The VMware Ready for Storage program enables partners to develop and certify new plug-ins and storage devices, or update existing ones based on availability of new APIs and versions of VMware products. Storage partners can integrate and validate advanced solutions with vSphere, including disaster recovery, multipathing, offload capabilities and storage management.
Certifications eligible for use of the VMware Ready for Storage logo include:
The Storage Hardware Certifications for vSphere Program enables storage hardware partners to engage with VMware to certify their products with vSphere. Typically, partners begin by certifying their hardware for compatibility via this certification program and then move to certifying advanced integrated solutions with vSphere, such as disaster recovery, multipathing, offload capabilities or storage management via the other storage program offerings. This program includes access to the program's certification kit, which allows partners to test the reliability and stability of their code. VMware verifies the test results and supports the partner during the certification process.
To be eligible to use the VMware Ready for Storage logo in association with storage products, partners must meet the following criteria:
To get started and express interest in enrolling in the VMware Ready Program, complete the online Partner Onboarding Form. Select “SDDC Foundation” in the Program Name field.
Visit the VMware {code} for additional program resources, including SDKs, APIs and other certification tools.
The VAAI program provides storage partners with the benefit of integrating closely with vSphere to offload specific storage operations executed on the storage array, as an alternative to host-based operations. This will increase scalability and performance for customers since the operations are done on the array improving effective utilization of storage arrays. VAAI NAS is based on a file system design solution.
To be eligible to use the VMware Ready for Storage logo in association with VAAI NAS certification, partners must meet the following criteria:
To get started and express interest in enrolling in the VMware Ready Program, complete the online Partner Onboarding Form. Select “SDDC Integration” in the Program Name field.
Visit the VMware {code} for additional program resources, including SDKs, APIs and other certification tools.
The Storage Virtual Appliance Program allows partners to quickly and easily deploy virtual machines that are developed and tested to the same rigorous standards as the storage products listed on VMware's Hardware Compatibility Guide. These VMware ESX-based Storage Virtual Appliances allow partners to combine administration server virtualization and storage services on the same x86 based server.
To be eligible to use the VMware Ready Storage logo in association with SVA certification, partners must meet the following criteria:
To get started and express interest in enrolling in the VMware Ready Program, complete the online Partner Onboarding Form. Select “SDDC Integration” in the Program Name field.
Visit the VMware {code} for additional program resources, including SDKs, APIs and other certification tools.
The Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) Program offers a comprehensive set of tools and resources to help storage hardware vendors develop three kinds of plug-ins: Multi-Pathing Plug-ins (MPP), Storage Array Type Plug-ins (SATPs) and Path Selection Plug-ins (PSPs). These plug-ins allow partners to enable new storage array support asynchronous to ESX releases and to deliver performance-enhancing, multi-pathing failover/failback semantics and load-balancing behaviors optimized per array.
For customers, the multi-pathing and load-balancing provided through partner pluggable storage components enable the virtualized environment to maintain a constant connection between a host and its storage, as well as reduce or eliminate performance bottlenecks.
To be eligible to use the VMware Ready for Storage logo in association with PSA certification, partners must meet the following criteria:
To get started and express interest in enrolling in the VMware Ready Program, please fill in the online Partner Onboarding Form. Select “SDDC Foundation” in the Program Name field.
Visit the VMware {code} for additional program resources, including SDKs, APIs and other certification tools.
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager is a disaster recovery offering that provides automated orchestration and non-disruptive testing for virtualized applications. VMware SRM integrates with third-party storage arrays and replication appliances to provide a complete integrated business continuity solution. This integration is achieved through a unique storage replication adapter (SRA), created by storage array or replication vendors. The SRM Program helps ecosystem partners develop SRAs and help partners attain VMware certification for their SRAs.
For customers, SRM leverages VMware infrastructure to deliver advanced disaster recovery management and automation to ensure it is rapid, reliable, manageable and affordable. Through use of VMware Site Recovery Manager and partner SRAs, customers can greatly reduce the total cost of ownership of disaster recovery.
To be eligible to use the VMware Ready for Storage logo in association with SRM certification, partners must meet the following criteria:
To get started and express interest in enrolling in the VMware Ready Program, complete the online Partner Onboarding Form. Select “SDDC Integration” in the Program Name field.
Visit the VMware {code} for additional program resources, including SDKs, APIs and other certification tools.
The vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering Certification program provides tools and development resources designed to enable TAP partners to get their developed Filter class tested against vSphere and obtain official VMware certification and support.
To be eligible to use the VMware Ready for Storage logo in association with VAIO certification, partners must meet the following criteria:
To get started and express interest in enrolling in the VMware Ready Program, complete the online Partner Onboarding Form. Select "vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering (VAIO)" in the Program Name field.
Visit the VMware {code} for additional program resources, including SDKs, APIs and other certification tools.
vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) providers communicate with Virtual Center to indicate storage topology, capability and state information which supports policy-based management, operations management and DRS functionality. VASA providers help to identify trends in a VM’s storage capacity usage for troubleshooting, correlate events on the datastore and LUNS with a VM’s performance characteristics, and monitor health of storage.
The policy-based management functionality of a VASA provider helps administrators choose the appropriate storage device, and monitors and reports information about existing storage policies. Because VASA providers enable tight integration with vSphere policy and operations management, and better troubleshooting and physical storage event correlation to reduce support costs, partners who create VASA providers are becoming the preferred storage suppliers for administrators and capacity planners seeking these optimizations.
To be eligible to use the VMware Ready for Storage logo in association with VASA certification, partners must meet the following criteria:
To get started and express interest in enrolling in the VMware Ready Program, complete the online Partner Onboarding Form. Select "SDDC Integration" in the Program Name field.
Visit the VMware {code} for additional program resources, including SDKs, APIs and other certification tools.
Virtual Volumes (VVols) extends VMware’s software-defined storage model to external storage. VVols transforms SAN/ NAS into VM-centric devices by making the virtual disk a native representation of the VM at the array level, and enables app-centric, policy-based automation of SAN and NAS based services.
This VVols package allows partners to enable their storage arrays to support granular virtual disks and deliver better services optimized for vSphere releases. Through this package, VMware offers a comprehensive set of tools and resources to help storage array and management applications partners develop virtual volumes capable firmware and out-of-band management components in accordance with VMware’s API Specifications. This package also allows partners to develop a VVols-compatible VASA Provider along with the underlying storage array firmware to be certified and listed on the VMware Compatibility Guide (vCG).
To be eligible to use the VMware Ready for Storage logo in association with VVols certification, partners must meet the following criteria:
To get started and express interest in enrolling in the VMware Ready Program, complete the online Partner Onboarding Form. Select "SDDC Integration" in the Program Name field.
Visit the VMware {code} for additional program resources, including SDKs, APIs and other certification tools.