Category Archives: Sales

New Content – vSphere 6.5 Upgrade/Migration & VMware Posters Links!

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New Content – vSphere 6.5

Upgrade/Migration & VMware Posters Links!

 

 

Many VMware customers tend to wait to upgrade to the next version for several reasons. Some of these are no time to do the upgrade, scared of issues that may arise during the upgrade process especially from vSphere 5.x versions, or wanting to wait until the first update is out so that all the fixes have been addressed. These are all valid concerns in which I can appreciate due to my operation experience and background supporting vSphere environments!

On July 21, 2017, VMware released vSphere 6.5 Update 1 which has many enhancements. Once of the enhancements that most are excited about is the fact that the new HTML5-based vSphere Web Client is now at approximately 90% feature parity to the old Java-based vSphere Web Client which was know for being slow and clunky. Hopefully, by the next update of vSphere, the HTML5 client will be at full feature parity. At which time, VMware will retire the old Java-based client.

The HTML5 client enhancements are just one of numerous reasons why you should consider updating to vSphere 6.5. Another primary reason is that there are many new featured within the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) like embedded Backup/Restore Tool, vSphere Update Manager is embedded, and the new vCenter Server Appliance High Availability (HA) configuration option. So there are some great enhancements that should encourage you to upgrade to the latest version of vSphere and vCenter server!

VMware has created a Migration Assistance Tool to help migrate your vSphere 5.5/6.x environments to the new vSphere 6.5. Even if you are currently running a Windows based version of vCenter in the older version, the tool can migrate the vCenter database, performance data and metrics, etc. to the new vCenter Server Appliance 6.5. There are several supported migration options based on your vCenter server, Single-Sign-On (SSO), or Platform Service Controller (PSC) architectures you may be currently running.

So take a look at my Useful Links page on this site to see the links to below resources that can help you migrate to the new vSphere 6.5!

  • Top Reasons to Upgrade to vSphere 6.5 Infographic
  • vSphere 6.5 Upgrade Considerations – Part 1
  • vSphere 6.5 Upgrade Considerations – Part 2
  • Announcing the vSphere 6.5 Topology and Upgrade Planning Tool
  • vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 Migration Walkthrough
  • VMware Doc’s – Migration Assistance Tool
  • vSphere 6.5 – Upgrade Guide
  • VMware vCenter Server Appliance Poster
  • Platform Services Controller Topology Decision Tree Poster

 

Click here to go to the Useful Links tab within my website!

vSphere 6.5 U1 Added Benefit – vCenter Foundation Supports (4) Hosts Now!

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vSphere 6.5 U1 Added Benefit – vCenter

Foundation Supports (4) Hosts Now!

VMware vCenter Server Foundation provides powerful management tools for smaller environments looking to rapidly provision, monitors, and control virtual machines. Previously, vCenter Server Foundation only support managing up to (3) hosts much like the vSphere Essentials Kits. With the release of vSphere 6.5 U1, VMware has changed the licensing to now support up to (4) hosts!

Key Features:

  • Analyze and remediate issues quickly with visibility into vSphere virtual infrastructure.
  • Deliver the security and availability of vSphere through automated proactive management features such as automated load balancing and out-of-the-box automation workflows.

Key Capabilities:

  • Management service
  • Database server
  • Inventory service
  • VMware vSphere Clients
  • VMware vCenter APIs and .NET
  • vCenter Single Sign-On

 

vRealize Log Insight 4.5 is Now Live!

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vRealize Log Insight 4.5 is Now Live!

 

On June 13th, 2017, VMware released vRealize Log Insight 4.5! vRealize Log lnsight delivers heterogeneous and highly scalable log management with intuitive, actionable dashboards, sophisticated analytics and broad third-party extensibility. It provides deep operational visibility and faster troubleshooting across physical, virtual and cloud environments. Below, you can fins a list of what’s new in this release of vRealize Log Insight 4.5!

Whats New?
This release of VMware vRealize Log Insight delivers product improvements and updates to the previous release, including these features:

Server Features

  • Added API to query alert execution and notification history
  • Added ability to specify basic authentication for webhooks
  • New product configuration APIs added
  • The source field is maintained when forwarding from vRealize Log Insight forwarder to a vRealize Log Insight server
  • Hosts on the /admin/hosts page can now be exported
  • Support for external load balancers has been deprecated
  • VMware Identity Manager (vIDM) is recommended for vRealize Log Insight. Native AD support is now deprecated. See the following Knowledge Base article for migration information: https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2148976

General User Interface Items

  • Dashboard legend mouse-over in one widget now highlights corresponding chart items across widgets
  • Added ability to show a given time across all dashboard chart widgets simultaneously
  • Separate options are available for descriptions and recommendations for user alerts.
  • User alert history for aggregation queries now includes count

Agent Items

  • Added ability to send unaltered raw syslog to destination server
  • Added ability for agent syslog parser to parse structured data (SD), PRI, PROCID, and MSGID syslog fields
  • Added auto-update checkbox option on MSI user interface
  • Added support for sending logs to multiple destinations
  • Added directory wildcard support
  • Added support for Photon OS
  • Support for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS has been deprecated

Content Packs

  • Updated General and vSphere content packs
  • VSAN and vROps content packs included out of the box

 

vRealize Operations Manager 6.6 Now Live!

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vRealize Operations Manager 6.6 Now Live!

