The distributor will connect partners in the U.S. and Canada with vetted app developers with competencies in three key areas: Big Data, mobility, and integration and migration.
The Acronis Backup Service complements last year’s Acronis Backup as a Service. While the latter is aimed at core cloud partners – service providers and MSPs – this new one is targeted at traditional software resellers, and lets them dip their toe in the cloud by having Acronis do most of the work.
The X-Series replaces the PowerConnect 2800, but is much more feature-rich and has a broader range of SKUs. Dell also added a smaller family, the N1500, to its fully managed N-series offerings.
Liaison has offered enterprise data integration and data management solutions for 15 years, but their new Alloy Platform features exceptionally agile micro-services architecture to handle modern data workloads and deliver the plumbing infrastructure which powers enterprise analytics.
Talari is particularly looking to add and support partners who will wrap services around their solution, something they think can serve as a focus area of a solution provider’s practice for the next decade.
Because BitTitan does not have a professional services arm, it has opted to provide high level professional services help to its partners on complex installs by certifying the BitTitan Cloud Rangers, Microsoft MVPs who are also fully certified on BitTitan products.
Polycom introduces new and more flexible criteria to reach higher partner levels, while at the same time requiring minimum sales thresholds at all levels and getting more rigorous about joint business plans for upper tier partners.
Arcserve believes consolidating with a single broadliner will strengthen their market presence as they continue to bring a range of new offerings to market.
GTS has done well in Canada with ScanSource and BlueStar, but on the advice of a partner they looked into Ingram Micro, and now hope to expand their partner base through them.
In the U.S., ScanSource will carry Mitel’s entire product line, but in Canada, where the core Mitel products do not go through distribution at all, ScanSource will be limited to the Aastra product line.
Nine separate bundles across the Windows, VMware and Linux platforms give SanDisk a broad range of “device+software” solutions for server-side solid-state caching.
Thursday’s Microsoft Big Data event featured a panel of Canadian service providers and customers, who offered some interesting insights about the state of Big Data in Canada.
Microsoft says its recent focus on and investments in the Big Data space have made it a key player. That carries with it new partner opportunities, even for smaller ones with a focused vertical strategy.
Like the Sage Advisor Dashboard introduced last year, the new Sage Net Promotor Score Program makes data Sage has collected from customers available to partners to help them improve customer satisfaction, and their business.
StorMagic is looking to re-engage with the channel and build up a strong channel business for its sophisticated solution aimed and priced for SMBs and ROBO environments, which will include more strong Canadian partners.
A reseller agreement announced last fall with HP led Scality to greatly simplify their software installation, which had previously required Scality to be involved because of the complexity.
Rubrik sees itself as a threat to every backup vendor, with an offering that will focus on the mid-market at first, and will be sold 100 per cent through the channel.