VMware Opens New vSphere Live Online Training for SMBs
VMware (NYSE: VMW) is making another play for SMBs to transition to its vSphere cloud and virtualization technology through a series of intensive, live online training classes aimed at time- and budget-constrained smaller organizations.
The four-day, 16-hour, live online vSphere training, offered by VMware Education and delivered through Epic Live, targets the installation, configuration and management of vSphere, including vSphere ESXi 5.0 and vCenter Server 5.0, according to a blog post from the vendor’s SMB team.
Material is presented in two-hour periods held twice daily, along with self-paced labs. Under the Epic Live format, students can view material in HD video with Hollywood-level graphics and animations. An instant replay recording of each course is available to view for up to 30 days after completion.
Participants who complete the course are eligible to enroll in other, more advanced vSphere educational curricula. The idea is to educate SMBs to modernize their IT operations, integrate virtualization into their existing infrastructures and learn techniques to deploy and manage virtual machines.
VMware will offer the classes in the United States on 10 different dates in 2013, starting Jan. 8 and the last four-day session currently slated for June 25.
Yes, four, four-hour days still is a significant amount of time for SMB employees to dedicate to learning VMware’s version of virtualization and cloud computing, but the new format makes committing to the time more digestible, according to the vendor.
“This new course is delivered in a manner that allows professionals to work, train, gain hands-on experience and revisit content without leaving the comfort of their office,” VMware said in the blog post. “VMware understands it’s hard to get away from the office for an entire week. Travel budgets tight and it’s often too hard to be out of commission for so long.”
VMware believes that virtualization has become a commonplace discussion among SMBs, and, whether that’s true, there’s little doubt that there’s a lot of room for channel partners to transition SMBs to virtualized, cloud environments. Indeed, VMware North America channel chief Doug Smith recently reminded channel partners of the massive BYOD opportunity with SMBs for application provisioning, single sign-on and cloud storage, to name but a few.
