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Dot Hill Bolsters Storage Partner Program for SMB VARs

Sponsored Video — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:33:52 +0000

Dot Hill Systems, which develops storage solutions, has bolstered its Connections Partner Program. The enhancements specifically target VARs that are seeking to promote enterprise-class storage solutions into the SMB market, according to Brad Painter, VP of worldwide channel sales at Dot Hill.

In a FastChat Video, Painter described how Dot Hill has been expanding its partner program beyond OEM agreements. Indeed, the storage company increasingly works with SMB and mid-market VARs:

Click here to view the embedded video.

During a recent meeting in New York, Painter said Dot Hill’s Gold Partners will receive sales, marketing and business development support. The Gold-level partners don’t have to spend heavily to join the partner program. Instead, Dot Hill is calling on the Gold Partners to participate in longer-term sales and business development commitments.

Also in recent weeks, Dot Hill has been updating its distribution strategy — working with new partners like Info X. Dot Hill increasingly wants to work with specialty distributors that focus like a laser on the storage market. Prime targets include distributors that previously worked with Sun’s storage business. The reason: When Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, Oracle began to cut back on Sun’s distributor relationships, potentially opening the door for Dot Hill to fill market voids.

For most of its history, Dot Hill has worked behind the scenes, providing OEM storage technology to strategic partners like Hewlett-Packard. While Dot Hill’s OEM commitments remain in place, the company has spent 2011 building a channel brand that more directly engages VARs and channel partners.

Oracle: Partners Find Expanded Opportunities Through OPN

Sponsored Video — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:00:07 +0000

Oracle is a name long recognized as a leader in the enterprise software and hardware space. And much of its success lies squarely on the shoulders of its partners, whom the company relies on to help it reach new markets and new customers. In turn, Oracle’s partners have access to one of the most comprehensive partner programs in the industry: the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).

“OPN is the framework for partners to engage with Oracle,” said Lydia Smyers, VP of worldwide alliances and channels at Oracle. “It’s designed specifically for our partners, and we’ve been told that our partners value the OPN Resources that offer support through the entire sales cycle.”

Smyers offers deeper insights in this FastChat Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Indeed, partners participating in OPN have access to marketing, pre-sales, sales and implementation resources, providing a comprehensive resource for both homegrown and acquired technologies. Case in point: Following its acquisition in 2010 of Exastack, Oracle integrated the technology into OPN and in January 2011 unveiled an OPN Incentive Program designed to motivate VARs and value-added distributors to sell specific Oracle solutions including Exastack.

Oracle is continually improving OPN to help partners get the most out of the program, she said.

“We understand our partners have multiple vendors to choose from and so we focus on making it a no-brainer to lead with Oracle,” she said.

Today, OPN counts more than 20,000 partners among its ranks, including more than 1,000 specialized partners – a testament to the program’s inclusiveness and strength.

“Our partners are winning because of what Oracle and OPN offers,” Smyers said.

Thin Is In with Lenovo’s 91z All-in-One Desktop

Sponsored Video — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:52:27 +0000

Corporate America has had a love-hate relationship with all-in-one computers – although they love the idea of the small footprint of the all-in-one, they hate the fact that traditionally the machines are more expensive, difficult to service and don’t support additional monitors.

That was then, and this is now, with Lenovo’s ThinkCentre Edge 91z all-in-one desktop, offering the small footprint, flexibility and competitive price tag companies are looking for.

William Domenici, ThinkCentre brand team lead at Lenovo, offers more insights in this FastChat Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“This is out first endeavor on the desktop side taking our really successful design that we integrated into our ThinkPad Edge [notebook] … so it’s got a completely new aesthetic – a nice, clean, simple look,” said Domenici, For our partners we see it as a great bridge between a commercial and a consumer product because we’re definitely seeing the consumerization of a lot of the devices that are coming into businesses, so we see this appealing definitely in the small-to-medium-business arena as well as on up into the enterprise.”

