VMware Intros New VAR Toolkits For Quick Deployments
VMware's toolkits include the sales, methodology, lab, and services tools needed to take care of the basics related to the installation, leaving the rest to the partner who can add its own services, said Doug Smith, senior director of global partner strategy and programs for the company.
"We think of it as a cake mix, where we have done 80 percent to 90 percent of the IP (intellectual property)," Smith said. "Solution providers add the final 10 percent to 20 percent. They have different customers, different go-to-market strategies, and will want to do that part themselves."
VMware is starting out with seven toolkits, including vSphere Jumpstart, which helps partners who have not deployed the technology in the past to get started from the assessment stage.
Other toolkits now available address how to do Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, and SAP in VMware virtualized environments; how to do desktop virtualization assessments; how to do a pilot VMware View deployment managing virtual desktops; and how to get started with VMware's Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for business continuity.
VMware will introduce the new toolkits for partners in the first quarter of 2011, Smith said. They are expected to include toolkits for vSphere planning and design, virtualization assessments, Thin App planning and design, Windows 7 upgrades with VMware View, and SRM planning and design for business continuity.
The toolkits will be available at no charge through January to partners who have earned their competencies, Smith said. After then, partners will need to pay a yearly subscription fee of $495 per year per toolkit.
"We will update the toolkits as our products are updated and enhanced," he said. "With the amount of IP we include, we think that's a reasonable charge. And the fees are invested back into developing the toolkits."