During the Partner Exchange 2008 event, VMware announced the seven 'Partner Awards 2008' recipients for India. VMware India Partner Exchange 2008 is the annual forum that VMware hosts for its top partners. VMware's partners were recognised for their success in creating value for customers by developing and implementing leading-edge virtualisation solutions based on the VMware platform during the last 12 months, said the company.

"The VMware Partner Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of our partner community in India," said Ganesh Mahabala, regional director, sales, VMware India and SAARC. "Our partners are a critical extension of VMware’s sales and services ecosystem to address the specific requirements of customers across India. As VMware is uniquely positioned in the industry to offer the most complete virtualisation platform, our partners are increasingly turning to us as the preferred virtualisation partner to drive joint success in driving virtualisation adoption. VMware's continued innovation and commitment to drive customer value are integral to our partners' and customers' long-term success."

The VMware Partner Award 2008 winners for India are: Pentagon System & Services Pvt Ltd (Regional Partner of the Year 2008), Ontrack Solutions Pvt Ltd (Advantage + Partner 2008), Sunfire Technologies Pvt Ltd (Partner Technical Achievement 2008), Veeras Infotek Pvt Limited (Rising Star 2008), GT Enterprises (Market Maker 2008), Ontrack Solutions Pvt Ltd (Best Virtualization Case Study 2008), Frontier Business Systems Pvt Ltd (Green IT Solutions Partner 2008).

"VMware is continually rolling out new programmes and benefits that take the value proposition of VMware virtualisation to new levels," said Manish Sharma, senior director, Asia Pacific channels. "We continue to enable our business partners to build VMware virtualisation practices that are profitable and to deliver increased opportunity. VMware's business partners are poised to lead the way to work with both new and existing customers of all sizes in the rapidly growing virtualisation market."

In addition, the company also announced enhancements to the VMware VIP Partner Programme.