The Edge 91z, which Lenovo debuted in May 2011, offers up to Intel i7 Quad Core processors, 8 GB of DDR3 memory, 80 GB of solid state-drive storage or a 1TB hard drive and optional 1GB of ATI discrete graphics, making it workhorse of a machine. Couple that performance with its footprint – the Edge 91z measures only 2.5 inches deep – and you’ve got an all-in-one ideal for space-challenged areas but perfect for just about any environment.

“We definitely see the Edge 91z, because of its visual appeal and clean look and design, fitting well in, say, doctor’s offices, [but] obviously with the small footprint it works in any place where space is a premium,” Dominici said. “Education has been a place where definitely it’s important. Plus, it [can come with] 1GB discreet graphics and so we see it appealing as well to graphic designers because of the additional graphics support.”

Lenovo resellers that traditionally have sold desktops and laptops may want to take a look at the Edge 91z and the all-in-one market in general – a market that Lenovo has seen grow 54 percent year over year in the commercial space.

“We’ve gotten past some of the issues that historically all-in-ones have had in business: they weren’t serviceable – our all-in-ones are serviceable; they didn’t support external monitors; they were a lot more expensive than a traditional desktop and monitor combined,” Dominici said. “We’ve been able to get past those issues and really address those pain points for our customers. With that said, we see the market growing and growing.”

Intronis Launches Cloud Storage Upgrade for MSPs, VARs

Sponsored Video — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:25:40 +0000

The fall season is almost upon us, and as the air gains a morning chill and trees start to shed their leaves, Intronis is gearing up for its annual Fall release — a major cloud storage upgrade designed for MSPs and VARs. Ted Roller, VP of channel development at Intronis, describes the strategy in a FastChat Video.

“Intronis is first and foremost a channel company … and part of our commitment to the channel is something we call MPG, which is manhours per gig,” said Roller. “What that means is we are constantly striving from a development perspective — and really everywhere else in the company also — to lower the amount of time MSPs have to spend managing their backup, which we believe is going to increase the amount of time they spend focusing on other aspects of their business like sales and marketing, which is what drives revenue.”

Roller provides deeper insights in this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And it is with the channel in mind that Intronis updated its cloud backup and recovery offering to include features that make it easier for companies to manage multiple clients and multiple machines.

“First and foremost … we’ve set up the ability now with notifications such that you can get notified on a group of computers as opposed to an individual computer, which can be hugely advantageous if you’re managing by company or by group or by department,” Roller said. “In addition to that we’ve given you the ability to set up preferences in groups as well, so you can set up templates to deploy backup sets to an entire group of users as opposed to an individual computer, which means you can do it department by department at your customer site as opposed to individual by individual.”

The third major update – and one that Roller believes will have a huge impact on its MSP customers – is integration with Autotask’s IT business management software platform. “For those partners out there who are using Autotask they know the integration is going to give them the ability to more effectively report to their customers on a monthly and quarterly basis more effectively and [efficiently] — they’re just going to spend a whole lot less time working in multiple platforms and more time working in a single platform.”

The Fall release is slated to be available Sept. 13, 2011, and MSPs can learn more about the offering by talking with Intronis at any number of trade events the company is slated to attend, including the ASCII, ConnectWise and MSPWorld events. Alternatively, he said, interested customers can log on to the Intronis website to learn more.

“We are all pretty excited about it, watching the sales folks go through … the Fall release and understanding the value,” Roller said. “It’s going to be a pretty exciting time at Intronis.”

Astaro: Acquisition by Sophos Good for Security Partners

Charlene OHanlon — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 04:15:18 +0000

Roughly three months after Astaro was acquired by Sophos, the unified threat management vendor is praising the ease of the integration of the two companies’ technology and partner communities.

