VMware Partner Exchange, also known as PEX was the big news last week, with more than 4,300 partners, employees, press, and industry analysts (including representatives from CRN, eWEEK, Gartner, IDC and TechTarget) getting together in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. Over the course of four days, attendees had access to over 190 unique breakout sessions, 20+ hands-on labs, and 91 sponsors and exhibitors who were present in the Solutions Exchange. As usual, there were plentiful networking opportunities at lunches, dinners, receptions, and other special events.
To help its partners grow and differentiate themselves, VMware has developed a number of special programs, incentives, and enablement tools which were introduced at PEX:
- Three new solution competencies: Virtualization of Business Critical Applications (VBCA, available today), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS, available today), Management (available later in Q1)
- New specialization for the SMB vertical
- Lucrative advantage+ and Solution Rewards optimizations
- Launch of the VMware Solution Exchange
- New Consulting and Integration Partner Program (CIPP)
Also last week, we’ve made available vCloud Director client for iPad. Designed for the consumer of a vCloud Director environment, this app provides the ability to manage your cloud with your fingertips.
Some key features of the app include:
- Ability to create new vApps
- Through the use of a third party app, you can access the VMs within your vApp via RDP, VNC, or SSH. Note: The supported 3rd party apps are:
- For SSH: iSSH and Remoter
- For RDP: Jump Desktop and Remoter
- For VNC: Mocha VNC, Screens, and Remoter
- It also provides the ability to perform common tasks, such as powering on a VM.
- And of course all settings can be visualized and modified
You can read the details and watch a demonstration video on the vSpere blog at blogs.vmware.com/vsphere
And exactly week ago, at PEX we have opened the vExpert applications for the year 2012. As you know, vExpert titles are given out each year to the most excellent of VMware enthusiasts out there, those who go above and beyond their daily jobs to share their experience and expertise with others. This frequently takes the form of blogs and books, public speaking, podcasts, and video, help on VMTN and other forums, as well as creation of free tools for the community to use.
This year we’ve had a change in the program, to allow people who do their work away from the limelight of the internet, such as our customers and partners, to be able to apply as well. So this year applicants have the choice of applying in one of three categories: Evangelist, Customer, or VPN Partner.
Because contributions of people applying in the Customer and Partner paths are frequently non-public, we require an internal reference from a VMware employee to verify just how awesome the individual’s contributions were.
You can apply yourself, or invite an awesome colleague of yours to apply, at vmware.com/go/vexpert2012
