Are you a member of the Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program?  Here is a preview of some new benefits coming your way.  Stay tuned for announcements during Tech Exchange:

   1) 30% discount on VMware SDK/ API support for vSphere *

   2) Discounted developer licenses for vSphere, vCenter and more

   3) Training credits to use towards any Partner University training course *

   4) Opportunities to participate in industry events with VMware

   5) Annual business planning session with the TAP team *

   6) Expanded support and product benefits including Zimbra licenses & SpringSource Developer support *

   * exclusive to members of the Elite (i.e. Select or Premier) and Global tiers

Do you have any feedback?  I'd like to hear from you (amc at vmware dot com).  I know you typically don't need an excuse to share your opinion, but just in case the first 10 respondents will receive a $50 promo code for cloud resources with our service provider partner, Terremark. 

See you at Tech Exchange,

Anne-Marie Clegg

For those of you who made it to the demo room today @ Tech Exchange, hopefully you took advantage of the opportunity to get a free developer t-shirt.

Also, as promised I wanted to share a few restaurant recommendations that you likely won't hear about from your hotel:

1. Aziza

• Moroccan cuisine

• 5800 Geary blvd @ 22nd ave. Aziza's is located on the western side of San Francisco (expect a $20 cab fare to get there)
• My favorite restaurant in San Francisco!  A little pricey so make sure your wallet or corporate account is up for it, but absolutely worth it

2. Mezes

• Authentic Greek cuisine… growing up with my mother's home cooked Greek food I can verify that this is the real deal!

• 2373 Chestnut St

• Located in the Marina district, there are plenty of bars and shops in the area to visit as well

3. Saha

• Arabic fusion
  cuisine. I highly recommend the Kofta dish.
  

• 1075 Sutter Street (inside the Hotel
  Carlton), cross street is
  Larkin… a short cab ride from VMworld
  

4.  Godzilla Sushi

• One of my favorite sushi restaurants in San Francisco.  The venue is cozy (aka small) so not a great choice for large groups but works for parties of 5 or less

• Located in lower Pacific Heights, 1800 Divisadero Street (between Bush St & Pine St)
  

I look forward to seeing everyone at Developer Day/ Technology Exchange on August 31st.  For those of you who are sticking around for VMworld, be sure to visit the TAP booth which will be located on the show floor in the VMworld section.  Just look out for signs for the VMware Partner Network or TAP.

TAP stands for Technology Alliance Partner Program, which is a partner program for software or hardware vendors that want to certify or validate their product/s with VMware as well as take advantage of co-marketing opportunities.  On the co-marketing front, we launched the VMware Ready program last year – giving partners with qualifying products the opportunity to use the VMware Ready logo on their product packaging and marketing materials.  The VMware Ready logo assures customers that a product has passed a set of technical criteria defined by VMware. You can get more information on VMware Ready at the TAP booth or by reviewing the FAQs.

See you August 31st!

Anne-Marie

Oh and for those attending Tech Exchange/ Developer day, insider tips on San Francisco restaurants  coming soon… stay tuned…

Anne-Marie

Hello, I wanted to take a moment to
introduce myself.  I manage the Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program; where
vendors can certify or validate their product with VMware and then take
advantage of various co-marketing activities.  I’ve been with VMware for 3 years
(to the day!) and it’s been quite a ride… started with just 50 TAP partners and we
are at over 1100 today.

I will be blogging from time to time
to share tips on how to successfully partner with VMware.  I’d also love to get
your feedback.  This all Pablo’s fault by the way.  He cornered me at the last
VMware happy hour and suggested that developers need to hear more from me.  I
took the time to listen because he offered me a free cocktail… albeit a
Mint-less Julep (the bar ran out of mint… also Pablo is from the west coast and
doesn’t know any better).  It struck me as we were talking, that not engaging
with the developer community is sort of like a Mint-less Julep… it doesn’t make
sense.  Developers are out there creating excellent solutions for our customers,
and they need to learn about partnering opportunities. So I’m here to change
that. 

To start, I wanted to let you know
that as of Monday July 13^th, TAP members will receive access to a new
and improved partner portal with great content on benefits like how to build a
solution brief with VMware, how to post an entry in the product catalog, etc. .
 If you are interested in learning more, please join our webinar later this
month where we will demo the site.  You don’t have to be a TAP member to
attend.  Details below:

Webcast: Partner
Central Overview for TAP Members

As a supplement to
the general training on how to use the new
Partner Central, the TAP team will do a quick run-through of the site,
specifically for TAP members—showing you where everything is since we've
migrated to the new system.

• Date:
  Wednesday, July 22, 2009
• Time: 9:30 am,
  Pacific Daylight Time
• Duration: 30-45
  minutes

Webex Meeting #:
924 755
132
Join Webex

Anne-Marie