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VMware Unveils Major Program Enhancements for its Nearly 10,000 Virtualization Channel Partners

VMware Unveils Major Program Enhancements for its Nearly 10,000 Virtualization Channel Partners

Enhanced VIP Partner Program Designed to Boost Partner Growth and Profitability Through Improved Rewards, Training, Marketing and Support

PALO ALTO, Calif., February 13, 2008— VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the data center, today announced major enhancements to the VMware VIP Partner Program, which includes nearly 10,000 partners worldwide. The enhancements, effective immediately, help make it easier for partners to quickly establish or expand their virtualization practices and offer their customers increased value through VMware’s market-leading virtualization solutions. The enhancements include benefit enhancements for partners participating in the “advantage +”  program, additional training options to build their VMware virtualization expertise, and new and improved marketing tools to expand their VMware virtualization opportunities and meet the needs of customers of all sizes.

“VMware is committed to serving the needs of our tens of thousands of customers and partners with exceptional products, services and programs,” said Steve Houck, vice president, worldwide channels at VMware. “We have refreshed our partner program to make it easier to do business with us, provide incentives that make partnering with VMware more rewarding , and offer enablement tools and training to make our relationship more supportive.  As more and more organizations deploy VMware to virtualize their data centers, we are providing our partners with the programs they need to help develop a strong and viable VMware virtualization business that adds value, accelerates their overall performance and helps them maintain a thriving practice.”

The improved benefits now available to all new and current members of the VMware VIP Partner Program include:

  • Enhanced benefits with advantage + incentive program: All VMware VIP partners can now participate in the advantage + incentive program at different levels. The advantage + program delivers best-in-class margin enhancements to VMware VIP partners and is designed to help reward the partner’s investments when proactively selling VMware products and solutions. The VMware VIP Partner Program rewards VMware VIP partners with a combined up-front discount and back-end rebate program when selling into new accounts, registering new opportunities and influencing deals that might be closed by someone else.
  • Expanded education, training and certification: VMware is introducing a complete virtualization training roadmap, PartnerPath, which includes a new free-of-charge online course called VMware Technical Sales Professional (VTSP) training. This course complements the free-of-charge VMware Sales Professional (VSP) training introduced in 2007.  The new virtualization training framework includes a new Essential Training series to help partners get the most value from the VMware VIP Partner Program, a Business Builder series that provides a new set of enablement programs for building a successful VMware virtualization practice, and an online Partner Resource Library. The new training framework also delivers sales and technical certification courses, as well as training designed specifically for partner sales professionals and technical professionals. The VMware training roadmap enables partners to progress from virtualization novice to expert. 
  • New marketing programs and tools:New and enhanced tools include an online e-marketing tool, template-based demand generation campaigns, content syndication, RSS feeds and enhancements to Partner Central, the VMware partner portal. These programs and tools help partners quickly build and maintain a successful virtualization practice and leverage the large, rapidly growing virtualization market opportunity. The VMware VIP Partner Program will also offer key sales and marketing tools in localized versions to better serve partner needs in a broader selection of geographies.

VMware VIP partners can take advantage of the growing opportunity in virtualization solutions by investing in the industry’s most reliable, feature-rich and interoperable virtualization platform used by more than 100,000 VMware customers. The VIP Partner Program enables partners to help their customers gain significant business benefits from VMware virtualization, including reduced capital and operating expenses, assured business continuity, strengthened security, and a “greener” carbon footprint through reduced power and cooling requirements.

The VMware VIP Partner Program is part of the larger VMware partner ecosystem that includes VMware Authorized Consultants (VACs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), storage partners, vendors that focus on the public sector, and other members of the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program that span the hardware, server, software and storage industries.. The VMware VIP Partner Program comprises four tiers to address the unique needs of each partner’s customer base:

  • Premier — Designed for VMware’s highest performing partners. Premier partners receive the highest level of enablement, support and reward benefits in return for the strategic resource investments they have made in their virtualization practice as well as their sales and support of VMware solutions. Premier partners have dedicated VMware account managers assigned to them as well as VMware marketing resources to do joint business and marketing planning. With the enhanced VMware VIP Partner Program, Premier partners will benefit from the new structure of the advantage+ program, which now splits the reward into an up-front discount and a back-end rebate.
  • Enterprise — Designed for partners intending to leverage VMware virtualization software to offer customers complete IT solutions that could include servers, storage, networking, technical service and support and other IT assets. Enterprise partners receive additional benefits that enable, support and reward them for their additional commitment to building a successful VMware virtualization practice. Included with the enhanced VMware VIP Partner Program for Enterprise partners are increased benefits in the advantage+ program that include eligibility to participate in the influence + program, which rewards partners who act as a trusted adviser to their customers even when the opportunity is fulfilled by another partner.
  • Professional — The easiest and quickest way to start selling VMware virtualization solutions. Professional partners receive a variety of enablement and training options to quickly ramp their virtualization practice. With the new enhancements to the VMware VIP Partner Program, Professional partners can now participate in the advantage + incentive program, which enables them to earn an additional discount when they sell VMware solutions to a new account.
  • Global System Integrators (GSIs)—  Designed for VMware global system integrator partners who help set the strategic direction and enable the marketing and sale of VMware products to for the largest organizations in the world. VMware enables and rewards system integrators for their strong commitment and investments in their virtualization practice and their extensive sales and support of VMware products.

To learn more about the VMware VIP Partner Program, visit www.vmware.com/partners/vip/.

About VMware, Inc.

VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the data center.  Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 100,000 customers and more than 10,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies.  VMware is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and on the web at www.vmware.com.

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