VMforce & Salesforce.com Partners

Salesforce.com and Vmforce announced this week new levels of innovation and sophistication to your cloud projects and customers.  To top it, VMforce will be jointly delivered by salesforce.com; combining the world’s most popular language (Java), the world's most popular Java framework (Spring), the world's most effective virtualization technology (VMware) and the world's most trusted cloud platform (Force.com).  In other words, VMware and SalesForce.com have come together to provide a robust, scalable PaaS offering for Java Developers.

VMforce is a new cloud computing service that will allow Java developers to build and deploy enterprise apps in the cloud. With VMforce, every Java developer is now a cloud developer, every Java app is now a cloud app. VMforce is the first enterprise cloud platform for Java developers.

So you might ask – what exactly are the benefits?  According to VMforce, “we expect partners to deliver solutions around 3 major app development opportunities:

Existing Force.com apps & Java: Deliver new levels of automation and scale by leveraging Java in your production Force.com apps through VMforce Brand new VMforce apps:”

The  purpose?  Build apps that are architected and optimized from day 1 for the cloud by leveraging the only complete enterprise cloud platform for Java Legacy Java apps: Bring the scale, security, and reliability of the cloud to existing Java apps by migrating them to VMforce. 

With VMForce, you'll be able to build on your existing investments in Force.com skills like Apex, Visualforce, and Chatter while bringing the power of Java to your apps. The early reactions to the announcement from customers and partners has been phenomenal and both the salesforce.com and VMware teams are more excited than ever to bring the next generation of cloud computing to our communities.

The platform looks pretty cool, and the move seems to make sense for both companies: but if you are asking how to prepare for this opportunity VMforce/Salesforce.com suggest the following:

1. Stay up-to-date on VMforce

• VMforce FAQ for Salesforce.com Partners (@partnerforce.com login required) 
• Watch the VMforce launch replay
• Watch the "What is VMforce" demo
• Follow @salesforce and @VMware on Twitter, and join the conversation with #VMforce

2. Stay engaged as a partner

• Educate your technical teams through Developer Force
• Visit the Partner Portal often for latest updates and opportunities

3. Build your strategy for VMforce: Have a clear message and blueprint for how you'll help your customers looking build on Force.com & Java

By the way, you might want to go to Read Write Cloud, and find out what VMforce means for Oracle, SAP and the Rest? 

So what do you think? What does VMforce mean for competing vendors such as Google, Amazon,etc  Apparently,  a developer preview will be available in the second half of 2010; no date is yet announced for the final release.