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Post Partner Exchange 2015 Wrap-Up

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Partner Exchange 2015 has come and gone, but not without making it the most successful partner event to date. We hope you enjoyed the increased high-touch opportunities, enabling you to interact with VMware executives, and the tailored content necessary to accelerate your business.

With unique Hands-on Labs, Boot Camps, 170+ Breakout Sessions, General Sessions and Route-to-Market Keynotes, Partner Exchange was the place to interact with your peers, hear about the latest product launches and gain insights on VMware solutions and partner technologies.

To further your Partner Exchange education, we have created a page within Partner Central to connect you to key resources, presentations and relevant content that was shared, Please log in using your Partner Central ID and password and you will be directed to all of the Partner Exchange assets. Make the most of your Partner Exchange experience by accessing these resources to take your business to the forefront of IT information.

You can also continue the conversation by joining Partner Link. There you can find our Partner Exchange group and other groups of interest categorized by region, program, product or event such as VMworld 2015.

As President and COO, Carl Eschenbach, mentioned in the Day 1 General Session, next year Partner Exchange will shift to better cater to both a business and technical partner audiences. For our technical attendees, you will now be able to access all the education, networking, enablement opportunities at VMworld US and Europe. In the Spring of 2016, we will offer a more business-focused summit for our business partner audience. You can pre-register for VMworld 2015 and keep up to date on all the offerings this year has to offer.

The VMware Partner Network Team

Your Destination for Partner Marketing Success

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Last year we invested time and resources into gathering feedback from partners worldwide to understand how to better address your needs.

A few areas of improvement were highlighted to us:

  • Increased diversification through additional campaigns flexibility and customization options.
  • Ability to download campaigns content for execution via a partners’ marketing automation platforms.
  • Focus on campaigns quality rather than quantity to help partners concentrate efforts on top priorities.

We listened

Today the VMware Partner Demand Center is the destination for Integrated Partner Marketing Campaigns. It has been designed to position you for success by providing a more flexible, holistic and differentiated approach to demand creation – resulting in higher quality leads, increased marketing pipeline to support driving accretive revenue for partners and VMware. It is easy to access and allows for a streamlined execution model:

  1. Set up your account, logo and contact information once and it will be auto populated in all cobranded demand generation assets.
  2. Upload your mailing list without any data security and privacy concerns and get access to a best-in-class lead management tool to track your results.
  3. Start email marketing and take advantage of other integrated marketing activities to support your campaign efforts.

A standard Bill of Materials and automation techniques based on VMware and industry best practices provide you with consistency, reduce the amount of complexity, and set you up for success in the global marketplace.

Get Started

  • Read the Campaign Playbook located within each campaign to learn more and select the most appropriate campaign that aligns to your business.  The playbook will help you understand key items including the market opportunity, target audience, customer pain points and how to best execute the campaign.
  • Adopt a combination of most or all of the Demand Generation assets to conduct an integrated campaign and increase your success rate
  • Combine a multi-touch email marketing with banner advertising, social media promotion and telemarketing efforts.
  • Leverage the recommended offers in your multi-touch campaign as tested and top rated by VMware campaigns marketing experience.  Start with a product snapshot through an infographic, continue with an in depth review through a whitepaper or ebook, and close the loop by providing a free hands on experience, evaluations or assessments.
  • Ensure your sales people are fully enabled and have context on the marketing campaign to understand what their customers are responding to by providing them with a campaign “sales cheat sheet”.

Partner campaigns are built to allow for differentiation, customization and flexibility of execution.

Next:

  • Select one of three messaging paths highlighting product benefits that best address your audience pain point and start to differentiate your campaign and your company in the marketplace.
  • Customize the 3-touch emails with images and colors from our library that best align to your brand and geographical market, as well as your value proposition. Your logo and contact information will auto populate.
  • Execute through the VMware Partner Demand Center platform – or download all assets source files at once for upload and execution through your marketing automation platform.

Here are the campaigns that are available today in up to 14 languages:

  • vSphere with Operations Management (2015 Power Play)
  • vCloud Air Disaster Recovery (2015 Power Play)
  • Virtual SAN (2015 Power Play)
  • Horizon 6 (2014 Power Play)
  • Horizon Air Desktops
  • Horizon Safe Passage (Citrix compete)
  • SDDC – Cloud Management

Coming soon:

  • NSX
  • Renewals

Take Action Today

Go to the Partner Demand Center today and execute at least one campaign by the end of this quarter.  Professional materials for integrated marketing campaign execution are offered to you at no cost through the VMware Partner Demand Center.