 

On June 13th, 2017, VMware released its updated vRealize Operation Manager 6.6 solution! VMware vRealize Operations integrated with vRealize Log Insight and vRealize Business for Cloud helps plan, manage and scale SDDC and multi-cloud environments with unified monitoring, automated performance management, cloud planning and capacity optimization. Check out the below list of enhancements that have been made to the vRealize Operations Manager solution!

Whats New?

vRealize Operations Manager 6.6 focuses on enhancing product usability, accelerating time to value and improving troubleshooting capabilities.

  • Simplified usability and faster time to value capabilities:
    • New HTML5 user interface provides an easier and consistent experience.
    • The Getting Started dashboard allows for quick navigation.
    • Persona based dashboards provides for answers in one place. Dashboards are separated into categories such as Operations, Capacity and Utilization, Performance Troubleshooting, Workload Balance, and Configuration and Compliance.
    • Out of the box integration with vSAN and vRealize Automation provides quick time to value.
  • Watch videos related to the new dashboards that are introduced with vRealize Operations Manager 6.6 here.
  • Added Native vSAN management capabilities:
    • Allows for centralized management across stretched clusters.
    • Ability for complete vSAN management, which includes administering performance, capacity, logs, and configuration and health.
  • Fully Automated Workload Balancing:
    • Ensures performance across the datacenter’s with fully automated workload balancing, across clusters and across data stores.
    • Ensures DRS Configurations and provides the option to set DRSautomation level for individual objects.
    • Predictive DRS takes action to preempt resource contention.
    • Utilizes operations analytics to optimize initial placement of workloads through vRealize Automation.
  • Watch this video for a demo about automatic workload placement.
  • Additional out-of-the-box compliance capabilities: 
    • Ability to tackle compliance problems through the new vSphere hardening dashboard
    • Extends compliance through PCI & HIPAA compliance for vSphere.
    • Ensures business configurations through new cluster, host, and VM configuration dashboards
Documentation and Links:

vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3 Now Live!

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vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3 Now Live!

 

On June 13, 2017, VMware released an updated version of its vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3 solution. VMware vRealize Business for Cloud automates cloud costing analysis, consumption metering, cloud comparison and planning, delivering the cost visibility and business insights you need to run your cloud more efficiently. Below is a summary of what’s new in this release of vRealize Business for Cloud.

Whats New?

Private Cloud

  • Partial vCenter Server support. You can select a set of virtual machines or clusters to add into vRealize Business for Cloud, instead of adding the complete vCenter Server.

Public Cloud

  • Enhancements to Azure.
    • Azure is considered as a first class citizen in vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3, which provides the detailed costing, pricing mechanism, showback information, and VM Statistics for Non-EA accounts.
    • You can now define pricing policies for Azure virtual machines that are deployed directly on Azure and are deployed by vRealize Automation.
    • vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3 can provide upfront price for Azure blueprint and if a Azure machine is deployed from vRealze Automation, vRealize Business for Cloud can compute cost-to-date.
  • Enhancements to AWS.
  • Support import from blueprint for cloud comparison.

Cloud Comparison

  • Procurement Planning support. 
  • Support for VMware Cloud on AWS. Procurement planning (What-If Analysis) in vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3 supports cost comparison with VMware Cloud on AWS and enables you to assess placement of new or existing workloads across private cloud and public clouds, including VMware Cloud on AWS.
  • Import from Blueprint in for cloud comparison.

Pricing

  • Calculate expense-to-date value for virtual machines. 
  • Calculate price of deployment constructs. 
  • Enable utilization based pricing. 
  • Configure pricing method for resources. 
  • Configure Pricing Update Strategy. 
  • Configure network pricing. 
  • Track daily change in utilization for price calculation. 
  • Compute pricing at Organization Virtual Data Center (Org VDC) level.

Licenses and Roles

  • Support multiple license keys. You can now enter multiple license keys as part of license administration.
  • Additional access for vRealize Suite Standard license key.
  • Support Business Controller Role for Standalone vRealize Business for Cloud.

Reports

  • Schedule a Report. You can now schedule and email a custom report or the out-of-the-box reports to a set of recipients on daily, weekly or monthly basis.
  • Updates to the Daily Price Report. vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3 calculates the virtual machine price accurately based on its CPU, storage and memory resource utilization or allocation and its change within a day.
  • New Reports. Additional reports are added in vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3:
    • Azure Instances
    • Azure Resources
    • Several out-of-the-box reports (that provides operational and cost visibility)
  • Enhanced Public APIs of Reports. You can now use the Public APIs to generate reports in the VMware Identity Manager integrated vRealize Business for Cloud setup.

Integration

Documentation and Links:

vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) 3.4 Now GA!!

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vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) 3.4 Now GA!!

 

On June 1st, 2017, VMware released a new version of their vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) solution, version 3.4! VMware vRealize Network Insight delivers intelligent operations for software-defined networking and security. It helps to optimize network performance and availability with visibility and analytics across virtual and physical networks. It provides planning and recommendations for implementing micro-segmentation security, plus operational views to quickly and confidently manage and scale VMware NSX deployment.

What’s New in vRealize Network Insight 3.4?

