ScaleXtreme's Cloud Management Solution Lets Partners Move To Cloud At Their Pace

The Advanced Cloud Management solution is designed to not only integrate with current infrastructures but also have the flexibility to adapt as partners need additional scalability to add new technologies and capabilities to the system. The shift to new technologies has not been as rapid as some people thought, ScaleXtreme CEO Nand Mulchandani told CRN, which created the need for transitional products that can live well in both worlds.

"The startups have only focused on old or new because the rate that the apps have moved from old to new is not as crazy as people would have thought," Mulchandani said. "We have given [them] that bridge."

[Related: New Product Helps Application Developers Work Better In Amazon Cloud ]

Mulchandani said he sees the next generation transition centering on virtualization as more companies shift storage to a more scalable cloud. Now, the industry is moving into a new virtualization era that Mulchandani called "virtualization 2.0," where applications are more structured and partners are more aware of the capacity they are using and its resilience.

The key part of the product for partners, Mulchandani said, is to be able to provide a "bridge to the future" to transition both themselves and their clients from traditional physical servers to the cloud, or to live in a hybrid cloud. It gives partners, or their clients, the option to live for a while in transition, Mulchandani said, instead of being forced to decide to jump fully to the cloud or stay behind. That also includes application adoption, as new applications and capabilities can be tacked on one at a time as companies adjust and grow.

"As they start selling solutions to customer, they're bringing in the application refresh," Mulchandani said. "I think it's going to be a very key thing for VARs and resellers to be much more cloud aware."

Advanced Cloud Management works across many major public clouds, from Amazon Web Services to Verizon Terremark to Microsoft Azure. It can handle 15 different clouds right out of the box, Mulchandani said, and has already been adopted by many large Fortune 500 companies.

ScaleXtreme sells both through resellers and direct, selling around 40 percent and 60 percent respectively. However, Mulchandani said, the lower channel percentage is because the product is brand new, and he said the company hopes to move it to a more channel-focused selling model going forward.

"Our mix is shifting because we just got these products out the door. ... Over time, we're moving to a much more leveraged model," Mulchandani said.

He said he expects a lot of uptake in the reseller channel because it allows companies to offer the cloud more easily and enables them to do less on-premise work. Mulchandani said the SaaS model is also particularly appealing to the channel because it allows for an ongoing relationship with the customer and the ability to get more value for each sale acquired, making the time to value much quicker.

For partners, there is a standard discount arrangement as well as training for partner's internal feeds so they are fully able to implement and use all the product's functionalities.

Advanced Cloud Management is now available for general adoption, with a free trial on all models and add-ons.

PUBLISHED NOV. 26, 2013