Develop Joint Solutions. Deliver Greater Value to Customers.

The Technology Alliance Partner program was created exclusively for VMware application, infrastructure, and hardware partners, enabling them to integrate their products and solutions with VMware offerings to create joint solutions. The program aligns partners to one of three program tiers within five VMware solution areas. Partners receive technical and go-to-market resources designed to promote mutual business success.

Partners benefit from many program advantages, including:

• Accelerated development and support
• Expanded market awareness
• Not for resale (NFR) licenses

The previous TAP program tiers (Access, Elite, and Global) have been renamed, and the benefits have been restructured to meet the evolving needs of VMware partners. In addition, partners have the opportunity to earn badges in each solution area, which allows them to progress through the program and receive additional benefits.

The new partnership tiers are:

• Standard tier: Provides partners with the resources to create technical integrations and develop go-to-market solutions through scalable services; main benefits include:

- NFR licenses
- Access to technical certifications and validations
- Support from TAP Alliance alias tapalliance@vmware.com
- TAP Tech support
- Co-branded marketing collateral templates

Partners in the Standard tier who have yet to achieve a solution area badge will be considered Standard Badge- in-Process and will receive a limited set of TAP benefits

• Advanced tier: Available to partners who are aligned with VMware on technical and go-to-market strategies, have met the criteria for at least one Advanced solution area badge, and have obtained business unit sponsorship and field verification; main benefits include:

- All Standard tier benefits.
- Additional marketing and go-to-market opportunities
- Planning meetings with a Go-to-Market Manager

• Strategic tier: For partners who complete a higher level of go-to-market engagement that makes a measurable market impact; partners must attain executive level business unit sponsorship, field verification, and VMware Technology Partner Governance Board approval; main benefits include

- All Advanced tier benefits
- Named Alliance Management support
- My VMware license management support
- Additional NFR license support
- Executive sponsorship and engagement - Additional marketing and go-to-market opportunities

For a complete list of benefits, plus add-on services available for each tier, refer to the VMware TAP Program Guide.

Partnership tier is determined by the highest badge held by the partner. If a partner has achieved multiple solution area badges at different levels, then their partnership tier will correspond to the highest badge achieved. Also see Program Progression and Earning Badges.

TAP partners earn badges by completing requirements in one (or more) of five solution areas:

• Data Center For partners looking to help customers modernize their data centers and deliver infrastructure and application services with speed, agility, and cost optimization.
• Cloud Solutions For partners who help customers deliver a hybrid cloud infrastructure by validating their products on VMware Cloud on AWS or other VMware clouds.
• Modern Applications For partners who want to integrate and validate their solutions which provide customers the ability to transform their current applications, manage their cloud native applications and leverage containers.
• Networking and Security For partners who create joint solutions that maximize visibility, context, and control to secure the interactions among users, applications, and data.
• Digital Workspace For partners who work with VMware on end user computing solutions that provide customers with secure apps and data in a perimeter-free world.

Solution areas are aligned to the VMware product or service with which a partner integrates or interoperates. Refer to the TAP Program Guide to review the product and service alignment to solution area. Products may fall into multiple solution areas. If this is the case, the partner should choose the solution area that aligns the closest with their integration/go-to-market use case.

Yes, partners may enroll in multiple solution areas. Standard tier partners can enroll in two solution areas simultaneously upon joining the program, while Advanced and Strategic partners can enroll in all five. Once a Standard partner has achieved one solution area badge, they can enroll in all remaining solution areas that align with the joint solutions they are developing with VMware.

Partners can enroll in an additional solution area through the following form on the My Program page in Partner Connect. When enrolling in a new solution area, partners must start by earning the Standard solution area badge, even if they are an Advanced or Strategic tier partner.

Progression is determined by the level of badge earned. Once the requirements for the next highest badge have been earned, the partner has the opportunity to move to the next program tier and, once the upgrade fee is remitted, receives the benefits associated with that tier. At that time, the partner will be asked to pay the upgrade fee, which is the difference between the partners previous tier fee and new tier fee.

Progression to higher levels, such as Advanced and Strategic, are based on deeper solutions development, go-to-market engagement, and business unit and field alignment.

Partners can earn a badge in any of the five solution areas: Data Center, Cloud Solutions, Modern Applications, Networking and Security, and Digital Workspace. Badges are earned when specific requirements for that solution area have been met. For a full list of badge requirements, please refer to the TAP Program Guide.

Partners who fail to maintain badge requirements will have their badge releveled to the next lowest tier. Partners who only have one badge and fail to maintain requirements for that badge will have their tier releveled to the tier in which they can meet the badge requirements. Partners who have one Standard badge and fail to maintain the requirements for that badge will have their TAP partnership terminated and will have to re-enroll in the TAP Program.

Partners without existing VMware contacts may find a BU sponsor by engaging in the GTM collateral process. By working alongside a BU contact in the development of Solution Briefs, Webinars, and other technical collateral, sponsorship opportunities often develop naturally if the joint solution is aligned with a VMware business unit roadmap/go to market.

Gaining a VMware Field Verification is the last step in progressing to a new TAP tier. Once you have completed all other TAP requirements, email tapalliance@vmware.com to start the Field Verification process. The TAP team will get in contact with a member of our field team to check for any outstanding issues with the partnership that need to be addressed before we can move forward with the tier-upgrade. Partners are welcome to provide a name of a field director as a contact point if they wish for the TAP team to discuss potential promotion.

NFR software and hosted service license availability and quantities vary by solution area and program tier. A complete list of NFR licenses and quantities is included in the NFR Software and Hosted Services Guide.

