Dell Virtualization Service To Be Sold By Partners

The computer manufacturer broadened its virtualization portfolio Wednesday with new servers and storage devices. The new products are part of a push to capture dollars in the SMB market while expanding its services footprint.

In conjunction with the virtualization hardware, Dell is continuing to make headway into service offerings. Dell lifted the curtain on its Remote Virtualization Readiness Assessment (Remote VRA) service for SMBs that have 50 physical servers or less.

"Rather than putting bodies on site, we want to reduce costs and help customers make good decisions by leveraging remote tools and staff for up-front work," said Peter Klanian, senior manager, MSP channels, Software-as-a-Service division, for Dell.

Remote VRA will be sold by Dell directly to customers. The Round Rock, Texas-based computer manufacturer has staff on the payroll that will provide Remote VRA services to customers, Klanian said.

However, that doesn't mean that solution providers won't be able to partake in Remote VRA services as well.

"As [Dell] enables new products and services, our strategy is to make them available to channel partners," Klanian said. "This is a Dell-branded service and delivered by Dell, but we're enabling it to the channel by letting our partners resell it."

The fact that Dell would make the move to expand its service offerings isn't a surprise to Peter Kennedy, CEO of Kraft & Kennedy, a New York-based solution provider.

"It was inevitable that Dell would move in this direction -- but they need partnerships to do it," he said.

Kennedy, who is part of Dell's partner advisory council, hopes that the computer manufacturer realizes that solution providers, on the whole, offer something Dell might not be able to deliver in a comprehensive fashion.

"The reality of the situation is that Dell has a finite set of technical resources that they can deploy," he said. "They don't have anywhere near the depth of bench they need to offer this program on a broad basis. The company needs relationships and partnerships with people like us with technical depth and experience."

To that end, as part of the Remote VRA services, Dell will provide solution providers a SKU that they can take to the market and resell rather than earn a commission, he said. The company and not the solution provider, then, delivers the services that are agreed upon in the contract.

"Dell delivers the services and takes the risk for the SLA, but we allow partners to sell the service," Klanian said.

While Dell may be taking the risk for delivering services, Kennedy is somewhat concerned about exactly what will be delivered to customers. After all, with Dell allowing its partners to sell Remote VRA as a SKU, channel partners have a right to be concerned about the type of solutions that are being delivered through a service they sold.

"Who is going to build the best practices portfolio," Kennedy asked. "Am I expected just to turn over the customer without knowing any best practices or standards Dell will be using? Will they do it at their own whim? At the end of the day, it's all about quality of service and doing the job right."

Because the Remote VRA services are still new to the company, the offerings aren't widespread -- yet. Rather than opening up the program to general availability, Dell is currently allowing only certified Enterprise Architecture partners to offer the services to customers.

"We don't want to overcommit right out of the gate. We have resources that need to be leveraged to deliver the services, so going to general market at first isn't the right way to go. But, there will be an opportunity to expand in the future," Klanian said.