This spring, NexGen Storage, which makes hybrid storage appliances that utilize PCIe flash storage rather than SSDs, announced a Priority Partner Network channel program that completely revamped the program it had in place previously. Now the company has added a major supplement to it, a new MDF component that increases partner margins.

“This is more of an addition to the program, not a change to it,” said Nader Soudah, NexGen’s Vice President of Worldwide Channels. “When we announced a revamp of the program in May, we announced new margin incentives. These add-ons to the program are a further investment. We are adding to the margin structure through this ‘Double your Margin’ program.”

While this is not a relaunch of the partner program, the company itself has recently been relaunched. NexGen had previously been a separate company until it was acquired by Fusion-io in 2013. It then swiftly got another new master, SanDisk, when SanDisk acquired Fusion-io in 2014. While being in Fusion-io was a good fit, SanDisk was not. SanDisk’s objective in the acquisition was acquiring Fusion-io’s technology, not NexGen, and NexGen had some significant conflicts with SanDisk’s core portfolio. As a result, NexGen was spun back out into a new company again at the beginning of this year.

NexGen’s original margin program announced in the spring remains intact. It utilizes the deal registration program as the main vehicle for margins, to offer partners a higher degree of margin protection than was common until the last year, when some vendors began to transfer margin from regular deal pricing to deal registration to make it less economical for a new partner to swoop in late and grab a deal from the registered partner.

What is being announced now is for new business, and takes the form of MDF paid out after each quarter.

“It is for new business acquired by the partner, and is intended to encourage partners to invest more with us,” Soudah said. “The MDF complements our spiff rewards aimed at sales people. Added together, they really do offer twice the margin which is standard in the industry.”

Soudah said that while the MDF premium is a limited term bonus, it can be continued if it is successful.

“It has been announced for the rest of the year but we will consider extending it,” he said.

Soudah also indicated that NexGen’s Canadian distribution, which had not yet been finalized in the spring, is just about there now, as the company expands its Canadian presence.

“We have signed a partner addendum with SYNNEX Canada and Ingram Micro Canada is just about done,” he said. The programs are all active.” He noted they consider Canada a strong opportunity because their main focus had been on the U.S., and they have fewer Canadian partners than Soudah would like.

Nexgen sells entirely through partners. Their N5 Hybrid Flash Arrays are commonly deployed in VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and other virtualized environments with multiple, mixed application workloads.