VMware Pumps Up Its Partners, Including Google

This week in San Francisco the VMware Partner Exchange 2014 brought out thousands to network, learn about best practices and new VMware (VMW) solutions - and to "master the new reality" of IT. The event conversation can be followed on Twitter hashtag #VMwarePEX.

Beginning in May, VMware is allowing partners to join the network without identifying a specific program that they wish to join, and the company is adding an Enrolled tier for new partners to join and be properly trained. VMware is also launching the Elite Partner Initiative, which will provide a unique introductory market opportunity for qualified VMware partners capable of leading early adoption and investment in the newest VMware technologies and markets. The company will also offer a new Cloud Provider Solution Competency and VMware vCloud Hybrid Service SolutionCompetency.

"The technologies we are bringing to market with our partners are driving the software-defined enterprise, built on the pillars of the software-defined data center, hybrid cloud, management and end-user computing solutions," said Dave O'Callaghan, senior vice president, Global Partner Organization, VMware. "VMware Partner Exchange will empower partners with actionable, real-world insights, strategies, and tools to deliver business value and gain a competitive advantage, as together we 'master the new reality' of IT."

Broad support for Virtual SAN

At the event, new VMware CTO Ben Fathi announced that Virtual SAN (VSAN) will be certified with hardware servers and devices from Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fusion-io, HGST, a Western Digital, HP, IBM, Intel, LSI, Samsung Electronics, SanDisk and Seagate at general availability. Unveiled at VMworld last August, VSAN pools hardware resources provided by industry-standard x86 servers with internal magnetic disks and server-side flash to produce fast and resilient shared storage for virtual machines. As a stand alone product, VSAN is fully integrated with the vSphere kernel, and VMware describes its architecture as "hypervisor converged".At general availability, it is expected that more than 150 components as well as 10 Ready Nodes will be certified with VMware Virtual SAN. The product is expected to become generally available in the first quarter of 2014.

"VMware Virtual SAN has received an enthusiastic response from the VMware community during its public beta - easily one of the most successful public beta programs at VMware to date with more than 10,000 registered participants," said John Gilmartin, vice president and general manager, SDDC Suite Business Unit, VMware. "That enthusiasm extends to the broad support from our hardware and storage partner ecosystem. Their commitment to certifying their hardware and storage devices with VMware Virtual SAN will offer our joint customers extensive choice and flexibility for jump-starting their software-defined storage initiatives."

VMware and Google collaborate for Windows Access on Chromebooks

VMware and Google (GOOG) announced a collaboration to modernize corporate desktops for the Mobile Cloud Era by providing businesses with secure, cloud access to Windows applications, data and Desktops on Google Chromebooks. This expanded relationship between Google and VMware enables enterprise customers to achieve greater security and lower Total Cost of Ownership of Google Chromebooks along with cloud access to current and legacy applications, delivered on the Desktop as a Service (DaaS) platform from VMware.

"Google Chromebooks can save businesses about $5,000 per computer when compared to traditional PCs," said Amit Singh, President of Google Enterprise. "Chromebooks are designed for the way people use computers today and are a secure, easy and cost-effective solution to help organizations embrace a new way of doing business. Through our partnership with VMware, businesses can now capitalize on these advantages with access to legacy applications, data and desktops they need to keep employees productive."

The joint solution is expected to be delivered as a fully managed, subscription DaaS offering by VMware and other vCloud Service Provider Partners, in the cloud or within hybrid deployments. Users will be able to access their Windows applications, data and desktops using VMware's Blast HTML5 technology from a Web-based application catalog on their Chromebook. In addition, VMware Horizon DaaS will provide enterprises with a choice between a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or Remote Desktop Services (RDS) connection.

"VMware's End-User Computing mission is to radically simplify IT and enable customers to run any application, anywhere, any place, and any time, so they can work at the speed of life," said Sanjay Poonen, executive vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. "We are pleased to expand our partnership with Google and offer customers added choice for their corporate desktop environments with two of the technology industry's strongest brands behind them. VMware DaaS and desktop virtualization will enable Windows-based applications and desktops to run on Google Chromebooks, delivering on the promise of the Mobile-Cloud Era without compromise."