VMware opens online virtualization and cloud solutions marketplace

VMware, the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today unveiled the VMware Solution Exchange, an online virtualization and cloud solutions market place where customers, partners and developers in the Middle East can converge to help simplify the process of evaluating and selecting business solutions through a centralized, self-service portal.

A New Way to Find Solutions for the Private and Public Cloud

VMware has a robust community of more than 2,000 technology partners who have built more than 3,500 applications and 6,000 infrastructure products that are compatible with VMware's portfolio of products.

The VMware Solution Exchange offers partners and developers who complement, integrate or interoperate with VMware's portfolio of products a one-stop location to market and sell their solutions to potential customers.

The proliferation of social media tools has evolved the way many people use the Internet to search, share and discover information, with user-generated feedback and community engagement playing an important role.

The VMware Solution Exchange looks to provide this familiar experience, by empowering customers to utilize search tools, explore rich multimedia content, and directly engage with partners and developers to help ease the process of finding the right solution for their businesses.

Additional VMware Solution Exchange features include:

Partners and developers can feature their solutions and supplement their listings with rich multimedia content, including the ability to embed YouTube videos, provide product overviews, select technology categories, downloadable trial software, screenshots of their products, downloadable whitepapers, architecture blueprints and other marketing collateral.

Each partner and developer will be able to provide an overview of their solution, with VMware and third party software version compatibility, VMware certification details, including their VMware Ready logo and contact information.

Customers of all sizes, from small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), to enterprise buyers, will be able to discover new solutions and directly engage with partners and developers with inquiries for licenses, trials, support and sales requests.

In addition, the VMware Solution Exchange provides customers with the opportunity to use a five-star rating system and provide a written review about their experience with the solution. They can also vote on a particular version of a partner's solution.

The home page of the VMware Solution Exchange showcases featured and popular listings from VMware partners and developers.

Solutions from partners and developers are categorized by technology type and industry type, along with the VMware product with which they are compatible or integrated with.

Sam Tayan, Managing Director, MENA, VMware: "With the VMware Solution Exchange, we are offering our robust network of over 700 partners in the MENA region a new and centralized marketplace to promote their solutions and directly connect with customers to help expedite the sales process. For customers in the region, our goal is to empower them to quickly and easily find the resources they need to make purchasing decisions to accelerate their journey to the cloud, while also helping our technology partners deliver and manage joint solutions in a single, self-service location."