“The leveragability of both the Sophos partner base and the Astaro base has been very complimentary,” said Bob Darabant, vice president Americas at Astaro. “ The integration has gone very smoothly [and has been] very successful, and in my 27 years of experience in the channel I haven’t seen a smoother transition ever happen.”

Darabant shared deeper thoughts in this FastChat video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Indeed, Astaro hasn’t had to spend much time keeping its partners happy since the acquisition. “We actually have gone out on a limb to provide a forum for our partners to call into — we’ve done webinars and webcasts, we’ve done education training for individual partners … so we’ve actually done a really good job on both sides of communicating the value proposition behind the endpoint security and the network security side,” Darabant said. “For the most part partners are looking to make more money and having more ammunition in their bag to do so, they’re very happy about it.”

Because of this, Astaro has been able to expand its partner reach into certain verticals, targeting resellers in health care, education, retail, library market, construction, and state and local government.

Additionally, Astaro is opening its ranks to managed service providers, Darabant said. “We are getting more MSPs that are looking for a managed services offering by using either the endpoint security or the network security as a vehicle to offer services to their end user customers,” he said “It’s been very exciting – we’ve had some really good traction over the last six or seven months.”

To keep up the momentum, Astaro has developed a “Success with Astaro” campaign, which aims to provide its channel partners with the support they need to increase their customer base.

“We really are all about partner relationships so when we talk about success with Astaro that means not just the deal of the day or what end users are looking for,” Darabant said. “We are actually looking to broaden our channel capabilities – have [our partners] make more money and give them the opportunities in particular vertical market sectors by providing them with marketing tools and collateral and [necessary] things … they need to go out there and attack the community and make more money.”

Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1: Partner Opportunities

Sponsored Video — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:00:23 +0000

Reputation-based security is not a new technology, but it has long lacked the ability to deal with files that are neither “good” nor “bad.” But Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1, features new technology that not only recognizes those files of unknown reputation but also deals with them as customers see fit.

Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 includes Insight, which identifies files that don’t show up on white lists or black lists and enables users to create risk profiles for those files, and SONAR, which constantly checks the behavior of files determined to be “good” files for any changes in behavior. If a file’s behavior does change, Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 can quarantine that file to protect the network at large.

Randy Cochran, Symantec’s VP of channel sales, Americas, offers deeper insights in this FastChat Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“We’ve really gone to the next level with Insight and identified those files that have no reputation – that have not been on the Internet very long and what do you do with those?” said Cochran. “Our partners can … work with their customers to set a risk profile for those. You can set some parameters that say, for example, if it hasn’t been on the Internet for at least six months or if it doesn’t have at least 10,000 downloads then I don’t want it on my network. It’s really a comprehensive approach to good lists, bad lists and no list at all.”

In addition to Insight and SONAR technology, Symantec has also increased the performance of Symantec Endpoint Protection. The latest version is 3.5 times faster and uses two-thirds less memory than its closest competitor, Cochran said.

“We’ve really beefed up the capability as well as increased the performance and we’re really excited about what that means for our partners,” he said.

Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 also includes features that make it a good fit in virtualized environments, Cochran said, such as support for virtual client tagging, virtual image exception and shared insight cache. “We’ve been working with a lot of virtualization vendors out there and we’ve designed the product to [provide] a seamless approach to securing that infrastructure. … When you combine all [the new features], you get up to 90 percent reduction in disk I/O so we really did do a lot to support the virtual environment as well as the physical environment.”

Symantec partners working in either environment have myriad opportunities to sell Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1, Cochran said, since the latest version is both robust and flexible.

“Having a secure platform and really protecting your data is important to everyone. Data is the No. 1 asset behind your people … so you need to protect it. We’re excited about how partners can differentiate (through the new technology), how they can maximize (through cross-sell and upsell opportunities) and how they can accelerate (by wrapping their own services offerings around SEP 12),” he said.

