FD Insights Issue 4 | Page 30

Cloud(s) on the
Horizon(View)
VMware’s Partner Forum came to Cape Town, providing
updates on Cloud Infrastructure and Management.
Tristan Penver took some notes.

VMware Business Update

I

n line with VMware’s promise to touch base with and visit
the coastal regions of South Africa at least once a quarter,
the VMware SA team held a Partner Forum event in the
Crystal Towers Hotel in Cape Town on 2 September 2013.
VMware Partner Business Manager Mark Reynolds opened
up proceedings by reiterating that VMware’s emphasis is on
efficiency, agility and control and that the company’s focus
remains the Software Defined Datacentre (SDDC), Hybrid
Cloud and Mobility.

Mark also stated some of VMware’s advantages as being:
proven reliability, efficiency, capacity management, monitoring, health checks and proven TCO savings.
He also took the opportunity to bust some Microsoft myths,
turning his attention to the topic due to the fact that VMware is facing considerable competition from the tech giant,
particularly in the Cape region. He disputed the facts that
Hyper-V is free and that Microsoft’s products are good
enough, he also brought attention to the fact that VMware
is consistently the technology and innovation leader in the
virtualisation market space.
VMware is also running promotions currently such as the
vSphere Data Protection Advanced 15% Discount Promotion and the vSphere with Operations Management 15%
Discount Promotion. New promos such as the Socialcast
and View Premier Bundle to Horizon Suite Upgrade Promotion are on the cards as well.

Wrapping up his segment, Mark reminded the audience of
the upcoming EMEA VMworld event happening in
Barcelona from 15-17 October 2013.
Cloud Infrastructure & Management 2013 Launch
Overview
VMware Senior Systems Engineer Alex Tanner then took
to the stage to reveal some of the latest developments
regarding the company, some of which were revealed at the
recent VMworld event held in San Francisco.
Alex mentioned that a big part of his presentation was
helping the audience understand VMware’s SDDC vision,
and opened by running through the factors of downtime
& inefficiency – two things that customers are looking to
avoid. VMware transforms and minimises these factors with
its cutting-edge cloud and virtualisation technologies.
It was also highlighted that IT spend is increasingly going
on non-traditional IT products and services, with as much
as 35% of IT spend ear marked to go on self-procured
(cloud) services by 2015. Accordingly, traditional IT roles
are morphing – manual roles are disappearing and efficiency is increasing. This evolution leads to new IT pain points,
such as inflexibility and fear of lock-in. VMware recognises
that customers aspire to do things in the cloud that don’t
always involve the company (internal IT department), as a
result the company strives to provide the tools and integration with its partner ecosystem that enables customers to
get to the point where IT enjoys a dashboard into the local

VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel [phone] Fax [phone] www.vmware.com

Copyright © 2013 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed
at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be
trademarks of their respective companies.

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