Watch the campaign promotional videos on Virtual SAN and vCloud Air Disaster Recovery as a reference and learn in only 60 seconds, how easy it is to execute campaigns and why you should go to market with these products:

Learn About the VMware Virtual SAN Campaign in 60 Seconds


Learn About the VMware vCloud Air Disaster Recovery Campaign in 60 Seconds

Stay tuned!  We will be issuing a Power of Partnership blog post each time a new campaign is published. We value your feedback! Please visit the VMware Partner Demand Center, execute a campaign, and share your experience and comments with us.  Reach us at partnernetwork@vmware.com.

The VMware Partner Network Team

EVO:RAIL is Simple, Agile and Fast – Find out if it’s Right for Your Business

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Last week at VMware’s Partner Exchange 2015, partners just like you showcased their EVO:RAIL solutions, and other were able to hear from solution experts on the latest in hyper-convergence at the VMware EVO:Zone.

If you’re customers are still laboring under the limitations and burdens of a legacy, siloed data center, there is no time to waste. To better handle today’s changing workloads and new business demands without drowning in server sprawl and administrative costs, consider moving your customers to a hyper-converged strategy ASAP with VMware EVO:RAIL.

The EVO:RAIL delivery model combines VMware compute, networking and storage resources into a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance to create a simple, easy-to-deploy, all-in-one solution. Partners work with us to offer a portfolio of self-contained, modular building blocks that excel at fast, flexible service delivery – helping you easily change workloads and accommodate new business opportunities as they emerge. They also offer greater performance and capacity—all while operating securely, efficiently and at scale.

But the real buzz is being generated by the way we utilize a converged, software-defined design to simplify virtualization – layering storage software on virtualized servers with the benefits of lower IT costs, a smaller footprint, and less energy consumption. Best of all, you can set up a virtualized environment in just 15 minutes.

EVO:RAIL is a great fit for many different scenarios. Of course, every business can benefit from a consolidated footprint with built-in enterprise-grade features, performance and resiliency. But the simplicity and flexibility of the system means that mid-sized businesses, ROBOs and LOBs can deploy and manage these turnkey systems and enjoy all the benefits without specialized IT teams.

For a deeper dive, here are some EVO:RAIL partner’s solution pages to check out:

As always, leave us your comments or questions below, and be sure to explore this simple, easy to deploy, all-in-one solution.

The VMware Partner Network Team

Daring to Thrive & Succeeding—Day 3 of Partner Exchange 2015

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The last day of Partner Exchange 2015 is sadly upon us, but what a fantastic event it has been. We Dared You to Thrive as we unveiled some new launches, acquisitions and partnerships, and thrive you did.

Last night’s Partner Appreciation party was packed with individuals from around the globe, all working towards a common goal. What a great site it was to see VMware partners networking, interacting and of course, playing a little pool.

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Today we are excited to announce that VMware vCloud Government Service provided by Carpathia has achieved the Provisional Authority to Operate (ATO) through the U.S. Government’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).

FedRAMP ATO is mandatory for any cloud service provider serving the Federal government, and VMware’s offering is now generally available to U.S. government and defense organizations. VMware vCloud Government Service –an infrastructure-as-a-service hybrid cloud –is based on the award-winning VMware vSphere platform used by all cabinet level agencies, all military services, the Department of Defense and the Judicial and Legislative branches of government.

Hands-on-Labs, Boot Camps, Certifications & Break-Out Sessions 

Be sure to take advantage of the VMware Hands-on-Labs, Boot Camps and Certifications taking place at the 2nd level of Moscone West from 9am- 2pm. You may even get some free swag! Attend the Break-Out Sessions today from 9:00am-12:30pm at the 3rd floor of Moscone West.

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We hope your last day at Partner Exchange 2015 is both enjoyable and beneficial. From all of us at VMware Partner Network, thank you for making this event a huge success, we could not have done it without you!

Until Next Year,

The VMware Partner Network Team

The Journey to the Cloud- Day 2 of Partner Exchange 2015

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Screen Shot 2015-02-04 at 5.43.20 PMDay two of Partner Exchange 2015 has come and gone quicker than we could say “One Cloud, Any App”. Ben Fathi, VMware’s CTO, kicked off this morning’s General Session Keynote by discussing “Technology Direction: Disruptions and Opportunities”. He jumped right in to some of today’s industry trends to lay the groundwork for what IT is looking for.

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Control, Compliance, Security, Cost Savings and Agility make up this Mobile Cloud Architecture. He then touched on whatLines of Business want—to get products out as fast as possible, and what users want—to run applications anywhere and on any device. In addressing these keys needs, how do you take all these applications and run them and protect them on a unified platform?

