VMware 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
• Expanded education, training and certification:
• New marketing programs and tools

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.
• 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/.