VMworld 2010 Partner keynote

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For Partners, VMworld Europe 2010, started today with the keynote session.

Maurizio Carli opened the keynote session welcoming all VMware Partners.

VMworld Europe 2010 in Copenhagen will host more than 6000 attendees in the coming four days, 1500 of which are VMware Partners.

Last year VMware has achieved  a growth of 41% in these difficult times. Worldwide 85% of this business goes through VMware Partners, in EmaMEA even 95% goes through VMware Partners.

Next up was VMware CEO, Paul Maritz.

Paul foresees fundamental change in the nearby furture which is not possible with old technology. VMware leadership is fundamental in this change. During this change, virtualization allows customers to do more with less operating expenses and move to the cloud.

According to Paul, cloud computing is an approach to computing and does not mean that it all happens in remote data centers. VMware continues to focus on their bedrock and expands and adds layers to that foundation.

New IT infrastructures are driven by operational value, not by capital value. The new layers VMware has introduced regarding security, management and cloud management solutions.

Next on stage is Carl Eschenbach, Executive VP, Global Field Operations, VMware

Carl speaks about what to expect. The theme is Virtual Roads, Actual clouds. With regards to cloud computing, it is not the question if customers are going to use cloud computing, the question is when. The industry is changing fast and these kind of transformations only happens once every 10 to 15 years. Profit from it!

Cloud computing is very disruptive to the business models. According to Carl, VMware products help you to make the change.

VMware invested a lot of time and money in technology with  vSphere 4.1, View 4.5, ThinApp 4.6, vShield, etc. This to help customers to get ready to take on business critical tier 1 applications and moving to the cloud. Innovation is what drives VMware

Besides technology VMware also invested in Partner Central 2.0 with a new Partner University which is available in nine different languages. This to educate VMware Partners to help customers achieve their business goals.

This shows in the VMware results in 2010. In Q1 2010 VMware realized  $634M in sales which is a growth of 35% Yr/Yr. In Q2 2010 this even increased to $674M which is a 48% growth Yr/Yr.

Growth numbers like this, in a difficult economy, can only be achieved by competent Partners. Partner University numbers show that 3500 peoples attained the Partner Competencies, 2500 of which are from EMEA. Besides that VMware sees a 128% increase in VCPs and 145% in VTSPs.

Customers are going through a transformation, VMware has the products to help the customers create an IT environment to leverage their business goals. And these numbers shows that Investment in training and invest in certification pays of. Research shows that a $20K VMware license sale results in a $300K Solution sale for partner.

Carl ends his speech with a warning. Implementing this new technology means a major change, Partners should help customers to change all aspects of IT so the customer gets an IT environment with the agility to follow business their needs.

Don’t be afraid of the cloud!

Next up is Andy Hunt – Vice president EMEA Partner Organization, VMware

Andy states that we are at a tipping point, there are now more servers running in a virtual than in a physical infrastructure. Almost all businesses have gone through phase 1, IT Production which is driven by costs, getting the most out of the infrastructure.

Some businesses are already in phase 2, Business production, which is driven by quality of service through achieving unprecedented reliability.

Now business are ready for phase 3, IT as a service which is driven by choice. Evolve to IT as a service via Cloud Computing and preserve freedom of choice through open standards.

Customers need help with this and VMware Partners are there to provide the help. The new IT model is user centric, not device centric.

Vittorio Viarengo, VMware’s VP Program Management is next on stage.

Vittorio focuses on the desktop which is the main area of interaction but this is going to change. The desktop is going away and moving to the mobile devices and computing is moving to the data center.

This to deliver better experience, availability and reliability. To bring the experience we have in our private lifes to the enterprise.

There is need to modernize the desktop by securing and optimizing traditional Windows environments. VMware View 4.5 is the iPad on the virtual desktop market. It’s easy and works out of the box

Doug Smith – Vice President, Global Channel Chief, VMware

Doug gave some insight in the Solution Enablement Toolkits (SET). You can view these toolkits as a baking mix, Doug says. VMware provides 80% of the mix, all you have to do is add water and eggs to the mix to bake a perfect solution. These SET’s started earlier this year with the vSphere upgrade.

Today there are special SET’s for virtualizing Exchange, virtualizing SQL and SAP on VMware. There more coming, for example a special toolkit for the upgrade to Windows 7. The toolkits are free for partners until January 2010.

Next to the Solution Enablement Toolkits there is more good news for partners: Solution rewards. These quarterly rewards are for those partners that have accreditations for a compentency. For example, if you have the Desktop compentency you get a 10% rebate on sales. Together with the Advantage+ registration your rebate would be 10%.

VMware expectation for the next 12 months is that 50% of all SMB’s are going to virtualize.

Last on stage Carl and Maurizio with a recap of the keynote and the announcement for the VMware Partner Exchange in Orlando, Florida from February 8^th to 11^th.

All in all a great session in which VMware delivered a positive message. Although the economy is bad and business is difficult, helping customers to achieve their business goals is a great challenge and VMware has the product portfolio to achieve that.  Not by doing direct sales but by their huge VMware Partner ecosystem.

Let’s have a great show and focus on the changing future via Virtual roads into Actual clouds.