VMware Partner News

We've updated the Competitive Selling page on the all-new Partner Central with these new sales tools:

New - Quick Positioning Cards

Eleven updated Quick Positioning Cards to use as customer-facing competitive sales tools are now available.  These cards provide key VMware messaging that highlight the VMware vSphere 4 advantages against our main server competitors. Competitors covered include: Microsoft Hyper-V R2 and Hyper-V Server R2; Microsoft SCVMM; Citrix XenServer 5.5; Oracle VM 2.1.5; Parallels Virtuozzo 4; Red Hat Xen and Red Hat KVM; Novell Xen; IBM z/VM; and Virtual Iron 4.5.

New - vSphere 4 Competitive Reviewer’s Guide

Intended for press reviewers and technology analysts, the vSphere Competitive Reviewer's Guide is also useful for customers wishing to conduct a detailed comparison between vSphere and other virtualization products. The document, based on the vSphere 4 Evaluator's Guide, will guide reviewers through a detailed evaluation of key vSphere features and it calls out the VMware competitive advantages for each of those features.

Take this hands-on training course and explore installation, configuration, and management of VMware vSphere 4, which consists of VMware ESXi/ESX and VMware vCenter Server. Upon completion, you can take the examination to become a VMware Certified Professional.

This course is available in over 50 countries worldwide and online!

Login to Partner Central and get the details.

Don’t miss VMworld 2009, the leading virtualization event worldwide. Register before July 24 and be entered into a drawing to get your registration fees fully reimbursed - a $1,745 value!

VMworld 2009 will feature over 20 sessions focusing on helping partners build expertise and accelerate sales of VMware View and VMware vSphere 4. Gain insights to effectively identify customer needs and to successfully sell and deploy VMware solutions.

Register today and find out what's in store

In light of news reports that Oracle will discontinue development of existing Virtual Iron products, VMware is offering companies a cost-effective way to migrate to VMware vSphere 4.

Target Virtual Iron customers with the new promo and find out how to migrate Virtual Iron machines to VMware vSphere 4.

The all-new Partner Central features an updated Competitive Selling section that includes several new powerful competitive sales tools that will help you close more business with VMware. We will be releasing several updates that will be available soon, so stay tuned.

Check out the new competitive selling tools

The all-new Partner Central debuted this week with an easy-to-use interface and updated training courses, marketing campaigns, services IP content, competitive selling tools, and much more.

With the launch of the new Partner Central and the VMware Partner Network, join us for a vmLIVE session to learn the basics on how to navigate the portal, register deals, and access leads. Get the overview on the new VMware Partner Network and see how this program distinguishes and rewards you for your expertise around VMware solutions and how earning competencies can help you accelerate your virtualization business.

Wednesday, July 15: 8:30 AM Pacific Time / 11:30 AM Eastern Time / 5:30 PM Central European Time

Register now for the vmLIVE or visit the all-new Partner Central for more details.

Encourage your customers* to create a 1-3 minute video that shows why business-critical applications run best on VMware vSphere™ 4 and how your organization contributes to their success! VMware® will give $5,000 cash to the winning video and $1,000 cash to four additional second place videos. Plus, we’ll display the top five videos at VMworld® 2009 in San Francisco on August 31 - September 3 to determine the attendee favorite for another $1,000 cash prize. To top it all off, we’re giving one free limited edition “Run It with VMware” t-shirt to every qualifying video submission!**

Send your customers to www.vmware.com/go/runitwithvmware for all the details.

(*) U.S. Residents Only. See Terms and Conditions for details
(**) To qualify, participants must follow all contest rules, including video criteria and the submission process.

Expand your customers' virtualization footprint with new and updated VMware vCenter management products: VMware vCenter Lab Manager 4, VMware vCenter AppSpeed, and VMware vCenter Chargeback: 
 
Lab Manager 4.0 automates management of internal cloud resources for dev/test, providing self-service access for end users while ensuring IT control

vCenter AppSpeed enables virtual infrastructure administrators to ensure performance levels for virtualized multi-tier applications.

vCenter Chargeback provides cost modeling, accounting, and reporting/billing for virtual resources. 

Read the press release or visit the all-new Partner Central for more details.

Partner Central will be unavailable from 3:00 PM PDT Friday, July 10 until 8:00 AM Monday, July 13 as we migrate to a new platform. All users will receive new login credentials - look for a separate email notification on Monday, July 13 with your new user name and password.

The all-new Partner Central is launching on July 13. Your new new logins and passwords will be emailed on July 13 by 8am in your time zone. The email will be from "vmwarepasswords@vmware.com" so be sure to check your inbox on Monday morning.

As part of the transition process, the following activities will be unavailable until July 13:

- Cross-enrollment program applications
- Company and user profile updates
- Add Location form
- Add Users via Users tab 

Visit www.vmware.com/partnercentral for the latest info.