VMware

Upgrade to the Best Platform for Business-Critical Applications

Accelerate your application lifecycle and maximize end-user Quality of Service by running your applications on VMware Infrastructure. Test, stage, and provision your multi-tier applications quickly and efficiently to accelerate the application lifecycle. Automatically provide your applications with the right levels of scalability and availability to ensure end-user QoS. Virtualize large databases such as SQL Server, email applications such as Exchange, and enterprise application suites such as SAP and Oracle with breakthrough performance—all with the full support of hundreds of ISVs, including Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and IBM.

ISVs Support VMware Infrastructure

Thousands of software applications run in datacenters around the world on VMware Infrastructure. Even though ISV applications typically “just run” on VMware Infrastructure, our dedicated team engages directly with ISVs to increase the number of officially supported third-party applications. Hundreds more people in our engineering, field operations, marketing, and support organizations help as well. Customers can take the following steps if they want to see explicit support from their ISV:

VMware Reaches Out to ISVs

Most ISVs do not feel they need to publish an explicit support statement for VMware’s platform because they test and support their applications on specific operating systems, rather than the underlying computing platform (processors, hardware models, etc). They know as long as you use VMware supported operating systems, their applications will “just run” on VMware Infrastructure. For customers that prefer an explicit support statement, we have several programs in place to increase the number of ISVs actively supporting VMware Infrastructure:

  • Outreach to market-leading ISVs: Industry-leading vendors such as IBM, McAfee, Microsoft, RIM, SAP, Siebel, Symantec, and others have a stated support policy for VMware Infrastructure. We work closely with these and other market leaders to ensure the broadest application support.
  • Focus on industry-specific applications: We work with ISVs who provide applications to vertical industries including Financial Services, Healthcare and Manufacturing.
  • Leveraging customer demand: To highlight the market opportunity for ISVs, we are building an index of customers who run, or would like to run, specific applications on virtual machines.
  • Improving ISV enablement: Through the VMware Technology Alliance Partner Program and other initiatives, ISVs get resources that reduce their testing burden and allow a rapid realization of virtualization’s benefits.
  • Multipoint ISV conversations: VMware has successfully leveraged ISV sales executives to drive ISV product development organizations to support their applications on virtual infrastructure where they see that virtualization accelerates its sales cycles.

Working with ISVs without Official Support Statements

Over 125,000 customer organizations run thousands of applications on the VMware platform, with and without official support statements in test/dev as well as production environments. Our virtual infrastructure suite is designed so that applications that run on a supported guest operating system perform exactly as they do on a traditional unvirtualized system. All applications are expected to operate properly in a VMware virtual machine unless the ISV makes a specific statement indicating otherwise. The overwhelming majority of ISVs without an official support statement do provide support for their applications in virtual machines as long as the customer specifies the operating system and hardware that they are using to run the application.

If an ISV will not support its application running on virtual infrastructure, you can contact the VMware ISV Alliance organization through your VMware account manager, sales engineer, or via the Customer Request Portal on the web. Additionally, you can call 1-866-524-4955 or email TAPAlliances@vmware.com.

Customer involvement is very influential in accelerating ISV support. Working cooperatively with VMware to approach your software vendor dramatically increases the likelihood that the vendor will provide support. Download our ISV Toolkit for VMware customers for tools and information on how to encourage your ISV to offer virtualization support.

Next Steps

What next? Read our customer success stories and white papers and see how other businesses run applications on the VMware virtual infrastructure or download our FAQ on support for third party applications on VMware infrastructure.