Virtual Iron Launches Channel Program For Xen Platform

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Virtual Iron on Monday launched a global channel program called Channel One as it prepares to ship its first Xen-based virtualization platform.

Channel One is being targeted at a core group of channel partners -- including VARs, system integrators and consulting firms -- in each region to sell and service the Virtual Iron platform, due for general availability in early October.

Virtual Iron plans a 100 percent channel model and has lined up a number of partners in North America, Europe and Asia, including Akibia, Foedus, Enterico, LogicsOne and Continental Resources. The Lowell, Mass.-based software vendor will provide professional support to customers but not professional services, and it may allow VARs to offer level one, level two and level three support, company executives said.

"In this world of virtualization, market coverage though the channel will be absolutely critical," said Mike Grandinetti, vice president and chief marketing officer at Virtual Iron. "It's the fundamentally best way to go to market."

The Virtual Iron platform, which is in final beta testing at 20 companies, offers advanced virtualization and policy-based management for the open-source Xen hypervisor. The platform also features support for hardware-assisted virtualization in Intel and Advanced Micro Devices chips, unmodified 32-bit and 64-bit Linux and Windows operating systems and applications, symmetric multiprocessing-based systems and very large memory (96 Gbytes).

In the core virtualization arena, Virtual Iron will compete against other proprietary virtualization vendors, such as VMware and Microsoft. Virtual Iron also is trying to position itself as a high-end provider of virtual infrastructure management software for the data center, similar to VMware's VirtualCenter.

On the Xen front, Virtual Iron will compete against XenSource, a commercial spinoff of the open-source Xen project, which also is launching its first product next month. Virtual Iron, too, will take on Novell and Red Hat, which have incorporated the Xen hypervisor in their Linux distributions.

Solution providers say Virtual Iron will be a strong contender out of the gate because of its business model and robust technology.

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