The new and enhanced features in this release are as follows:

  • AWS Public Cloud Support – vRealize Network Insight now provides visibility into native AWS constructs such as VPC, VM, Security Group, and Firewall rules. Traffic flows are also analyzed to provide security and micro-segmentation view of cloud workloads (Enterprise edition only).
  • Configurable Data Retention – vRealize Network Insight provides ability to modify the data retention periods for problem events, configuration changes, and metrics (Enterprise edition only).
  • Support for Physical Devices in Application Modeling  – vRealize Network Insight now allows the inclusion of physical servers in application tier definition and micro-segmentation planning.
  • New NSX Operation Events – Additional NSX operations alerts have been introduced in this release.
  • Customization of Alerts  – The customization is done through global macro settings as well as at individual alerts level.
  • Support of vCenter Tags and Annotations  – It is an additional way to group virtual machines into security and application groups.
  • Visibility of Physical Layer-2 Network  – From this release onwards, the layer-2 networks are visible in the VM-to-VM path dashboard.
  • Addition of Syslog Messages – vRealize Network Insight supports syslog messages for sending the events generated by the system to external log management products (including Log Insight).

For more information on vRealize Network Insight 3.4, see the below links…

 

Ready To Be A Top Gun? Top Gun SALES Tuesday’s Schedule Released For Q2!!

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Ready To Be A Top Gun?

Top Gun SALES Tuesday’s Schedule Released For Q2!!

 

Join us for Top Gun Tuesdays to receive best in class partner sales training and best practices on demand generation!

 Step 1 – REGISTER NOW at: http://www.vmware.com/go/TGT

Step 2 – Join the WEEKLY TUESDAY 20-30 Min. Webex Training Starting @8:30AM PST / 11:30AM EST

 

Training Agenda:

DATE TOPIC
6/6 Digital Business Transformation
6/13 Modernizing the Datacenter: Automate IT
6/20 Modernizing the Datacenter: Modernize Infrastructure
6/27 Integrate Public Clouds
7/4 NO SESSION: July 4th Holiday
7/11 Empower Digital Workspaces
7/18 Transform Security: Solution Selling Part 1 / Overview
7/25

Transform Security: Solution Selling Part 2 / Secure Application Infrastructure

Step 3 – Watch your VMware Sales Increase!

The Training is every Tuesday from 8:30 – 9:00 AM PST starting on June 6, 2017!

 

 

Know What Features Limitations There Are With The “Free” Version Of ESXi/vSphere!

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Know What Features Limitations There Are With The

“Free” Version Of ESXi/vSphere!

 

Have you ever wondered about the FREE version of vSphere and what limitations there are? I have created the below summary of limitations that are associated to the free version. For those using it for a home or test lab, the free version may do the trick for you. But even if using it for those situations, you still need to understand the limitations you have. One aspect to keep in mind especially is that the free version DOES NOT come with any type of technical support for it which is critical to understand!

Because of the below list of limitations and there not being any technical support for it, I highly recommend it not be used in corporate environments even in their Test/Dev labs! Instead, if you are trying to reduce the costs associated to vSphere licensing and have a limited budget, I would recommend that you look at the vSphere Essentials Kits which are very reasonably priced and offer two editions (Essentials & Essentials Plus). These offer you the ability to get support for them so if using in a production environment, you can be assured to get support from VMware to help keep your environment up and running at all times!

Essentials Kit – Edition Comparisons:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Essentials Kits:  

FREE vSphere – Limitations Summary:

  • No vMotion
  • No Fault Tolerance (FT)
  • No vSAN
  • Maximum of (2) physical CPU’s allowed per host
  • No built-in monitoring
  • NO Microsoft Active Directory (AD) integration
  • CANNOT be managed by a vCenter Server

Removed Limitations in vSphere 6.x:

  • Starting in vSphere 6.x, they removed the 32GB RAM limitation, it is now unlimited physical RAM

Additional Info:

 

Missed The Latest VMware Announcements In The Past Month? Check Out This Summary!

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Missed The Latest VMware Announcements In The Past Month?

Check Out This Summary!

 

 

Have you been busy lately and haven’t keep up to date with the latest VMware announcements over the last month or two? If so, you have missed quite a bit! So I thought I would make it easy on you and pull together all the recent announcements related to product updates, acquisitions, promotions, partnerships, VMworld, Wanna Cry Ransomeware, etc. This summary has a lot of great information that you want to be aware. I highly recommend that you read through the full list of announcements to be sure you are aware of them.

One link I would like to draw your attention to specifically is under “Security” which takes you to a VMware blog about the “WannaCry Ransomeware” attack that swept the world on May 12th, 2017 in over 150+ countries worldwide. The article discusses how VMware’s NSX solution and its “Zero Trust” model could have helped those that were attacked mitigate this attack. This just proves how important it is that businesses consider using VMware’s NSX solution to help protect their environments from attacks in ways that other solutions can’t.

 

Product Announcements:

 

Acquisitions:

 

Latest Promotions/Discounts:   http://www.vmware.com/promotions.html

  • New Promotion – User Environment Manager (UEM) 9.2
  • Updated Promotion- vRealize 25% Upgrade Promotions Extended to July 29, 2017

 

Security:

  • WannaCry Ransomware attack that attacks Microsoft operating systems swept the world on May 12th in over 150+ countries. Below is VMware’s response on how the NSX Zero-Trust model could have helped mitigate this attack using NSX. This is a great opportunity for you to drive how critical it is to use NSX and where other solutions couldn’t provide the same protection that we can from these types of attacks.

 

VMware Partnerships:  

 

VMware Partner Accreditation’s:

 

VMworld 2017:

 

VMware’s Intent To Acquire Wavefront!

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VMware’s Intent To Acquire Wavefront!

