Cloud platform developer Virtustream unveiled a fresh partnership with virtualization giant VMware, meant to introduce a new and optimized integrated offering.  SAP customers can apply to this new pilot program offered by Virtustream, which is free for the first 90 days. These selected customers will be able to run SAP applications in Virtustream’s cloud platform, xStream, with resources optimized by VMware vSphere.

The team-up is a nod to SAP’s social enterprise initiative, building an economy around this type of software publishing and distribution.  Social enterprise was a running theme at SAP’s SAPphire event this week, where Constellation Research founder Ray Wang discussed social enterprise as it pertains to SAP’s long-term goals during a visit to theCUBE.

Dan Chu, VP of Cloud Infrastructure and Services at VMware said this in an announcement:

“Through our partnership with Virtustream, we are able to demonstrate to clients who are considering deploying their production SAP solutions into the cloud that we can provide a solution that can yield better performance and more cost-effective application management.”

Virtustream said that one of the first companies to jump aboard, Domino Sugar, moved its entire multi-thousand seat SAP production environment to xStream. The company reportedly indicated a its SAP systems now operate up to twice as fast,and expects a 40 percent reduction in total cost of ownership thanks to the transit.

In the same release, Virtustream took the chance to announce that it has also been given the title of SAP-certified provider of cloud services. As the 7^th company to get certified, Virtustream is now a member of SAP’s virtualization and cloud technology advisory board.

This Virtustream-VMware partnership follows nemmerous others at the SAPphore 2011 conference held this week, including NetApp. But at SAP’s heels are competitors forming their own alliances, such as Oracle and NetSuite. Oracle will now provide the latter with  Exadata servers to support its cloud as a part of a recently announced agreement.

Exadata is a direct competitor of HANA, SAP’s platform, which has been making some strides of its own. The German business software maker is pushing beyond that as well, having just introduced the NetWeaver Gateway. The open-source open, standards-based framework is designed to streamline access to SAP applications from every corner of the cloud.