IBM To Partners: Help Us Up Data Center Efficiency
The conference, formerly known as PartnerWorld and, before that, the Business Partner Executive Conference (BPEC), is expected to draw over 1,000 C-level executives from IBM's solution providers and vendor partners.
It is the first time for IBM to present new initiatives since the company reorganized the way it works with solution providers as part of a plan to improve its focus on the midmarket channel that included a reorganization of its Small and Midsize Business Group, said Bill Zeitler, senior vice president of the Armonk, N.Y.-based company's Systems and Technology Group.
IBM in January unveiled plans to sharpen its midmarket channel focus via a $100 million marketing blitz for 2008 combined with new incentives for channel partners to increase their commitment to the vendor.
IBM will use its Business Partner Leadership Conference to introduce a new partner alliance for enterprise data centers, Zeitler said. "There is a tremendous opportunity for enterprises to look at their data center infrastructures, how to make them more green, how to consolidate them," he said. "Partners have an important part to play with hardware and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Partners are our primary route to market."
Rich Lechner, vice president of enterprise systems at IBM's Systems and Technology Group, said the new enterprise data center initiative is focused on increasing energy efficiency and the use of virtualization and consolidation technologies, along with increasing service management and system resiliency and availability.
To do that, IBM this week plans to unveil a new business partner program which provides data center specialization certification. Lechner said the program has two tiers, a base tier for solution providers who invest a minimum amount of time in data center technology, and an advanced tier for those who invest in more advanced data center skills.
IBM will support those who get certified at the advanced level with co-marketing resources, help with assessment, participation in pre-sales activities, and logos showing their certification, he said.
IBM is also involving its hardware and software partners in a new alliance program to promote industry-wide standards that allow standardized measurements of advances in data center efficiency, Lechner said.
For example, he said IBM is working with the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) to develop standards to measure heat output. The company also has involved The Green Grid, a consortium of vendors working on advancing energy efficiency in data centers, in the alliance program. IBM is a founding member of The Green Grid, Lechner said.
The data center lies in virtualization, which is why IBM's data center plans fit right in with the channel, said Roger Luca, senior vice president of Mainline Information Systems, a Tallahassee, Fla.-based IBM solution provider.
"This plays right into server and storage virtualization, including disk and tape," Luca said. "We're constantly helping customers with data moves and migration. So it's a natural move for us to step up to the next level."
Energy efficiency in the data center is more critical than it has ever been, and IBM has always had the most energy-efficient line of servers, Luca said.
"If we can help customers consolidate and collapse their IT infrastructures, it's an important service for them," he said. "I'm almost positive that if you look at dollars to dollars, IBM has the most efficient products. IBM mainframes are unique in their energy efficiency and in their footprint efficiency. IBM Blade Center blade servers set the standard for energy efficiency. You can't find a better combination for energy efficiency and virtualization than IBM's servers and storage."
IBM's enterprise data center initiatives will start to be beta-tested in May, and will be rolled out during the third quarter, Lechner said.
IBM will use its Business Partner Leadership Conference to look at new ways to help solution providers target rapidly-growing markets, including new geographies and new niche markets, said Mark Shearer, vice president of business systems for IBM's Systems and Technology Group.
IBM is putting a special emphasis on working with solution providers to increase business in high-growth geographies, especially in the "BRIC" countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, where channel revenue grew 26 percent in 2007 over 2006, Shearer said.
IBM will also discuss expanding its Industry-Vertical Program aimed at building ecosystems of local solution providers and ISPs who can deliver pre-integrated business solutions.
In the years since it was started, the Industry-Vertical Program has developed integrated solutions targeted at over 160 sub-industry verticals, mainly for IBM's Power processor-based server platforms, Shearer said.
This year, he said, IBM is expanding the program to all its server platforms and to more geographies in the past.
"For example, we might target winemakers in Northern Italy, or farm machinery manufacturers in Australia, or labor unions in New York," he said. "To really grow in the midmarket, we have to be really relevant to the industries present in specific cities. We have found that the more specific in our market approach, the more effective it is."
Which sub-industry verticals to target is determined by IBM and business partners in the local markets based on the local economy, Shearer said.