Combined CenturyLink/Qwest Creates New Channel Opportunities

Charlene OHanlon — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:00:55 +0000

When telecommunications carrier Qwest Communications International merged with CenturyLink in April 2011 to become CenturyLink, the results included a nationwide footprint representing what is now the third largest telecommunications provider in the United States. For Qwest’s and CenturyLink’s existing and potential partners, the merger also opened up a plethora of new opportunities.

“With the combined CenturyLink/Qwest product set, VARs now have an expanded soup-to-nuts offering for their end-user customers,” said Blake Wetzel, vice president of Sales, CenturyLink Business Channel Alliance. “Now partners have the right product set to deliver the right solutions to their customers, whether it’s an MPLS solution, a voice solution, a cloud solution, or even managed services – all of those are available to our business partners.”

Wetzel shared more insights in this FastChat Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

As part of that effort, CenturyLink Business has combined the channel programs of both companies into a new program it calls CenturyLink Channel Alliance. The new program pulls together the organizations and relationships of both companies into one consolidated offering aimed at the entire ecosystem of former Qwest and current and new CenturyLink business partners, be they traditional telecom partners, VARs, systems integrators and even some partners that are so evolutionary they can’t be labeled. “We continue to evolve our partner program to embrace more scope and reach for our VARs and our other business partner relationships,” Wetzelsaid.

And as more traditional IT solution providers move to expand their services portfolio into voice, having a relationship with a vendor such as CenturyLink, which has a history in both voice and data services, can help smooth the migration.

Aside from voice and data, CenturyLink Business offers a strong portfolio of managed services and cloud solutions to truly provide end-to-end services to its business partner base.

“You’re hearing a lot about cloud solutions these days – we’ve actually been delivering cloud- solutions for years and VARs now are becoming more and more aware of what those solutions can do for end users,” Wetzel said. “In addition, we have our total national portfolio of voice services and data services that reach across the country and even globally, so our business partners now have a very robust portfolio of services they can work with.”

Xerox eConcierge Service: Recurring Print Revenues for VARs, MSPs

Sponsored Video — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:43:01 +0000

The VAR Guy FastChat Video interviews Greg Mills, VP of eCommerce at Xerox Corp. Mills describes how the Xerox eConcierge service can help VARs, MSPs and other channel partners to develop recurring revenues from print services.

“eConcierge is a Xerox service; it’s a cloud-based supplies management system” for channel partners and their customers, according to Mills. “It’s the easiest way for end-users to monitor their printers and purchase supplies when needed.” Partners, in turn, can brand the service as their own and capture lucrative supplies revenues. Mills explains more in the FastChat:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The key point: Only about 10 percent of channel partners capture all of the printer supply revenues within their universe of opportunity. The eConcierge system allows partners to capture all of that overlooked revenue, Mills said.

For example: A $1,000 printer or a $2000 multi-function device will generate about three times to five times that amount in supplies revenue over the device’s lifetime. eConcierge is designed to manage that lifetime of revenue opportunities for the channel partners.

How much money is at stake? The typical printer VAR or MSP with 50 customers supports about 12 printer devices per office. Over the course of a year, if those devices are on eConcierge, roughly $250,000 in incremental supplies revenue can be captured, Mills said.

eConcierge also supports a cross-platform strategy. The cloud-based system supports all sorts of devices and network configurations, with more coming online regularly. On the front end, Xerox eConcierge supports Windows and Mac networks. And the service also addresses key security requirements found within key vertical markets like financial services and the public sector.

InFocus: Audio-Visual Partner Opportunities for VARs & MSPs

Charlene OHanlon — Fri, 13 May 2011 14:20:17 +0000

The term “audio-visual” isn’t bandied around much these days, relegated instead to the old-school slide projectors and film spools that used to dominate public education. But InFocus is hoping the term will spur a new opportunity for the channel as the next generation of audio-visual components — DLP and digital projectors, slim displays and the underlying wireless networks that facilitate collaboration from any location – come into view.