 

As no surprise to me, VMware continues to look for ways to make VMware and its solutions better and keep up with the ever changing IT and business requirements of this brave new world. So VMware has announced its intent to acquire Wavefront who is a leading vendor in metric monitoring service born in the cloud.

It is clear to me that customers are responding enthusiastically to our Cross-Cloud strategy and our Cloud Management Business Unit (CMBU) team has a central role to play as we deliver a consistent operating environment across clouds. Our team is rapidly innovating for on-premises products while we also building out our Cross-Cloud management services including costing, discovery, monitoring, root cause analysis, and visualization. To accelerate our delivery for the cloud, today I’m excited to announce our intent to acquire Wavefront, the leading metrics monitoring service for companies born in the cloud era.

Wavefront already has an impressive list of customers, and their technology allows us to leapfrog into application management of next-generation modern applications. Together with vRealize Operations and vRealize Log Insight, we will now be able to analyze data and offer customers end-to-end operations management for both virtual and multi-cloud infrastructures.

Continue reading the rest of the blog announcement – Click Here!

 

Virtual Network Assessment (VNA) – Sales & Technical Overview for Partners

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Virtual Network Assessment (VNA) – Sales & Technical Overview for Partners

 

VMware Virtual Network Assessment is a free assessment that analyzes network traffic patterns within your data center. In 24 to 72 hours the assessment delivers:

  • Insights into the security risk (amount of East-West traffic) present in your network
  • A preview of actionable NSX micro-segmentation recommendations for your network
  • Opportunities to optimize network performance with NSX

Request your free Virtual Network Assessment today.

Why should I care about East-West traffic?

Traditional approaches to securing a data center are focused on building a strong perimeter to keep threats outside the network. However, little is done to protect the network once a threat is inside the network. East-West (server-to-server) traffic accounts for more than 80% of overall data center traffic, but it’s largely unprotected, leaving you at risk. Virtual Network Assessment shows what percent of your data center traffic is “East-West” and not protected by your perimeter firewall.

How do I get started with micro-segmentation?

It can be a labor-intensive process to figure out what security policies to put in place, requiring time-consuming tasks such as identifying which servers are talking to each other and what ports are open. Virtual Network Assessment gives you a preview of how to micro-segment your network and recommends firewall rules to help you get started.

Virtual Network Assessment (VNA) Video:   Click Here!

VMware’s New “Hybrid Cloud Assessment (HCA)” Tool for VMware Partners!

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VMware’s New “Hybrid Cloud Assessment (HCA)” Tool for VMware Partners!

 

In this session, I do an overview of VMware’s new Hybrid Cloud Assessment (HCA) for partners. I go through a slide presentation to go over the basics of it, then go into a demo showing the vRealize Business for Cloud interface, and finally I go through a sample report!

This assessment is extremely helpful when used in conjunction with our vSphere Optimization Assessment (VOA) to provide costing comparison for running your workloads either in your Private or in a Public Cloud. This tool will help you analyze which is the most cost effective place to run your workloads. The HCA uses vRealize Business for Cloud (vRBC) to provide the analysis and costing comparison information. In this video, I go through the vRBC interface to show you the cost comparison information along with going through a sample report from the assessment.

Hybrid Cloud Assessment Overview Video:  https://youtu.be/-6PmZiQBN0w

VMware’s Customers Strategic IT Priorities For 2017 & Digital Business Transformation

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VMware’s Customers Strategic IT Priorities For 2017 & Digital Business Transformation

 

After polling VMware’s customers, according to them, there are (4) key Strategic IT Priorities for 2017. These priorities are the key to successfully accelerating their Digital Business Transformation! For most IT environments today, moving to a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) is crucial to their IT department keeping up with their ever changing business needs of today. If IT can’t keep up with the business, then the business is at risk of falling behind and becoming irrelevant!

Strategic IT Priorities Link:  https://youtu.be/-VfdPGtaVds

 

VMware Releases (4) Updated Solutions From The vRealize Family On March 2, 2017!

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VMware Releases (4) Updated Solutions From The vRealize Family On March 2, 2017!

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On March 2nd, 2017, VMware released (4) newly updated solutions from their vRealize family of solutions! You can go to my “What’s New” tab on this site to get to the links to the release notes and documentation for all four updated solutions. Below is a bullet list of the updated solutions as well as a little bit of information on what’s new in these versions. For more detailed information, go out to the the Release Notes and Documentation links I have provided on the What’s New page.

vRealize Operations Manager 6.5:

  • Additional monitoring capabilities of larger environments with same size deployment
  • Automatic upgrade of Endpoint Operations Agents
  • Enhanced troubleshooting capabilities by correlating logs and metrics between itself and vRealize Log Insight
  • Improved collaboration by simplifying exporting and importing
  • Update processes have been optimized (40% faster)

vRealize Network Insight 3.3:

  • Enhanced event management experience
  • New set of NSX best practice and troubleshooting events
  • Deeper visibility for micro-segmentation planning
  • Compatibility with the most current NSX for vSphere (6.3) and vSphere (6.5) releases
  • Deeper security analytics which include Palo Alto Networks
  • Support for new hardware: Dell switches (S-4048, S-6010, Z9100)
  • Addressing gaps in NSX firewall support
  • Enhancements to LDAP support

vRealize Business for Cloud 7.2.1: 

