Virtualization and cloud infrastructure specialist VMware announced the
release of Solution Enablement Toolkits (SETs), a suite of tools and assets
designed to enable partners to create their own packaged solutions for
repeatable and scalable value selling and delivery.
VMware is also continuing its investment in the VMware Partner Network with
the SETs, with enhancements to Partner
University, and by creating
additional training and certification options—including the VMware Certified
Advanced Professional (VCAP) level—to further strengthen the Solution
Competencies program.
Designed to empower partners to take virtualization solutions to market faster,
each SET contains a specific set of tools, templates, rich services
intellectual property (IP) and assets that partners use to create their own
productized and branded solution around VMware technology. SETs are built into
libraries that are created to align with VMware Solution Competencies:
Infrastructure Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization and Business Continuity.
SETs are available to solution providers that have completed the corresponding
VMware Solution Competencies. For a limited time, SETs are available at no
charge to solution providers that have achieved their Solution Competencies.
“As we continue to shift toward an IT-as-a-service model, the mutual growth of
VMware and our partners is imperative to guiding our customers on their
virtualization journey to the cloud,” said Doug Smith, senior director of
global partner strategy and programs for VMware. “We created SETs to help our
partners accelerate the ROI for their competency training, take their solutions
to market faster and increase their strategic value with customers. The fast
uptake of Solution Competencies and SETs illustrates the value they can drive
for our solution provider community, and we will continue to invest in our
programs and the continued success of our solution providers.”
SETs provide the tools for solution providers to virtualize more tier-1
applications for their customers, thereby migrating them to advanced stages of
cloud computing (business production and IT as a service). "This approach
is the single best method to enable partners to quickly ramp their VMware
virtualization practices, from sales all the way through solutions
implementations,” said Mark Hilz, president of IT solutions provider INX. “This
has allowed our sales staff to quickly adopt the best-selling strategies while
also allowing our engineering staff to quickly implement best practices around solutions
delivery.”