InFocus President and CEO Robert O’Malley believes the convergence of communications and IT networks has spurred another technology convergence – of IT and the audio-visual space. O’Malley shares those perspectives, and more, in this FastChat Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“We’ve been talking about convergence of technology for some time, and the technologies have converged – everything is digital, everything is on an IP transport,” he said. “What hasn’t converged are the applications and the channels. We’re now seeing that start to happen more – we’re starting to see channel partners pick up IP infrastructure and add to that AV applications.”

The company is on target to unveil a new hardware offering in June 2011 that InFocus believes will resonate well with its channel partners, especially those looking to dive deeper into the collaboration pool.

“What we’re seeing now is more and more channel partners starting to take up AV applications as an area of expertise because these applications are fitting in right squarely into their customers’ businesses,” he said.

MSPs in particular are well-positioned to add value through InFocus’ technology without doing a lot of heavy lifting, since most already have an IP network in place. “They can now start to add to that infrastructure, which is going to increase their revenue with their current customers,” O’Malley said.

“We also think adding applications like AV applications and security applications are going to allow [the channel] to go out and acquire new customers, which is another source of revenue for the managed service providers.”

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Avnet: Opportunities Abound in the Government Space

Charlene OHanlon — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 02:50:41 +0000

Solution providers working in the government vertical know it can be feast or famine depending on the budget whims of those in charge. And navigating the sea of red tape and committees often found within the halls of government entities – from local town halls to federal buildings and even educational institutions – sometimes requires a trusty and skilled navigator.

Avnet Technology Solutions is hoping to help solution providers make sense of – and find success in – the government vertical. The distributor’s GovPath division provides a unique set of technology solutions and expertise within federal, state and local governments and the education market, providing its channel partner customers with the necessary tools and resources to identify and capitalize on market opportunities.

The term ‘government’ encompasses a number of different markets, each with its own unique characteristics, said Mike AtLee, national director of government & education at Avnet Technology Solutions. Understanding that and providing the correct resources for each of those markets is GovPath’s goal.

FastChat Video

AtLee explained the strategy in this FastChat Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“We’ve associated ourselves with a number of industry leaders in research and data – business analysts, if you will, in those particular markets – to identify opportunities and work with our partners,” AtLee said.

In the federal space, GovPath works with FedSources, a Washington, D.C.-based company that identifies federal opportunities for partners. For education-focused opportunities, GovPath has contracted with the Center for Digital Education. The Center for Digital Government, meanwhile, identifies state and local opportunities. “So we match talent to task and provide [them with that information], and we wrap that with a company called Carroll Publishing, which defines … exactly who you need to contact and how to get in touch with them.”

But identifying the opportunity is only part of GovPath’s commitment to its channel partner customers, AtLee said. “We start with planning – we sit down with partners and really plan an extensive model together based on where they are, what they do, what their core competencies are, their capabilities and what markets they are interested in. Then we run that through something we call SolutionsPath, which is really the ability to track something from the beginning to the end to make sure [partners] are closing and getting the business opportunity they need.”

SolutionsPath encompasses a number of tools, including SolutionsPath Playbooks, which highlight key supplier-neutral market opportunities as well as align leading suppliers’ products and services to address key customer challenges and priorities; SolutionsPath Demo Center, which provides live remote demonstrations of key technology solutions featured in the Playbooks; SolutionsPath Demand Center, a plug-and-play tool that creates and deploys original demand-generation campaigns specifically geared toward end users in targeted markets; and SolutionsPath Services, professional and managed services including targeted assessment services and the sales and technical professionals to augment partners’ existing service offerings.

“It’s all about providing them with the expertise that’s required to win business in a complex market like the government,” AtLee said.

Asigra: Excelling in the Cloud Backup and Recovery Space

Sponsored Video — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:04:09 +0000

Cloud storage backup and disaster recovery provider Asigra is turning heads in the service provider space, not only for its technology – which works with an impressive list of cloud service providers – but also for the robustness of its offerings and its MSP-friendly stance.