  • vRBC 7.2.1 release sets a new milestone for vRBC in the endeavor of more tightly-coupled integration with vRBC being available within vROPS as one of the menu options providing operational and cost visibility to the end user in a single pane of glass!!!
  • vRBC 7.2.1 also re-brands cloud business analysis report as Hybrid Cloud Assessment.
  • With new look and appeal it includes a concise and precise summary page describing Inventory, Total cost of ownership of infrastructure, Comparison of private cloud cost with that of public cloud, a glimpse into how well the private cloud infrastructure is utilized and subsequent reclamation opportunities.
  • This release also addresses the annoying waiting time customer goes through while downloading an OVA file by reducing its size by more than 50%.

vRealize Log Insight 4.3:  

  • Server Features
    • Now supports VMware Identity Manager Single-Sign-On (vIDM SSO)
    • Host table entries now expire three months idle (the last ingestion event)
    • New upgraded APIs
  • User Interface Features
    • New alert history for individual alerts
    • New percent labels on pie charts
    • New trend-line overlay on line charts
    • Enhanced dashboard list selection
  • Agent Features
    • New FIPS-140-2 compliance
    • New silent auto-update of deployed agents
    • Enhanced timestamp parser that supports single-digit representation of days and months
    • Now supports Windows Server 2016

Looking For The Run Down on VMware’s New Horizon Cloud Offerings?

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Looking For The Run Down on VMware’s New

Horizon Cloud Offerings?

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On February 7th, 2017, VMware announced their new generally available offering “Horizon Cloud“. VMware Horizon Cloud enables the delivery of cloud-hosted or on-premises virtual desktops and apps to any device, anywhere, from a single cloud control plane. The Horizon Cloud delivers Cross-Cloud Architecture, a Clear Path to the Future, Digital Workspace Experience, and Redefines Cost and Complexity.

Below you will find a brief bullet list of information on Horizon Cloud to include top level changes compared to Horizon Air offering, purchasing process, deployment options, virtual desktop options, and considerations for each option, etc.

Horizon Cloud Public Page:  http://www.vmware.com/cloud-services/desktop.html

Top Level Changes in Horizon Cloud:

  • Horizon Air currently does not offer App Volumes, vGPU-enabled desktops, and standard pricing model
  • Current Horizon Air customers will continue to run in vCloud Air (vCA) data centers
  • SoftLayer Data Centers for Horizon Cloud Hosted
  • Desktop Disaster Recovery (DR) no longer offered with Horizon Cloud Hosted
  • Horizon Cloud Services offers App Volumes (Private Beta), vGPU-enabled desktops (Private Beta), vIDM support, and Instant Clones

Considering which offering:

  • Cloud Hosted VDI –
    • Seasonal Businesses
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Contract/Temp employees
    • No existing VDI environment or expertise
    • Wants a managed solution
    • Prefers a predictable OPEX payment model
    • Needs to scal up/down quickly
  • On-Premise VDI (Horizon 7) –
    • BYOD
    • Branch Offices
    • Security
    • Leverage existing VDI environment and expertise
    • Has strict security or compliance mandates
    • Needs onm-premises infrastructure for performance
    • Wants strict IT control, including management on-premises
    • Wants to utilize a perpetual license
  • Hybrid VDI –
    • BYOD
    • Branch Offices
    • Desktop Replacements
    • Is interested in the cloud but not ready to commit
    • Has strict security or compliance mandates
    • Needs on-premises infrastructure for performance
    • Simplicity and speed of deployment is a priority
    • Requires flexibility in desktop configurations

Comparisons in Use Case Options:

  • Kiosk Mode – Horizon 7 (On-Premise) ONLY
  • Smart Card Authentication – Horizon 7 (On-Premise) ONLY
  • RDSH Desktops & Apps – Horizon Cloud-Hosted & Horizon 7 (On-Premise)
  • NVIDIA vGPU – Horizon Cloud-Hosted (Private Beta) & Horizon 7 (On-Premise)

Purchasing Process:

  1. Step 1:  Choose User licensing
    1. Named User (NU) – (1) dedicated user per license
    2. Concurrent User (CCU) – Shared licenses (one user logged in at a time)
  2. Step 2:  Choose your Infrastructure
    1. Buy Hosted Infrastructure from VMware – Cloud-based infrastructure
    2. Buy On-Premises Infrastructure from partner – vSAN Ready Nodes or HCI Appliance
  3. Step 3:  Horizon Cloud Add-Ons
    1. Direct Connect (1/10 Gps)
    2. Additional IP Addresses
    3. 1TB Hard Disk Storage (can be used for AppStacks, Writable Volumes, UEM, and Utility server (E:/Drive)
    4. With more to come

Deployment Options:

