Back in July, Citrix decided to cozy up to Ingram Micro and drop its other distribution partners. So it’s only natural to see those other disties form stronger alliances with other virtualization players.
Case in point: Avnet just announced a suite of services for its Sun Microsystems solution providers looking to go after their piece of the virtualization pie. These services are designed to help partners explain the rationale behind virtualization (so, for example, they can map solutions to company objectives and create a business case around the investment).
This partnership works out well for Sun, too (since it’s had problems in the past with both Ingram Micro and Tech Data). Sun’s number-one goal right now is to grow its business – and it’s attempting to do that through the channel (which currently accounts for about 70 per cent of its revenues). Aside from providing more incentives to partners, it’s also planning to double marketing funds this fiscal year over last.
Avnet bought Access Distribution – a Sun specialist – back in 2006. It naturally followed that Avnet expanded its relationship with Sun in 2007, becoming a value-added distributor for Sun for Oracle solutions.
Through that relationship, Avnet started offering bundled solutions around business intelligence, data warehousing, grid computing and maximum availability architecture. Back then, Avnet said it had only “scratched the surface” of opportunities that could result from its partnership with Sun. Now, that appears to be coming true.
The distie is pushing Sun servers as a platform for virtualizing data centres. Its new virtualization services fall under Avnet OneTech, which will include server assessments, technical support and demand generation. Part of this initiative will include financial reviews, to help business decision-makers understand the overall costs of virtualization, from leasing to licensing to power, as well as business leader presentations to provide executives with an explanation of the return-on-investment of virtualization.
Avnet will also be offering Reflex Security’s Virtual Security Manager (VSM) solution, which monitors virtualization environments and maintains a secure configuration for next-generation data centres.
The distie has also announced remote monitoring and management services that solution providers can integrate into their own offerings, without the capital investment. These services, part of OneTech Managed Services, include availability monitoring, preventative monitoring and remote management.
Back in 2007, the Avnet Partner Solutions Sun Division in the U.K. doubled its number of Sun resellers through a six-month program designed to bring more partners on board. This included improved training and “Focus Days” where resellers could meet Sun execs.
If Avnet is able to do something similar here, it won’t be grieving the loss of Citrix for very long.