The company should know its business – Asigra has been around since 1986, offering offsite backup and recovery well before the cloud became the cloud. In June 2010 Asigra updated its flagship Asigra Cloud Backup with a plethora of new features including support for laptop data protection, Asigra’s API, and the ability for users to bulk-purchase licenses for virtual servers and manage them on their own.

In our latest FastChat video, Eric Strong, vice president of North American sales at Asigra, introduces viewers to the company that has helped make cloud backup a pervasive technology.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Strong points out that Asigra only sells through channel partners, both MSPs and resellers – it doesn’t compete against them by offering its own cloud backup service. The company offers both on-premise and managed cloud flavors of its technology to meet the needs of all its channel partners.

Asigra has a structured process for onboarding new partners to ensure the highest level of success. “This helps them understand what needs to happen in 30, 60 and 90 days,” Strong says, and includes sales, marketing, technical and executive support.

Clearly, Asigra is on the right track with its technology and its channel program. We expect to hear even more from Asigra as the cloud becomes even more ubiquitous.

Tenzing: Cloud Services Delivery the Next Frontier

Charlene OHanlon — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:15:51 +0000

Software-as-a-service providers know the importance of having a good hosting provider for their applications. Ditto for e-commerce providers – both groups know their hosting provider can literally make or break their company.

Tenzing also understands this, and has built itself a reputation as a premier hosting provider specializing in SaaS and e-commerce delivery. With its EVEREST managed hosting platform, Tenzing is able to meet the unique requirements of SaaS and e-commerce providers, including a growing list of managed services offerings to complement its hosting capabilities.

Indeed, over the past six months or so, Tenzing has partnered with a number of vendors to create a robust managed services portfolio, including Alert Logic to offer managed security services, and Apprenda to offer managed application services, and in February 2011 launched its own partner program to enable integrators, VARs and other partners offer its managed hosting services.

Next up for Tenzing: the cloud. The company now offers managed private clouds as part of its hosted services, and Will Childs, SaaS practice director at Tenzing, said it’s a natural evolution for a company so immersed in SaaS. Childs describes the strategy in this FastChat Video interview:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“About two and half years ago when we got into the SaaS and e-commerce segments, we realized there was a bit of a gap in the market. Cloud was very much an emerging paradigm shift, but cloud was very much a technology focus [for us],” he said. “It wasn’t always a great fit for certain types of applications, so we built what we class as an ‘enterprise cloud,’ which has been built on mature ITIL and ITSM segments. … Rather than being just a pure infrastructure-as-a-service offering it’s actually a cloud service delivery platform, so we can … work with that client to ensure it’s really a services delivery platform that can take all facets of the business.”

He noted Tenzing’s history in the SaaS and e-commerce space gives it a unique edge over its competitors. “Our focus really helps our clients to understand what the risks might be downstream … and we can help them de-risk and meet their liabilities downstream with their clients.”

The VAR Guy » Sponsored Videos

Dot Hill Bolsters Storage Partner Program for SMB VARs

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Oracle: Partners Find Expanded Opportunities Through OPN

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Thin Is In with Lenovo’s 91z All-in-One Desktop

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Intronis Launches Cloud Storage Upgrade for MSPs, VARs

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Astaro: Acquisition by Sophos Good for Security Partners

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Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1: Partner Opportunities

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Combined CenturyLink/Qwest Creates New Channel Opportunities

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Xerox eConcierge Service: Recurring Print Revenues for VARs, MSPs

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InFocus: Audio-Visual Partner Opportunities for VARs & MSPs

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Avnet: Opportunities Abound in the Government Space

FastChat Video

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Asigra: Excelling in the Cloud Backup and Recovery Space

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Tenzing: Cloud Services Delivery the Next Frontier

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