  • Horizon Cloud with Hosted Infrastructure
    • Meant for…
      • OPEX model of utility based pricing
      • Scalability on demand
      • Minimal internal expertise required
      • Remote locations where building data center capacity is impossible
    • Offering comes with –
      • Production Support
      • Services that include Corp. Network Services setup (via VPN)
      • Administrative training
      • REST API access for programmatic pool management
      • Desktop capacity based on what you purchased
      • (10) images that are fully customizable
      • Free software endpoint clients
      • Supports 2-Factor authentication –
        • Radius
        • RSA SecurID
        • VMware Verify with vIDM
        • DOES NOT provide 2FA for Horizon Amin console
      • Utility Server for free – to use as AD/DNS/DHCP, UEM, File Server, etc. (CANT be used as application or database server)
        • Tenant accessible
        • Uses the Professional Desktop Specification (2vCPU & 4GB vRAM) – can be upgraded
        • Transactional based applications are not allowed and customers should use IaaS
        • Encrypted hard disks not allowed
    • End Customer or Service Provider Provides –
      • Desktop Management
      • Access devices (end-point)
      • Applications
      • Image creation, deployment, and maintenance
      • OS licenses
    • Benefits:
      • Cloud Simplicity –
        • Fully hosted & managed infrastructure
        • Enterprise security with dedicated infrastructure
        • (3) global locations and counting
      • Fast Time-to-Value –
        • Add capacity in days, not months
        • Configure and deploy desktops in minutes
      • Most Comprehensive DaaS Solution –
        • Persistent, Floating, Apps, and vGPU-enabled desktop options
        • Blast Extreme & PCOIP connection protocols
        • Configure your own capacity
      • Predictable Economics –
        • Consumption-based pricing let you pay “as-you-grow”
        • No capital expenditure
  • Horizon Cloud with On-Premises Infrastructure
    • Meant for…
      • Hybris OPEX/CAPEX model
      • Management infrastructure in the cloud
      • On-Premises virtual desktops & apps on (HCI) Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (e.g. VxRail)
      • Minimal internal expertise required and easily scalable
    • Benefits:
      • Bridge to the Cloud –
        • Cloud adoption at your own pace
        • Sensitive data resides on premises
        • Proximity reduces latency issues
      • Backed by ecosystem of partners –
        • Growing ecosystem of certified partners
        • Dell, EMC, QCT, Hitachi, and more
      • Radically simple on-premises VDI –
        • Easy to deploy HCI appliances
        • Automated updates & no more management infrastructure
        • Turnkey solution yields faster time-to-value
      • Linear scalability –
        • No CAPEX for service
        • Centralized cloud management
        • Right-sized HCI appliances
  • On Premises (Horizon 7):
    • Meant for…
      • CAPEX model
      • Greater flexibility in desktop options
      • Scalable to customer requirements
      • Feature rich management

On-Premises Infrastructure Options: (more certified servers coming in the future)

  • Dell –
    • R730
    • R730xd
  • EMC –
    • EMC VxRail160 Hybrid
    • EMC VxRail200 Hybrid
    • EMC VxRail160 All-Flash
    • EMC VxRail200 All-Flash
    • EMC VxRail240 All-Flash
    • EMC VxRail280 All-Flash
  • Quanta Cloud Technology (certification pending) –
    • QuantaGrid D51B-1U
    • QuantaPlex T41S-2U (4-Node)
  • Hitachi Data Systems (certification pending) –
    • V210
    • V210-F

Virtual Desktop Purchase Options:

  • STANDARD Capacity (everyday use) –
    • (1) UNIT = (1) vCPU / 2GB vRAM / 30GB Storage
    • Desktop Options –
      • Value = (1) Unit
      • Professional = (2) Units
      • Premium  = (4) units
      • Performance = 8) units
      • Hosted Apps Server = (8) units
  • WORKSTATION Capacity (High Performance/GPU-enabled) –
    • (1) UNIT = (4) vCPU / 16GB vRAM / 120GB Storage / 2GB NVIDIA Video Memory
    • Desktop Options –
      • ProfessionalWS = (1) unit
      • PremiumWS = (2) units
      • PerformanceWS = (4) units

 

 

VMware Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2016 Results

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VMware Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2016 Results

VMware Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year…

Record Annual Revenue Exceeds $7 Billion; Q4 Revenue $2.03 billion, up 9% y-y; Additional $1.2B in Stock Repurchases Authorized through February 2018

VMware Social Media Advocacy

Join Us For Top Gun SALES Tuesday’s Partner Sales Training WebEx Series!

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topgun

Are you ready to be to a VMware Top Gun?

Join us for Top Gun Tuesdays to receive best in class partner sales training and best practices on demand generation!

 

Step 1 – REGISTER NOW at: http://www.vmware.com/go/TGT

Step 2 – Join the WEEKLY TUESDAY 20-30 Min. Webex Training Starting @ 8:30AM PST / 11:30AM EST

 

Training Agenda:

DATE TOPIC
31-Jan Partner Central Tips & Tricks
7-Feb Solution Selling SDDC:  Identifying use cases & business alignment
14-Feb vRealize: Automation, Optimization, Scale
21-Feb Blue Medora (vROps management packs, demo on SQL pack)
28-Feb Introducing New Mobile Sales Briefcases
7-Mar VOA (vSphere Optimization Assessment)
14-Mar  VSA (vSAN Assessment)
21-Mar VNA (VMware Network Assessment)
28-Mar Introducing HCA (Hybrid Cloud Assessment)
4-Apr High level Cloud overview (vCAN, AWS plays)
11-Apr NSX and AirWatch better together 
18-Apr Competitive Differentiators

 

Step 3 – Watch your VMware Sales Increase!

The Training is every Tuesday from 8:30 – 9:00 AM PST starting on January 31, 2017!

 

VMware vCloud Air Network Free Trial

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[Video] VMware vCloud Air Network Free Trial

VMware vCloud Air Network Free Trial

Find your ideal partner in the cloud, Ease your journey with a vCloud Air Network free trial to ensure the services you select meet your expectations and business requirements. Go to vcloudairnetwork.com.

VMware Social Media Advocacy

New To AWS? Here Are AWS Terms In Plain English!

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New To AWS? Here Are AWS Terms In Plain English!

 

2017-01-20_12-12-34

 

Are you new to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and need to learn their lingo? Click the below link and check out this great guide to all the AWS terms in simple English. You don’t need to be a technical person to understand these terms with this great resource.

