The program, which Tech Data sees as a differentiator for them in the market, is designed to provide a repeatable cloud data migration and integration framework that will provide a proof of value in under 30 days.
Colin Blair, vice president, Data Analytics and Internet of Things at Tech Data
Tech Data has announced the availability of its new “30 Days to Cloud Analytics” program to resellers in the United States and Canada. The program is aimed at bringing solution providers into the cloud analytics space by providing the methodology to be able to do a proof-of-value around migrating, integrating and managing customers’ analytics workloads from data warehouses to the cloud.
“Analytics is an extremely big market, estimated at $120 billion,” said Colin Blair, vice president, Data Analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) at Tech Data. “Half of that is services driven, so it’s more than just a resell motion. At the same time, the analytics market is a very fragmented market, with a big host of vendors in it. What’s not fragmented though is the market opportunity, where analytics workflows are moving to the cloud. To get from perpetual license to the hybrid data management world requires moving analytics workloads from on-prem data to the cloud.”
The 30 Days to Cloud Analytics Program is designed to walk partners through the process by providing a proven, repeatable cloud data migration and integration framework.
“Our program is a comprehensive partner engagement,” Blair said. “It is composed of cloud resources and software, and is designed to provide a proof of value in under 30 days. For Tech Data partners, the real benefit here is speed to market. Demand for these solutions is no longer latent, but is very significant.”
The program begins with AWS, Microsoft Azure, the IBM Cloud, Google Cloud, and Informatica as participating vendors, and solutions designed around them to fit individual customer circumstances.
“Because the analytics market is so fragmented, we had to do some determination on where we would start,” Blair stated. “The frameworks themselves are vendor-agnostic, and can reach beyond these vendors, to fit nuances of both industry and use cases. We expect that we will enhance the offering with more suppliers and value-add. It is possible that we could also eventually go beyond providing a proof of value, and leverage the consulting services of Tech Data analytics specialist business units.”
There is no cost to Tech Data partners to participate.
“We’ve made the investment to create this offering, and aren’t charging for it,” Blair said. “Our goal is to help partners get to market in cloud analytics faster, with validated designs for hybrid data management. We will walk with them through three, four or five opportunities so they can see the opportunities they can drive. We think this will be a key differentiator for us in the market, that may appeal to resellers not working with Tech Data now, because it will demonstrate the type of value we can drive.”
Blair came to Tech Data with the Avnet Technology Services acquisition, having spent 18 years at Avnet. He said that Avnet had not previously had anything like this before.
“This is entirely net-new. We had some similar things in legacy tech solutions around mobility, and a program to accelerate that, but not analytics. We did have had analytics solutions for stadiums and venues, in sports and entertainment, and there was a model where it was consumed in the cloud, but it was nothing like we have done here. This leverages the strength of the new Tech Data with the Tech Data StreamOne cloud platform.”
Blair emphasized that this offering isn’t just aimed at specialty players and the enterprise data centre space, but at the broader Tech Data reseller base who serve the midmarket and SMB.
“Demand in the market for analytics has been strong, and there has been a natural trickle-down from large enterprises into midmarket and SMB,” he said. “This is very much a midmarket and SMB solution. In the past this is something that would have been handled by large SIs and niche service providers, but not now. At the same time, we know that it is still early on the cloud analytics curve. We feel, however, that a program like this is what is needed to increase adoption among partners.”
Blair said that Tech Data expects the 30 Day Program to do well in Canada.
“For Canada, this is a very viable option, and we expect that our Canadian reseller base should be very interested in this,” he said. “It hits that sweet spot of cloud consumption with analytics demand. We are confident that clients will ask Canadian resellers for solutions like this.”
