VMware’s 2009 Partner is Here!

10 Reasons Why VMware Partner Exchange 2009 is a Must Attend Event!

VMware Partner Exchange 2009 will take place April 14-16 in Orlando, FL. Our event theme is The Power of Partnership. We have a lot in store to demonstrate our commitment to you and ensure you are positioned for success with VMware. Here’s why this event is not to be missed!

Hear VMware’s Virtualization Vision and Roadmap
At VMware Partner Exchange, you will have the exclusive opportunity to hear VMware executives Paul Maritz, President and CEO, Carl Eschenbach, EVP of Worldwide Field Operations, and Dr. Stephen Herrod, CTO, unveil how VMware’s industry vision and roadmap will empower your virtualization initiatives today and into the future.

Be a Virtualization Leader
Businesses are reconsidering IT budgets and refocusing spending toward virtualization as both a strategic investment and a proven way to reduce costs. As the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, VMware is uniquely positioned to enable our partners to address their customers’ virtualization needs. At VMware Partner Exchange, you will get a first-hand preview of VMware’s next-generation products and programs that will accelerate your success in 2009.

Stay Ahead of Your Competition
Leverage our sales tools and marketing program to build your virtualization business and competitively position your company for high quality lead generation. Remember, if you don’t, your competitors will! Learn best practices for acquiring new customers and expanding your current virtualization business initiatives.

Accelerate Your Expertise
Our conference curriculum is designed to meet your needs and ensure you receive a comprehensive education on selling and deploying VMware’s next-generation solutions. With access to more than 130 sessions with targeted content by job role and partner type, you will walk-away with proven go-to-market selling strategies for VMware solutions, key insights on sales and marketing programs, and in-depth training on VMware technology.

Learn to Cross-Sell VMware Solutions with Our Partners
Attend sessions led by VMware Alliance Affiliate partners and learn strategies for driving revenue by cross-selling VMware solutions.

Receive Hands-on Training with VMware Virtualization Experts
Develop your skills and technical expertise in interactive hands-on labs, share best practices during Birds-of-a-Feature roundtables, and meet with VMware sales and technical gurus at the Experts Bar to get your questions answered.

Build Your Partner Network
Connect with more than 1,500 partners and peers from VMware’s global partner ecosystem, including VIP Partners, Corporate Resellers, Distributors, and OEMs. Meet face-to-face, share ideas, and build better business relationships.

Experience The Power of Partnership
Our team is committed to helping you realize the incredible opportunity that exists today with virtualization. At VMware Partner Exchange, you’ll have a chance to meet our team face-to-face, including representatives from Partner Sales, Technical, Enablement and Marketing teams who will be on hand to answer your questions and listen to your feedback.

Attend Our Premier Partner Conference
Our goal is make each VMware Partner Exchange bigger, better and more valuable than the last! Feedback from our 2008 attendees showed 99% would attend the next partner conference and 90% walked away with knowledge to develop or grow VMware business opportunities. This year’s event, which will replace Partner Day at VMworld 2009, will include 3 days filled with robust content and high-level networking. We’ve also expanded to incorporate Technology Exchange, formerly a separate event for our Technology Alliance Partners.

Have Fun in the Sun
We’re hosting this year’s event in a world-class resort environment with that famous Florida sunshine. We’ll make sure you have a chance to celebrate at our Partner Appreciation Party. Come early or stay a few extra days after the conference – as a benefit to our conference attendees, we have partnered with Orlando’s Visitors Bureau to provide you with special discounts to local attractions!

Register today! Through March 2, you’ll receive a $100 early bird savings on your conference registration. Returning alumni from our 2008 event save $200. Take advantage of our Schedule Builder feature to create a personal agenda and ensure you attend the breakout sessions specific to your needs.

F5 Virtualization Planning Tool

F5 has built a VDC Maturity Model that clusters virtualization technologies into five distinct phases. This easy-to-use planning tool can help you assess where your data center is today, how your specific virtualization technologies map to this level, and you can how to move to the next level. To learn more, read the article:  Growing into the Virtual Data Center: The VDC Maturity Model.

VMware to Collaborate with HP on Comprehensive Solutions to Manage Mixed Physical and Virtual Datacenters

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, today announced its intention to expand its strategic relationship with HP to include the joint development of management software solutions that manage both physical and virtual datacenter resources. VMware intends to deliver with HP integrated physical and virtual datacenter management and automation software solutions that would standardize on various technologies within HP’s Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software. These new solutions would bring even greater management capabilities to the emerging concept of a virtual datacenter operating system (VDC-OS). Today’s announcement expands on the introduction of integrated software offerings from VMware and HP that help customers seamlessly automate the management of heterogeneous environments, announced earlier this year.