Introducing the Journey to the Cloud 

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On Monday, February 2nd, VMware announced the industry’s first unified platform of virtualized compute, networking and storage for the hybrid cloud.  Defined in software, VMware’s platform will enable customers to create one consistent environment across the private and public cloud to run, protect and manage any cloud-native or traditional application. The platform will also offer customers openness and choice in how to build and manage their applications and cloud environments based on their specific needs.

Another exciting moment was when Chris Wolf, VMware’s CTO of the Americas, Kit Colbert, VMware’s VP & CTO of Cloud-Native Apps, and Joe Baguley, VMware’s CTO of EMEA joined Ben on stage for a panel discussion. Their key take-away for partners included:

1.     Don’t lose site of NSX & the new services to market

2.     Work with the CTO team more closely –VMware cannot do this alone

3.     Drive EUC Solutions

Below are Ben Fathi’s closing thoughts:

  • Open
  • Cloud First
  • Cloud Native
  • Agility
  • Simplicity

The day continued with Executive Quick Connect 1:1 meetings and a new and exciting Professional Development track to further expand your go-to-market selling strategies and offer other tips for success. Industry leaders such as Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Inc., Mike Robbins, author of “Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken”, Dr. Tom Sant from Hyde Park Partners, and Heather K. Margolis, President of Channel Maven Consulting, offered their tips and tricks on how to expand your knowledge and diversify your partner experience.

Be sure to join us tonight from 6pm-8pm PST for the Partner Appreciation Reception taking place at City View at the METREON. We look forward to seeing you at tomorrow’s Breakout Sessions!

The VMware Partner Network Team

Bridging Partnerships- Day 1 of Partner Exchange 2015

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The day has finally come where over 4,000 VMware partners and executives, in over 80 countries around the globe, gather together and Dare to Thrive in this ever growing and evolving high tech industry.

General Session Highlights

Day 1 of Partner Exchange 2015 began with a General Session keynote led by VMware President and COO, Carl Eschenbach. He touched on how important you, our partners are to VMware and drove home the point that partners are not an extension of our sales force, but instead, are our sales force. It is critical that in today’s fast paced industry we continue to “dare” one another to be disruptive.

VMware’s CEO Pat Gelsinger then took center stage and spoke about the idea of bridging two worlds—the client-server era to the mobile-cloud era in a city that is known for it’s bridges. He talked about being brave, and again, brought back the idea of Brave New IT –optimized for rapid development and delivery of all applications, for safe consumption of any device. The new model of IT is instant, fluid and secure. Next, he spoke about the ingredients for the Software-Defined Data Center. Have a look at VMware’s Architecture for IT below.

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Following Mr. Gelsinger came Bill Fathers, VMware EVP & GM of Cloud Services, Raghu Raghuram, VMware’s EVP and GM of the Software-Defined Data Center, and finally Sanjay Poonen, VMware’s EVP and GM of End-User Computing. Each gave a 5-minute elevator pitch and spoke to their line of business.

It wasn’t long before Dave O’Callaghan, VMware’s SVP, Global Channels & Alliances, and Todd Surdey, VMware’s VP of Strategic Alliances & Emerging Markets, joined Carl and took a deep dive into how VMware is evolving our Selling Motions and Targeted Selling through Power Plays.  Carl closed by telling everyone that in 2016, Partner Exchange will become a Partner Business Summit for Business Leaders.

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Getting Social

The day continued with the Solutions Exchange and partners visiting the Social Media Rally Station where they learned how to take their social and online profiles to the next level and start better engaging with their audience. If you have yet to do so, be sure to check it out tomorrow from 10am-4pm PST in the Foyer of Moscone West, Level 2.  

Launches & News

No Partner Exchange would be complete without a list of exciting launches and news. Check out the exciting Software-Defined Data Center news that came out yesterday, and learn more about the new programs & new and updated solution competencies that launched today.

Day 1 continued with VMware Boot Camps, Hands-on Labs, New Route-to-Market Keynotes, Breakout sessions and an Executive Forum and Global Awards. Congrats to our partner winners!

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This first day of Partner Exchange was nothing short of fantastic. The air was buzzing with great ideas, collaborations, and high-touch opportunities with VMware executives. We can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store.

See you at General Session keynote!

The VMware Partner Network Team

Melt Away Rigid Structures with New Software-Defined Data Center Solutions

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If there is one thing your customers have in common, it’s a liquid business. At VMware, we refer to a liquid business as an environment that is dynamic and fluid –where old, rigid structures are continuously melting away. For example being able to work without physically being at work or being able to buy your morning cup of coffee with your smart phone instead of your wallet.

So how can you best support your customers as they continue to achieve key business outcomes in this fluid world?

