastructure layers. Anyone that has been involved in trying to solve this kind of problems in the past can appreciate both how difficult a task this can be and by extension what an accomplishment this is. There is a much more detailed write up of the integrated solution on the EMC ManagedView blog so please check it out.  If this looks like an approach that can help you achieve security and compliance related objectives in your enterprise, I encourage you to follow up with EMC, RSA or VMware sales for more information.

Finally, in the words made famous by the Monty Python show  “now for something completely different” -  check out this new video about Security and Compliance that my colleagues back on the ranch just created.  Let us know what you think and if you like it pass it on.

Posted by David Martin
Intel Alliance Marketing
Director

Last week at the HIMMS conference, Peake Healthcare Innovations, a joint venture of Harris Corporation and Johns Hopkins Medicine, debuted a solution developed in tandem with VMware and Intel Corporation. It’s a secure cloud platform for the management and delivery of enterprise medical imaging to any healthcare facility. This powerful solution enables physicians and other healthcare personnel to quickly and securely access medical images from a variety of end-user devices.

Imagine being a doctor in remote facility and being able to instantly and securely provide access to a patient’s medical images through the cloud to the iPad of a clinical expert who practices 300 or 3,000 miles away. That process used to be costly and take days to deploy but now it is affordable and takes only a matter of minutes.

Healthcare is undergoing unprecedented change and we are working with leading providers to ensure the healthcare solutions we deliver enable them to offer the highest quality patient care. Visit the VMware Solutions for Healthcare Providers page for more information.

Posted by Gina Bollenback
Global Alliance Marketing
Communications Manager

Today’s edition of News Around the Network highlights VMware’s growing partnerships and products, all designed to deliver the best possible solutions to customers:

Kapersky to Launch VMware vShield Endpoint Security Solution at CeBIT (vReality)
Kapersky Lab joins the ranks of Bitdefender and Trend Micro in leading the way on cloud security with anti-virus solutions for vShield.

Webcams, VoIP, Unified Communications in a VMware View Environment
For those wondering how to best use UC in a VDI environment, the new VMware “View Media Service for Unified Communications” may help. The article discusses View integrations with Partner’s products.

Teradici PC-over-IP Technology Transforms Desktop Virtualization and Workflow Efficiencies for Healthcare IT
At this week’s HIMSS conference, Teradici showcased how its VMware View-compatible solutions streamline healthcare IT.

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 Kong Yang
Dell, Data Center
Efficiency Evangelist

Dell Cloud with VMware vCloud Datacenter Service is being offered in a 60-day promotional trial. Dell Cloud with VMware vCloud Datacenter Service is an enterprise Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) hosted in a secure Dell datacenter. The Dell | VMware service provides access to all four major datacenter resources: (1) compute; (2) memory; (3) storage; and (4) networks. Additional services include OS templates, daily snapshots for backup, ten IP addresses, vShield Edge Security and business hours phone support. The trial price is $999 and is only available in the US for a limited time ending on April 30^th, 2012. This announcement was previously posted on February 4^th by Stephen Spector in his D2D blog post.

 
Do not miss your chance to experience the benefits of Dell’s public cloud backed by the VMware vCloud reference architecture. To sign up for this trial, please contact your Dell representative and purchase SKU #993-4331. Dell Services Delivery team will contact you in 2-3 business days to handle account setup, service description agreement signature and provisioning of resources. To learn more about Dell’s vCloud offering, visit www.dell.com/vcloud

Posted by Gina Bollenback
Global Alliance Marketing
Communications Manager

In today’s edition of News Around the Network, we’ve got details about new integrated partner solutions, evolving vCloud management tools, and more blog posts from around our Alliance network:

Accelerating Customer and Partner Success with VXI and VMware View (Cisco Data Center Blog)
Cisco and VMware’s partnership continues to blossom, with Cisco now offering VMware View 5 as a streamlined part of its VXI solutions.

vCloud Client for iPad (Cloud-Buddy)
If you haven’t heard the news, vCloud client is now available for the iPad – so you can manage your vCD environment right from your tablet!

vExpert 2012 Applications Now Open (VMTN Blog)
Are you an active and enthusiastic VMware user? Apply to be 2012 vExpert and you could help us spread knowledge and expertise about VMware technology.