All software and hosted service licenses provided through the TAP program are considered not for resale (NFR) licenses. TAP NFR licenses are solely for the purposes of developing, testing, training (internal only), demonstrating, and supporting interoperability and integrations between partner products and VMware software and services.

TAP NFR licenses are not available for any production use. Unacceptable uses of the licenses include:

• Using VMware NFR software or hosted services for the partners development not focused on interoperability and integration with VMware software or hosted services.
• The development, testing, training, demonstration, and support of partner products that have not been developed or integrated with VMware software and hosted services.
• Demonstration, development, testing, training, or support activities that are provided to partners or customers as revenue-generating professional services.
• Distribution of the NFR software or hosted services to third parties.

NFR licenses are not perpetual and will expire upon termination of the TAP Program Agreement. If a partner loses a solution area badge at any tier of the program, they are no longer allowed to use the NFR licenses granted to them for that solution area badge. For additional information, refer to the NFR Software and Hosted Services Guide.

Once the TAP program application has been approved and membership payment has been received, the partners Primary Contact will be able to access the applicable NFR licenses the On-Demand NFR Partner Portal on VMware Partner Connect.

When additional licenses are added to the NFR bundle, the partner primary contact can pull them down via the OnDemand NFR Partner Portal. Contact tapalliance@vmware.com if you have questions.

Additional licenses added to the portal are automatically associated with the existing 5-incident product support packs included with the original bundle.

Your TAP renewal cycle begins on your renewal date and remains open for a period of 45 days. Note that you are no longer able to renew before your renewal date. During the 45-day renewal cycle period, you will not lose benefits and your membership tier and solution area will remain intact.  Renewal notifications will be sent to the Primary Contact 30-60-and 90-days before renewal, allowing you adequate time to prepare payment and review the new TAP agreement. On your renewal date, the renewal link will become available and you may begin the renewal process. The renewal process consists of three steps:

1. Review the renewal form
2. Sign the new TAP agreement
3. Submit the program payment via the online portal.

Once your TAP partnership has been terminated, all benefits will be suspended. The loss of benefits includes:

• Termination of all TAP NFR licenses
• Your VMware Solution Exchange (VSX) listings will be removed and your access will be revoked.
  
• You will no longer have access to VMware {code} tools and any certifications that are not finalized will be terminated.
  
• Your access will be restricted to Enrolled tier access, granting you access to Partner University.

Please contact tapalliance@vmware.com if you have questions regarding membership or renewals.

Partner Connect users do not have the ability to make changes or remove contacts in the partner account. Please send those requests to tapalliance@vmware.com.

A partners Primary Contact can open additional Partner Connect accounts for other users in their company. Each new account must use a valid company email domain.

Users may self-register for a Partner Connect profile by following these instructions:

• Go to http://www.vmware.com/partners/partners.html
• Select the Register option to self-register for a user account.
• Input the partner company name.
  

Select the appropriate partner company name associated with the Technology Alliance Partner program.

Partners may access the badge dashboard by logging into Partner Connect. On this page, partners can view what requirements for a particular badge have been met, and what may still be required.

There are a few reasons your requirement may not be shown:

• The requirement has expired. For example, the press release or solution brief that once filled the corresponding requirement is now over 2 years old. In this case, its time to create a new piece of collateral via Partner Connect!
• TAP wasnt notified of the completion. In this case, please reach out to tapcollateral@vmware.com for help with getting credit for your press release, solution brief, webinar, or whitepaper. For help with other requirements not displaying on the badge dashboard, please reach out to tapalliance@vmware.com. 

Install/config and public SDK (Developer) support have been combined into one support offering and can be delivered in 5 incident packs to Standard, Advanced, and Strategic partners. Standard partners receive two 5-packs, Advanced partners receive three 5-packs, and Strategic partners receive four 5packs. Each partners support pack renews when they successfully renew their annual membership.

If a partner uses all of the provided incident support requests in a year, additional support will need to be purchased through the sales channel. More information about purchased per incident support can be found here.

Please see the VCP step-by-step guide. You must sign in to Partner Connect to access this document.

Partners who already have staff with existing VCP certifications may reach out to taptech@vmware.com to begin the process of filling this program requirement.

Many VMware APIs and SDKs are available to TAP partners on VMware {code}. Some of them require TAP membership, and others are open to the public. Please keep in mind that some APIs are only available to TAP partners who participate in VMware Ready or validation programs.

To learn more about the VMware Ready program, including the current and newly added categories under which a product can be certified, or to download the VMware Ready Program Guide, please visit the VMware Ready Program page. More information about these programs can also be found in VMware {code}.

It depends. The easiest way to check is by visiting the VMware Compatibility Guide and look for your solution by either searching the company name or using the provided lists to narrow down your search query.

Please email vmcisv@vmware.com. A team member will reach out with information on how to get started.

Each solution area has its own specific certification and training requirements. Refer to the TAP Program Guide for details.

Partners receive a 20% discount on training courses offered directly from VMware. Partners should inquire about training discounts required prior to registration courses taught by VMware authorized training partners will not qualify for the 20% discount. To receive your discount, register for your courses through the Partner University portal in Partner Connect.

The TAP program offers preapproved press release templates that may be used by our partners to announce:

• TAP membership status
• Progression from TAP Standard tier to Advanced tier
• Products that have received VMware Ready certification or VMware Cloud on AWS validation

To request an application for a custom press release, contact tapcollateral@vmware.com. Any press release that mentions VMware must receive final approval prior to release.