Platform Computing, the global leader in enterprise grid computing, today announced that it has launched the Platform Alliance Network, an innovative partnership programme designed to build a broad ecosystem to deliver virtualisation solutions for the data centre. Platform also announced new partner additions to the network: CSC, Novell, Red Hat, VMware, Wipro, and Dell China.

Enterprise IT departments are increasingly turning to virtualisation of IT resources as a key strategy to meet the changing needs of the business and build sustainable competitive advantage. IT resource orchestration and virtualisation management products such as Platform Enterprise Grid Orchestrator (EGO) and Platform VM Orchestrator (VMO), provide single, cohesive management environments that automate the allocation of resources across a grid platform to optimise utilisation and deliver accelerated results from mission-critical applications.

The Platform Alliance Network provides the framework within which partners can take advantage of these industry-leading solutions to virtualise and grid enable their offerings for the enterprise IT market. Unifying Platform?s existing partner offerings, the Platform Alliance Network supports new and existing partners in the categories of Independent Software Vendors, System Integrators, Resellers, Hardware Vendors and Service Providers. Through the Platform Alliance Network, Platform and its partners will build complementary, flexible, heterogeneous solutions through product integration and validation, partner certification, software and hardware optimisation, and content development. As a result, joint customers will benefit from the combined strengths of Platform and its partners across all product sets.

Offering three distinct levels of participation, as well as programmes targeted for each type of partner, the Platform Alliance Network allows companies to choose the amount of commitment that makes most sense for them, ensuring that benefits are matched to the specific needs of each participant. Among these benefits are co-marketing opportunities, sales training, lead registration, partner support and access to Platform products. The release of developer editions of Symphony, Enterprise Grid Orchestrator and LSF through the Alliances Network offer partners rapid integration and extensibility options, as well as early access to new products and releases. Using these tools, ISV's can quickly enable their solutions to give their customers dynamic computing resource management, increased application performance, and improved service level delivery defined for their business units.