VMware and Mitel Bring Desktop Virtualization to the Contact Center
This week VMware and Mitel announced an integration of Mitel's Unified Contact Center Solution and Unified Communicator Advanced client software with VMware View, which allows customers to deliver modern virtual desktops and applications to end users as a managed service from the data center or the cloud.

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 Wen Yu
Alliances Staff SE

VMware® vSphere® 5, which shipped in the summer of 2011, delivers better application performance and availability for all business-critical applications while automating the management of an increasingly broad pool of datacenter resources.  That includes storage technology from NetApp, a valued partner that has worked closely with VMware to develop solutions that work together seamlessly and accelerate the shift to cloud computing for our mutual customers.

As part of that effort, NetApp has released a comprehensive new publication that guides our customers through the deployment of solutions that combine vSphere with NetApp. The new NetApp Storage Best Practices for VMware vSphere (technical report TR-3749) includes valuable new content specific to the powerful new storage features in vSphere 5.

In his recent blog, Vaughn Stewart of NetApp raves about the report. It contains deployment considerations and best practices that have been validated by both NetApp and VMware. Contents include:

• An introduction to storage concepts in vSphere 5
• Updated storage maximums, supported options, and NetApp integration tables
• Support for the VSC with the vCSA or vCenter Server Appliance
• Host Profiles
• VMFS 5
• Storage DRS, affinity rules and maintenance mode
• SIOC or Storage I/O Controls

As you dig into this 118-page report, I suggest you pay close attention to the design best practices on the following topics that vSphere 5 customers are likely to find especially valuable:

• Protocol choices - vSphere5 has full support for NFS, iSCSI, FCP and FCoE. Ever wonder which protocol to use and what to expect with each, in terms of usability, supportability and performance?  The protocol benefits and considerations sections of the report will give you a clear rundown of what to expect with each, and guides you through all the way.
• Virtual Storage Console integration with VMware vCenter ™ - If you have not used the Virtual Storage Console, then this section is also a must-read.  Virtual Storage Console enables VI Administrators to have more visibility into the storage “black box”. When storage volumes are presented to the ESX server clusters, admins do not have any visibility into the volume: for example, datastore to flexvol relationship, dedup setting, actual volume size when thin provisioning is enabled.  VSC completes the picture and brings all relevant storage backend related info to the VI admin.
• Storage IO Control usage with NFS and VMFS storage - With intelligent storage like NetApp FAS systems, SIOC settings can be configured to match with the array side for end-to-end quality of service control for the cloud infrastructure.
• Storage DRS considerations - When Storage DRS is configured to run in automatic mode, the storage vMotion migrations of VMs between datastores have implications on dedup enabled volumes.  Read this section and make sure all considerations are understood when you consider using Storage DRS with NetApp storage.

The final product is more than a testament to a great partnership. It’s a standard-setting resource that will speed the journey to IT and business transformation for our customers. I invite you to take a look at the best practices in the report and share your feedback or questions in the comments section below. We're always looking for ways to make our customers' lives easier!

Posted by Shobhana Viswanathan
Senior Marketing Manager -
Global Alliances

 The RSA Conference 2012 is right around the corner! The event takes place between February 27^th and March 2^nd, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Every year has a different theme, and this year’s is “The Big Cipher Mightier than the Sword”.

Top 3 Reasons to attend the RSA Conference

1.     Meet  your peers, zero in on the latest security and compliance trends solutions

With a keynote from former British PM Tony Blair and a strong presence by VMware and its security ecosystem partners  -   this year is definitely going to be a fabulous event!  Attend keynotes, sessions and network with your peers at the Moscone Center.

2.     Learn  why  clouds built on VMware are more secure than any other environment

Clouds and virtualization offer powerful ways for organizations to manage and use information, but security and compliance continue to be inhibitors in their journey to the cloud.  Come and visit our booth #2041 to see how VMware, combined with our security partners, collaborate to develop jointly integrated solutions that improve customers’ trust in the cloud.  We have a slew of partners both big and small – Symantec, Trend Micro, Kaspersky, McAfee, HP Tipping Point, Hytrust, BitDefender, Sophos, …the list goes on!