As a first step in the companies’ expanded relationship, VMware would work with HP to integrate HP BTO software with VMware vCenter Lab Manager, which provides self-service access to a library of pre-configured virtualized application environments, allowing teams of users to check out systems on-demand while IT maintains administrative control. With Lab Manager, organizations can reduce hardware costs, automate manual provisioning tasks, and accelerate application development and test cycles.

In addition, VMware and HP would jointly develop and bring to market enhanced virtualization management offerings for VMware vCenter and HP BTO customers based on the HP BTO application and infrastructure discovery technologies (HP Discovery and Dependency Mapping) to better manage their VDC-OS environments. A VDC-OS enables businesses to efficiently pool all types of hardware resources (including servers, storage and network) into an “internal enterprise cloud” that acts like a single, giant computer. A VDC-OS can also safely and automatically move workloads to external clouds when additional compute capacity is needed. A VDC-OS is highly elastic, self-managing and self-healing, enabling businesses large and small to benefit from the flexibility and efficiency of the “lights-out” datacenter.

“Through an expanded co-development relationship with HP we would further strengthen the VDC-OS platform as the best place to run all enterprise applications,” said Raghu Raghuram, vice president and general manager of VMware’s Server Business Unit. “By integrating HP BTO technologies for application management with VMware vCenter and combining it with the performance, reliability and security of the VMware platform, we would be able to offer our joint customers an ideal foundation for their next-generation datacenters.”

“Customers want to achieve better business value through the management of virtualized business applications. The solutions that we would develop through our collaboration with VMware would achieve just that,” said Robin Purohit, vice president and general manager, Software Products, HP.  “By working closely with VMware and taking our joint solutions to market, we would bring the application and infrastructure management capabilities of HP BTO software to thousands of customers who are building out VDC-OS environments on the VMware platform.”

As a result of this enhanced relationship, the two companies would jointly develop go-to-market and sales programs that would leverage and integrate both companies’ direct and channel sales forces.

Novell and Avnet Partner to Deliver Virtualization and Data Center Management Solutions

Collaboration offers sales support, training and market-leading products to solution providers and VARs, enabling them to deliver a more complete data center solution to their customers

Novell and Avnet Technology Solutions, an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) have announced a strategic relationship to provide virtualization and workload management solutions to data center customers. This relationship leverages Novell’s strength in delivering full lifecycle management capabilities for multi-platform data centers provided by the company’s PlateSpin brand of workload management products. Combined with Avnet’s leadership position as a global technology distributor and extensive partner network, Novell’s technology will allow Avnet’s partners in the U.S. and Canada to differentiate themselves in the marketplace with best-in-class solutions.

“This relationship further demonstrates Novell’s commitment to expanding relationships with solutions distributors, such as Avnet, and to driving sales by enabling solution providers and value–added resellers (VARs),” said Javier Colado, general manager of partners at Novell. “Avnet’s selection of Novell to provide workload management and virtualization solutions is a testament to the strength of our products and reputation in the marketplace. We view our distributor and VAR partners as more than vehicles to customers – we see them as a point of differentiation. The strengths our partners bring to the table will give our customers the complete package – a better overall product, service and support experience.”

Tim FitzGerald, director of the virtualization practice at Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, said, “Avnet and Novell have a strong vision for enabling high quality virtualization and data center management offerings that can be delivered by our community of value-added partners. By working with Novell, Avnet will be able to supply its partners with a comprehensive portfolio of products that delivers complete workload lifecycle management and virtualization across physical and virtual infrastructures.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Avnet will sell PlateSpin® workload management products including PlateSpin Recon, PlateSpin Migrate, PlateSpin Protect and PlateSpin Orchestrate to its community of partners. Both companies will also work together to provide world-class training and sales support for solution providers and value-added resellers. As a result, customers will have access to a greater number of expert solution providers and VARs, resulting in a faster time-to-value and return on investment for their virtualization and data center initiatives.

Deploying Virtual Desktops in 60 Minutes or Less:

Pano Logic will host a webinar to give a tour of the Pano Virtual Desktop Solution. whether you are familiar with Pano Logic or just curious about virtual desktop computing, register now to get a guided tour with time for Q&A.

Thursday December 18

8 AM or 1 PM

Pacific

>Register Here