Rimini Street extends service offering to VMware products

Enterprise software support provider Rimini Street has announced the launch of Rimini Support, Rimini Protect, and Rimini Consult for VMware.

The new third-party offering aims to enable perpetually licensed VMware customers to continue running systems in the years ahead following the vendor’s switch to a subscription-based licensing model.

Support services include round-the-clock, guaranteed priority support response by an engineer in ten minutes or less.

The firm’s CEO and president, Seth Ravin, said the firm’s new additions will now provide support to businesses facing significant annual fee increases from VMware as a result of its licensing model reshuffle.

Clients will be able to take time to analyze the vendor’s proposed changes, which includes the forced bundling of product licenses, to determine whether they are prepared to accept the new model and fees - or look to alternative approaches such as negotiation of new licensing terms or switching to alternative virtualization platforms.

“These organizations are now looking for an alternative, comprehensive annual support program that can enable them to continue implementing, changing and running their perpetually licensed VMware software infrastructure smoothly and reliably for years into the future,” Ravin said.

“Rimini Street is now offering such a support program for VMware products as an extension of its award-winning, mission-critical global support services utilized successfully by thousands of clients in more than 100 countries over nearly two decades.”

Available now, standard pricing for Rimini Street Support for VMware products is “similar to the current support fees that each perpetual licensee is paying VMware,” the company revealed.

Rimini Street expands support

With Rimini Support for VMware, customers can leverage global support and advisory services, which include dedicated services for configuration, performance, installation, upgrade, and customization. Organizations will also have access to a named primary support engineer with at least 15 years’ experience, with a guaranteed ten-minute response SLA for critical cases.

Rimini Street’s AI technology, Case Assignment Advisor, will recommend the optimal engineer based on more than 40 vectors to help resolve cases faster.

Rimini said its security-focused offering, Rimini Protect for VMware, will work to provide proactive and cost-effective protection against threats and vulnerabilities, which includes guidance on mitigating risk by strengthening the configuration of the VMware ecosystem.

Customers can also leverage Rimini’s self-developed security vulnerability analysis reports (SVARs) that include mitigation options and strategies, as well as zero-day reporting and level one security assessments.

Rimini Consult for VMware rounds off the trio to provide users with access to consultancy services that the company said will help VMware customers plan and align technology strategy with their business objectives.

Services include technical and application roadmapping and strategy, technology assessments, license advisory, interoperability and integration, staff skills and augmentation, as well as cloud migrations.

Commenting on the additions, Craig Mackereth, Rimini Street’s executive vice president of global service delivery, said the company was responding to high demand from customers.

“Our clients have made significant investments in their current VMware infrastructure, and many are seeking advice and counsel from Rimini Street on how to both continue leveraging their mature and proven VMware infrastructure platform and get the premium, mission-critical quality support and services they need at a price point they can afford,” he said.