3.     Engage with VMware social media activities

Attend the VMware and Trend Micro Tweetup which takes place at the VMware booth on Tuesday, February 28^th from 5:00 – 5:30. we will discuss how VMware and Trend Micro can help you secure your customers journey to the cloud. The tweetup is hosted by:

•  Dave Asprey, Trend Micro, VP of Cloud Security - @daveasprey    
•  George Gerchow, VMware, Director, Center for Policy & Compliance - @georgegerchow    
•  Rob Randell, Principal SE, Federal    
•  Jeremiah Cornelius, Alliances Partner Architect

There will also be a tweet-to-win contest where we will ask participants to answer a question on twitter using hashtag #VMwareRSA and those who tweet will be entered to win some great prizes. So visit our booth or tune into @VMwareEvents  and @VMware_Partners to learn more about this opportunity.

Hope to see you there!

Posted by Gina Bollenback
Global Alliance Marketing
Communications Manager

This week’s edition of News Around the Network, highlights upcoming events, new products, tools, and how-to guides for streamlining VMware and partner solutions:

Flexible Adapters and the Importance of VMware Tools (Geek After Five)
vExpert Jake Robinson of Bluelock provides a valuable resource of tools to make the most of VMware Flexible Adapters.

vCloud Integration Manager (Cloud-Buddy)
Bilal Hashmi’s latest blog post focuses how the new vCloud Integration Manager can help customers better integrate their cloud initiatives.

VMware and CSC Celebrate BizCloud’s First Birthday (YouTube)
Bob Millradt, VMware, and Siki Giunta, CSC, celebrate BizCloud's First Birthday at CSC Headquarters in Falls Church, VA (USA).

EMC VFCache (Project Lightning) in a VMware Environment (GeekFluent)
Dave Henry’s latest post gives a brief overview of VFCache and then goes into detail of how it works in a VMware environment with vSphere.

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 Zack Towner
Service Provider Business
Development, VMware
Applications

The Challenge
While Email and Collaboration remain among the most important applications for businesses today, it can certainly be a burden, time consuming and costly for IT departments.

It’s difficult to keep up with things like browser and OS support not to mention supporting the myriad of devices employees use to check their email. The ever-increasing mass of attachments and documents leads to greater storage requirements and additional costs.

All of these challenges are motivating businesses to seek more flexible, lower cost alternative solutions for email and collaboration. One model that helps businesses address these challenges — IT as a Service. 

Research suggests that businesses are making the shift to IT as a Service initially with hosted email solutions.  Not surprisingly, reducing IT costs is the primary driver for this transition.

The Solution
Service providers, such as CSC, can help businesses make this shift to IT as a Service and change the role of their IT department from a cost center to a center of strategic value.

CSC has partnered with VMware to offer CSC Cloudmail: VMware Zimbra. CSC CloudMail for VMware Zimbra

This solution combines VMware Zimbra’s next-generation collaboration software with CSC managed services and Trusted Cloud data center deployment to provide Messaging as a Service. VMware Zimbra is scalable and secure, and CSC provides the choice of on- or off-premises deployment and as-a-service pricing.

Watch this video to learn more about how your business can save money, increase user productivity managed by CSC and backed by service level agreements.

To learn more about the business benefits of transitioning to cloud based email, collaboration services and key features differentiating email platforms in the cloud, check out the Business Opportunity for Cloud Mail and Collaboration Whitepaper.

Posted by Kannan Mani
Technical Solutions Architect

Check out the video below where Jason Kosaftis from EMC and I discuss on the upcoming joint webcast series -  virtualizing Oracle databases. The combination of VMware vCenter™ and EMC FAST Cache dynamically provisions server and storage resources to allow maximum performance at scale in virtualized Oracle environments. With the latest release of VMware vSphere® and the fully automated Storage Tiering capabilities of EMC VNX Unified Storage, Oracle DBAs and IT infrastructure teams can now accelerate server and storage resource provisioning and minimize database performance tuning while maintaining maximum availability.

During these webcasts you will hear from EMC and VMware Engineers, as well as end customers and IT executives from some of our largest customers discuss on cost savings, performance and efficiency they have achieved using VMware and EMC technologies. Please visit the links below and register today.

Maximum Performance and Availability for Virtualized Oracle Databases with VMware and EMC
Hosts: George Trujillo, Tier One Database Specialist, VMware and Sam Lucido, Solutions Consultant, EMC

Thursday, February 16, 2012, 8:00 AM PST
Register today!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 9:00 AM PST
Register today!