Today VMware announced Software-Defined Data Center solutions that are equipped with the features and capabilities to help customers thrive in a liquid environment. Watch this video for a quick look at what’s new.

If we pool together the innovative new features and capabilities we announced today with your partner expertise in architecting a one-of-a-kind solution, we have the ability to offer customers a unified platform that supports choice and secure consumption of any application, anywhere.

If you are looking to make quite a splash with your customers, you can learn more about these exciting new solutions by:

·      Visiting the Quarterly Partner Briefing Portal for exclusive partner information on these announcements.

·      Downloading the SDDC Launch Playbook – your single source for all the enablement, marketing and sales resources you need to start selling.

·      Attending the vmLIVE sessions to take a deeper dive into the products. 

Explore Sales & Marketing resources:

·      vSphere Optimization Assessment: Show your customers the value of Operations Management in four easy steps

·      Hands-on Labs

·      VMware Partner Demand Center:Leverage free customizable marketing campaigns that drive demand for VMware solutions, generate leads, and grow your pipeline.

Ask questions:

·      Join the discussion in the Product Launch Readiness Group on Partner Link.

We look forward to a continued partnership as we make waves in this Software Defined World.

The VMware Partner Network Team

Everything You Need to Know Before You Go to Partner Exchange 2015

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We are now just days away from Partner Exchange 2015. Your bags are already packed, your registration is most definitely complete, and you are totally ready to visit to the City by the Bay. So what should you do now?

Visit our “Know Before You Go” page on the Partner Exchange website to view a few last minute tips and reminders to help make your onsite experience at Partner Exchange 2015 more valuable and enjoyable.

Here is some quick & helpful info about the event…

Wireless Access Code:

There will be complimentary wireless access available in the foyer areas and inside the meeting rooms. Wireless access is not available in the SolutionsExchange.

Login info:

SSID: PEXWireless

A Few Important Notes:

  • Breakfast will be served at both conference hotels (The Marriott Marquis Hotel and The Intercontinental Hotel) NOT AT MOSCONE WEST February 3-5 from 6:45AM-8:00AM.*
    • Lunch will be served daily at Moscone West from 11:30PM-1:00PM.
  • Dress code for the event is business casual.
  • All conference hotels are within walking distance of Moscone Convention Center. Taxis are also readily available at all hotels for transportation to the conference.
  • Please arrive to sessions early, as popular sessions can fill up quickly. Reserving your seat through Schedule Builder does not guarantee a seat for late arrivals. Sessions will be open to all attendees at five minutes before the start time. Plan accordingly.

*Breakfasts for Boot Camp attendees ONLY will be served at Moscone West from January 31-February 2

We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco next week. Dare to Thrive at Partner Exchange 2015!

 The VMware Partner Network Team

Expand Your Knowledge and Diversify Your Partner Exchange Experience with the Professional Development Track

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You already know that Partner Exchange 2015 will be more relevant than ever before. You also know that we have targeted sessions and keynotes that will specifically speak to your line of business. But did you know about our new and improved “Professional Development” track?

Not only does Partner Exchange 2015 offer the opportunity to hear from VMware business and technical experts, we’re also featuring sessions that welcome industry leaders such as Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Inc., Mike Robbins, author of “Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken”, Dr. Tom Sant from Hyde Park Partners, and other remarkable speakers. Listen as they share their go-to-market selling strategies and other tips for success.

Want to learn more about these sessions? See our full listing below and select your area of interest to view the abstracts:

Don’t miss the opportunity to expand your knowledge and diversity your Partner Exchange experience. Sign-up for these sessions today, and Dare to Thrive at Partner Exchange 2015.

See you in San Francisco!

The VMware Partner Network Team

VMware Partner Network Spotlight Series – Everything Partner Exchange 2015

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Welcome to the first installment of our new VMware Partner Network Spotlight series, where we bring you monthly video content highlighting our top partners news and information from across VMware Partner Network.

VMware Partner Exchange 2015 is less than 2 weeks away and because of this, we are excited to share some helpful resources to assist you in planning your time at the event. View this short and entertaining video to better understand the Partner Exchange 2015 agenda and how to make the most of it.

To build out your agenda, visit the Schedule Builder tool today and start planning your Partner Exchange experience.Don’t forget to include:

To sign up for these sessions and others that align to your business, please register for Partner Exchange and use your username and password to log in to Schedule Builder. From there you can select a session of your choice from the Content Catalog and click the “+” symbol to add it to your agenda. Learn more about the new Route-to-Market Keynotes and Breakout Sessions. Download the Schedule Builder Guide for more information.

You’re not going to want to miss one minute of the year’s lead virtualization and cloud-powered services event for VMware Partners.  We hope to see you there!

The VMware Partner Network Team

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