VMware Partner Connect offers flexibility, new tiers
VMware unveiled its long-awaited rebooted partner program, which introduces flexibility in earning competencies and rewards; more IT channel news from the week.
VMware has rolled out a revamped channel program that offers partners greater freedom to select competencies and rewards partners that deliver services on the company's full technology stack.
The VMware Partner Connect initiative represents a "complete [overhaul] of our partner program," said Jenni Flinders, VMware's global channel chief. She said the program maps to the company's strategic priorities and gives partners a "clear and easy path to define how they want to maximize opportunities with VMware."
The new partner program has been in the works for about 18 months. VMware has periodically updated partners on its progress. Richard Steeves, senior director of worldwide partner programs at VMware, said the program changes also aim to accommodate customers' digital transformation needs.
"As we continue to look to support our customers' digital transformation -- and support their need to run any app on any device on any cloud -- we needed to ensure we had the right partner with the right skill set," he said.
VMware partners can pursue individual competencies across areas such as hybrid cloud, which incorporates data center virtualization, digital workspace, application modernization and security.
VMware Partner Connect offers three tiers for its channel allies: Partner, Advanced Partner and Principal Partner. The Partner and Advanced Partner tiers are for partners that engage with customers at the traditional resale, transactional customer relationship level. Principal Partners must obtain Master Services Competencies and demonstrate the ability to build and deliver services on the VMware stack.
Principal Partners qualify for deployment and consumption incentives and receive priority treatment for VMware business planning and co-selling opportunities, according to VMware.
In other program moves, VMware will integrate the VeloCloud, Carbon Black and Pivotal partner programs into VMware Partner Connect over the course of this year. Flinders said the program's new structure will provide "easy plug and play" for integrating the channel initiatives of companies VMware acquires down the road.
Steeves said VMware Partner Connect marks "one of the largest transformations that VMware has brought to market in its partner ecosystem in upward of a decade."
IBM pursues public cloud growth with Infosys partnership
In a bid to build out enterprise deployments of IBM public cloud, IBM has expanded its partnership with global systems integrator Infosys.
Under the alliance, Infosys plans to target enterprise organizations in highly regulated industries, including financial services, insurance and healthcare, with IBM's public cloud offerings. Infosys said it will also look to incorporate Red Hat's open source products in enterprise deals. Infosys is the first global systems integrator to enlist in the IBM public cloud ecosystem.
[Infosys] is our first partner that is really advocating for everything around the IBM public cloud.
Bob LordSenior vice president of cognitive applications and ecosystems, IBM
"This is our first partner that is really advocating for everything around the IBM public cloud," said Bob Lord, senior vice president of cognitive applications and ecosystems at IBM.
Ravi Kumar S., president of Infosys, said IBM has differentiated its public cloud platform from competitors by zeroing in on enterprises' concerns for privacy, regulatory compliance, security and systems downtime.
Lord said while the IBM-Infosys partnership is an important step for building out IBM's public cloud presence, it doesn't represent a change in the vendor's overall channel strategy. "I think it is more of a focused effort of ... understanding what [Infosys'] needs are" and enabling Infosys to grow its IBM public cloud business, he said.
For example, IBM will provide Infosys with technical support for clients' cloud migrations. Additionally, the two companies will collaborate on activities such as creating proofs of concept, running cloud pilots and staffing Infosys' client innovation centers. "We have a joint go-to-market [and campaign investments] on joint assets ... and [will] drive IBM public cloud as one of the foundational pillars in cloud journeys," Kumar S. said.
Infosys runs several client innovation centers in North America, Lord noted. "The customers can come in, go through design-thinking sessions, and architect what their long-term infrastructure is going to be as an Infosys client. And IBM is part of that overall program," he said. Infosys will launch IBM public cloud practices in its innovation centers starting with its Hartford, Conn., and Raleigh, N.C., locations.
"Working with a systems integrator like Infosys, who has the client relationships and the credibility and honestly ... is actually where we want to be, so we can propagate the use case around [IBM public cloud] and what the product has to offer," Lord said.
Cameyo targets MSPs with app delivery platform
Cameyo, a Cary, N.C., company that provides a virtual application delivery platform, has launched a product for managed service providers.
Cameyo for MSPs aims to let service providers deliver Windows applications to any device and manage customers remotely from a single dashboard. CompuGroup Medical US and Xpertek IT are among Cameyo's initial MSP partners, according to the company. Cameyo for MSPs pricing starts at $10 per user, per month. The fee drops to as low as $1 per user, per month if bulk discounts are applied. Cameyo is offering MSPs a free trial of the product.
Andrew Miller, co-founder and CEO at Cameyo, said the MSP product was an offshoot of the company's prior work with MSPs.
"Throughout our ongoing relationships with these MSPs, we received multiple requests to give them the ability to manage all of their customers from one admin dashboard, rather than having them manage each customer in a separate console," he said.
MSPs also needed a simplified billing system, so Cameyo developed its Service Provider License Agreement model, which involves a single SKU.
Miller said he anticipates the MSP portion of Cameyo's business to reach 15% to 20% of its revenue in 2020, "and then growing considerably in 2021."
Other news
T-Systems, the IT services subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, will provide managed services and open a Google Cloud competence center under a new partnership with the cloud provider. The competence center will focus on large-scale workload migrations, SAP application modernization, the creation of AI and machine learning offerings, and cloud-based data warehouse and data analytics offerings, according to the companies. Last week, Google Cloud and SADA, a business and technology consultancy in Los Angeles, unveiled a $500 million partnering agreement targeting Anthos, data warehouse modernization and contact center AI.
SMBs lack the personnel and training to get the most out of their data analytics tools, according to a survey from Onepath, an MSP based in Atlanta. Fifty-seven percent of the 100-plus SMB managers and executives Onepath polled said they didn't have the right people to manage the implementation of data analytics offerings, while 62% said they could better use the tools if they had more training.
Mission, an MSP based in Los Angeles, said it is now the exclusive certified AWS SMB reseller of Cloudwick's Amorphic data and analytics platform for AWS data warehousing.
Pax8, a cloud distributor based in Denver, inked a partnership with Bitdefender, a cybersecurity vendor. Pax8 will deliver Bitdefender Cloud Security for MSPs.
Cisco expanded its Designed for Business portfolio for small-business buyers and added a button on its website to connect customers with a Cisco partner to buy directly on Cisco.com.
Samsara, a company in the industrial IoT market, updated its fleet and industrial channel partner program. Additions include Owl Academy, an online training program, and the Samsara Flywheel Certification program. According to Samsara, the latter program provides technical training on Samsara's industrial product offerings and how to build services around them.
Managed cloud services provider Rackspace opened an office in Dubai, UAE, as part of a push into the Middle East. Rackspace said it currently has more than 500 customers in the region.
Managed cloud services provider Rackspace opened an office in Dubai, UAE, as part of a push into the Middle East. Rackspace said it currently has more than 500 customers in the region.
CoreView, a SaaS management platform vendor, is partnering with Metsys, a digital transformation services provider in France.
Accenture named Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tom Lounibos as managing director of Accenture Ventures.
Cognition360, which provides a data analytics platform for MSPs using ConnectWise software, appointed Aaron Kennedy as its CEO.
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