AWS In Plain English:  https://www.expeditedssl.com/aws-in-plain-english

 

 

VMware Named One of the Best Workplaces in Technology by Great Place to Work and Fortune

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VMware Named One of the Best Workplaces in Technology by Great Place to Work and Fortune

VMware Named One of the Best Workplaces in…

VMware ranks no. 11 on the list of Best Workplaces in Technology. The ranking was based on employees’ assessment of multiple categories.

VMware Social Media Advocacy

Glimmers of Hope for IoT Security – via VMware CIO Vantage

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Glimmers of Hope for IoT Security – via VMware CIO Vantage

Glimmers of Hope for IoT Security

Amid reports of massive IoT hacks, the industry is ramping up initiatives to bolster the security of the IoT ecosystem.

VMware Social Media Advocacy

Can you run all-flash with vSAN 6.2 Standard…

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Can you run all-flash with vSAN 6.2 Standard license? – via Yellow Bricks

Can you run all-flash with vSAN 6.2 Standard…

As I get the following question a lot I figured I would share the answer here as well: Can you run all-flash with vSAN 6.2 Standard license? Many of you have seen the change in licensing when 6.5 was introduced. No longer is vSAN licenses based on storage hardware used, spindles or all-flash, you can use the lowest license SKU.

VMware Social Media Advocacy

New Report Names vSAN #1 in HCI Purchases or Evaluations – via VMware Radius

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New Report Names vSAN #1 in HCI Purchases or Evaluations – via VMware Radius

New Report Names vSAN #1 in HCI Purchases or…

A recent report from technology research and advisory firm Evaluator Group notes that HCI solutions continue to gain traction in the market.

VMware Social Media Advocacy

Forrester Intelligent Operations Total Economic Impact (TEI) Study for VMware

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Forrester Intelligent Operations Total Economic Impact (TEI) Study for VMware

Forrester Intelligent Operations Total Economic…

Some good Friday the 13th News – the results are Scary Good

VMware Social Media Advocacy

Unveiling Project Clarity

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Unveiling Project Clarity

Unveiling Project Clarity

Today we’re ecstatic to announce Project Clarity, a design system that combines UX guidelines, patterns, and front-end code in one solution. Clarity is for the designer and developer in each of us.

VMware Social Media Advocacy

What’s Coming in 2017? Here’s What the VMware Magic 8 Ball Says

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What’s Coming in 2017? Here’s What the VMware Magic 8 Ball Says

What’s Coming in 2017? Here’s What the VMware…

As 2016 wraps up, predictions are flying on what’s ahead for the coming year. What can we expect to see in security? How will networking look 12 months from now? What changes are on the horizon for the cloud? To help answer some of these questions, we asked VMware’s all-knowing magic 8 ball (i.e., […] The post What’s Coming in 2017? Here’s What the VMware Magic 8 Ball Says appeared first on VMware Education and Certification Blog .

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Sales 101 – VMware’s Cloud Foundation Overview: Enablement Video

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Sales 101 – VMware’s Cloud Foundation Overview:

Enablement Video

 

cloud-foundation

 

VMware Cloud Foundation is the unified SDDC platform that brings together VMware’s vSphere, vSAN and NSX into a natively integrated stack to deliver enterprise-ready cloud infrastructure for the private and public cloud.

What Cloud Foundation Delivers

Next Generation Hyper-Convergence:

Take hyper-converged infrastructure to the next level beyond compute and storage to include networking with VMware NSX for enhanced network security and even greater scalability.

Radically Simple Operations:

Use built-in automated lifecycle management of all day 0 and day 2 tasks with the VMware SDDC Manager.

Enterprise Class Capabilities:

Leverage VMware’s market leading SDDC solutions to deliver high scalability, improved performance and advanced storage and network management.

Public Cloud Extension:

Access VMware Cloud Foundation managed by public cloud providers for a unified and consistent operational experience across the private and public cloud.

Check out my Sales 101 enablement on VMware’s Cloud Foundation that covers what it is, the core components of it, add-on solutions, and the simplicity of existing customers to get to the core Cloud Foundation.

 

Sales 101 – VMware’s Cloud Foundation Overview: Click Here to Watch It!

 

VMware Partners – Promo Updates!

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VMware Partners – Promo Updates!

 

vSphere and vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise to Enterprise Plus Upgrade Promotion!

2016-12-20_09-14-32

Upgrade to Enterprise Plus and Save 50%

Upgrade to vSphere or vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus edition to leverage the full set of vSphere and vSphere with Operations Management capabilities.

Buy Online    Contact Sales    Find a Reseller

 

For a limited time, get 50% off when you upgrade from vSphere or vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise to vSphere or vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus. You can also upgrade from vSphere Enterprise edition to vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus edition and get 50% off as well.

Why consider the upgrade?

The Enterprise Plus editions provide the full range of vSphere features, including Distributed Switch, Host Profiles and Auto Deploy. These new features can improve application availability and performance, helping transform your data centers into dramatically simplified cloud computing environments.

The vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus edition takes vSphere to the next level with intelligent operations and consistent management.

Compare vSphere and vSphere with Operations Management editions and learn more about how this promotion works.

Promotional Rules

The vSphere Enterprise to vSphere Enterprise Plus and vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise to vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus promotions are valid February 10, 2016 through July 29, 2017 at 11:59 pm PT (Pacific Time).

The vSphere Enterprise to vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus promotion is valid June 1, 2016 through July 29, 2017 at 11:59 pm PT (Pacific Time).

