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Archive for the ‘partner’ Category

It’s not quite VMworld, but if you work for a VMware partner in North America chances are good your are going to Las Vegas next week for VMware Partner Exchange 2010 (PEX2010) at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. I’m sure there are more than a few that are traveling from overseas to attend as well. I’m headed out this Saturday, and a full week of PEX2010 starts for me early Sunday morning.

Follow the event posts here on VM /ETC or catch my "micro blogging" on Twitter (@rbrambley). Be sure to watch the hash tag #vmwarepex as well as the event’s twitter account @vmwarepex2010 in this Tweetgrid. Partner Exchange is always limited in what information can be made public, but there is always something interesting being talked about via social networking during the event.

If you are going to be there let me know. Here’s a quick list of what I know I will be doing next week. Maybe our paths will cross?!

If my tweets start to seem a little strange Sunday afternoon there’s nothing wrong. Check the end of this post to understand why.

Read the rest of this entry »

The combination of the excitement surrounding the vSphere Launch event and the reality of getting back to business after being out of town kept me from posting the various pictures I took during the VMware Partner Exchange 2009 conference (PE09) in Orlando, FL. Most of the photos were already tweeted as Twitpics during the event, but I’ve finally found some time to share what I’ve got as one collection.

I put together this grid collage from the photos taken with my Blackberry Curve. The photography is not too good, but the memories are great!

Click the collage for a larger view.
Doug Hazelman of Veeam made a quick video of his trip to Orlando for PE09 and posted it on his The Virtual Traveller blog. At the end is some brief footage Read the rest of this entry »

For some great additional coverage of VMware Partner Exchange 2009 (PE09) check out fellow vExpert Brian Knudtson’s knudt blog. He has been posting a day by day summary of his PE09 experience. I first met Brian on Monday during the VMware Partner Technical Advisory Board (PTAB) and have since had the pleasure of bumping in to him during the conference sessions and at a few tweetups. BTW, you can also follow Brian on Twitter.

Here is a listing of Brian’s posts on PE09 so far, a few quotes, and some of my own comments. Read the rest of this entry »

Although I am at Partner Exchange 2009 (PE09) in Orlando, FL this week, most of the conference content is VMware partner specific or still restricted under non disclosure agreement (NDA). So, I have not put much of an effort in posting. This will change soon, however!

In the meantime, here are some summary links and some quick thoughts about what has been discussed publicly so far at the conference.

Dave Lawrence has summarized the first 2 Keynote/General Sessions on his VMguy Blog:

• First day of keynotes at Partner Exchange
• Day 2 Keynotes at Partner Exchange

Seemingly related to the PE09 Keynotes but not confirmed (by VMware or myself), Read the rest of this entry »

I posted a Capacity Planner FAQ document last week. The purpose of that post was to offer technical, sales, and security answers to commonly asked questions about the Capacity Planner product. I quickly received a comment asking “what about the free licenses?” I thought what a great topic for another Capacity Planner post, but it really wasn’t relevant to content about the tool itself. Following up on that thought, this post dives into the use of the product by an authorized VMware Partner to deliver either a pre sales estimate or a professional services project. At the end of this post is a high level description of a few common Capacity Planner services projects and the deliverables associated with each service.

First things first. Yes, now VMware is providing free licenses for Capacity Planner to qualified Partners. Virtualization.info reported this announcement back in June, and as Alessandro points out.

“Partners will not be required to buy any license anymore (even if they will still have to attend a classroom course that doesn’t come cheap). They will just have to login on the online portal, create a new profile and start monitoring the customer’s infrastructure. The data will stay online for six months and then will be archived.”

Depending on the relationship between VMware, the partner, and the customer, free licenses were not uncommon before either. Either way, I want to emphasize there is an initial investment by the Partner both financially and intellectually. To get the free licenses Partners must join the Partner program, certify VCPs, and attend the Capacity Planner classes and the Virtualization Assessment boot camp.

What does this mean to VMware’s customers new and old? Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to share some of my photos from my week in San Diego at VMware Partner Exchange 2008. I have some panoramic shots of San Diego by night and day, a shot from the bay of the Sheraton Hotel and Marina, as well as photos from the party at the Wavehouse. I took some time after the conference ended Thursday afternoon to take a harbor cruise. The San Diego Harbor Excursion offers 1 hour tours of both the North and South Bay, and luckily I had time to take the full tour.

I used Google’s Picasa to create a quick collage of some of my favorite shots of the week.

This post also has a short video of the surfers performing for us in the Bruticus Maximus wave machine at the event party. Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »

I am headed to San Diego today for VMware Partner Exchange 2008. It should be another great week of learning and networking. I am looking forward most to the hands on labs for Site Recovery Manager, ESXi, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, and Lab Manager. There is also separate technical solution tracks for beginner, intermediate, and advanced breakout sessions. The exhibit pavillion, called the VMware Experience, sounds interesting too. Quoting the event website: Read the rest of this entry »