Read the Terms and Conditions

 

Promotional FAQs

Have questions about this promotion?

Read the FAQs

Hybrid Cloud Manager 2.0 U1 is Now GA – VMware News and Updates

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Hybrid Cloud Manager 2.0 U1 is Now GA – VMware News and Updates

Hybrid Cloud Manager 2.0U1 is now GA – VMware…

Hybrid Cloud Manager 2.0 U1 is now GA. HCM 2.0 U1 provides feature improvements, fixes and enables the vCloud Air Hybrid DR on Dedicated service. This is the technology that enables Cross-Cloud vMotion to VMware vCloud Air. It does not require NSX, but if you are using NSX on-premises it can migrate the security policies…Read More

VMware Social Media Advocacy

The 2016 Virtualization Review Editor’s Choice Awards 2016 — Virtualization Review

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The 2016 Virtualization Review Editor’s Choice Awards 2016 — Virtualization Review

The 2016 Virtualization Review Editor’s Choice…

Our picks for the best of the best.

VMware Social Media Advocacy

VMware Announces General Availability of vSphere Integrated Containers

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VMware Announces General Availability of vSphere Integrated Containers – VMware vSphere Blog

VMware Announces General Availability of…

For nearly two decades, we at VMware have been working on helping our customers address the challenge of supporting traditional business critical applications as well as next-generation application. Today, with the General Availability of vSphere Integrated Containers, we are proud to announce that our customers can count on vSphere to also natively run containerized workloads. The post VMware Announces General Availability of vSphere Integrated Containers appeared first on VMware vSphere Blog .

VMware Social Media Advocacy

Trend Alert: The 5 Next Big Things in Mobile…

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Trend Alert: The 5 Next Big Things in Mobile Security

Trend Alert: The 5 Next Big Things in Mobile…

No CIO wants to hear that their company has been hacked. But for most, network intrusion is the new reality—even if we don’t realize it. In the new eBook, 5 Next Big Things in Mobile Security, we explore the biggest trends and threats facing businesses of all sizes everywhere in the world. Access the free […]

VMware Social Media Advocacy

VMware vSAN 6.5 Licensing PDF

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VMware vSAN 6.5 Licensing PDF – vladan.fr

VMware vSAN 6.5 Licensing PDF

There has been new VMware vSAN 6.5 Licensing paper released. As the offer evolved and the 6.5 of vSAN (now with small “v” have you noticed ?) product release is imminent, VMware is taking care of pushing the necessary information out.

VMware Social Media Advocacy

VMware Horizon View 7 License Comparison

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VMware Horizon View 7 License Comparison – vEnthusiast

VMware Horizon View 7 License Comparison

If you are like me, I am not a fan of how VMware website shows the features and license comparison. I made a table that’s visually appetizing.

VMware Social Media Advocacy

What’s the Secret of Becoming a Top VMware Partner?

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What’s the secret of becoming a top VMware partner? – VMware UK Blog

What’s the secret of becoming a top VMware…

Guest blog post from Tom Vallons, Partner Development Specialist Business Mobility, VMware Benelux

VMware Social Media Advocacy

VMware Offers Safe Passage to BlackBerry Good…

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VMware Offers Safe Passage to BlackBerry Good for Enterprise Customers -AirWatch Blog

VMware Offers Safe Passage to BlackBerry Good…

VMware today announced an expansion of our Safe Passage Program to Good for Enterprise organizations. This program helps you perform due diligence and plan your migration. We also announced a mobile device management (MDM) migration tool and service to help IT migrate from Good for Enterprise to VMware AirWatch. Now, you can secure business email […]

VMware Social Media Advocacy

Are You Ready to be a Top Gun? Join us for Top Gun Tuesdays to Receive Best in Class Partner Sales Training

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topgun

Are you ready to be to a VMware Top Gun?

Join us for Top Gun Tuesdays to receive best in class partner sales training and best practices on demand generation!

 

Step 1 – REGISTER NOW at: http://www.vmware.com/go/TGT

Step 2 – Join the WEEKLY TUESDAY 20-30 Min. Webex Training Starting @8:30AM PST

 

Training Agenda:

10/11/2016 – Datacenter/Virtualization 101:  Introduction and conversation starters.

10/18/2016 – SDDC: Understanding the software overlays for a physical architecture and business conversation starters.

10/25/2016 – How to build your VMware army: Best way to attack accounts, engage VMware, becoming a strategic partner, and utilizing VMware one-pagers

11/1/2016 – vSOM (Management): Key benefits, questions to ask, and increase your margin selling vSOM.

11/8/2016 –  vSAN (Storage Virtualization): What is storage virtualization, why do we need to start conversations early, refresh cycles, and questions to position.

11/15/2016 – NSX (Network Virtualization): Changing the conversation from physical network devices to a network hypervisor/software defined model, questions to ask, and key benefits.

11/22/2016 – Workspace ONE (End User Platform): Engaging the right contacts, questions to ask, and key benefits.

11/29/2016 – VCA (Cloud platform): Consume vs Construct, questions to ask, and benefits.

12/6/2016 – Airwatch(Mobility): BYOD conversation, standardize on a single platform, solution benefits.

12/13/2016 – Competition (Overcoming reluctance): VMware vs Competition highlights and how to overcome during conversations.

 

Step 3 – Watch your VMware Sales Increase!

The Training is every Tuesday from 8:30 – 9:00 AM PST starting on October 11th, 2016!