ADC Specialist Kemp Technologies Launches First Partner Program

Traffic management vendor Kemp Technologies launched its first partnership program to relay application delivery controllers (ADC) to channel partners in the U.S and Canada, the company announced Tuesday.

The partner program will provide reseller partners with sales and technical support to drive its load balancer sales, said Atchison Frazer, CMO of N.Y.-based Kemp Technologies.

"We've done well in the channel with over a thousand partners so for them it's a new area segment for a new revenue opportunity," said Frazer, who was recently appointed to the CMO position in November. "We can provide this solution for the VAR at a lower discount structure where they can benefit from for higher margin."

[Related: Cisco Tells Solution Providers To Focus On The Apps ]

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Kemp's load balancer ADC products are currently available as a hardware or virtual appliance, and it also offers cloud-enabled versions, which will allow partners to scale applications and gain margin, said Frazer.

"Since we deal with software, it's a low-cost acquisition and there is a greater opportunity to wrap services around the Kemp platform and realize margin," said Frazer. "[Kemp's ADC products] are distinguished in the marketplace by their ability to dynamically raise and scale applications and [their] affordability, ease-of-use benefits including time- and error-saving app workload templates for Microsoft Exchange." Kemp's partner program will especially benefit Microsoft-focused resellers, said Frazer.

"If you're a Microsoft-centric VAR, this is a new category that is a natural extension in delivering Exchange-related services," said Frazer.

Kemp's first partner through the program is Canada-based Victrix. This consulting organization is involved in technology verticals such as infrastructure, telecommunications, security and collaborative solutions including support for Microsoft's SharePoint, which aligns with Kemp, said Frazer.

"In the case of Victrix, not only are they Microsoft-centric, certified and trained from a Microsoft ecosystem, but they have that vertical market expertise and have a significant services business," said Frazer. "This particular partner has core competency in the technology verticals that align with Kemp, including infrastructure."

Jean Julien, vice president of partnerships and marketing at Victrix, is excited about becoming a Kemp partner, especially about leveraging its solutions.

"It is great because since Victrix is mostly a consulting organization, we are very proud of our specialists and we need to cover areas, since we're not box pushers," said Julien "We want to cover services where specializations are needed so we can become trusted advisors for clients and have Kemp for our solutions offerings."

The new partner program brings differentiation and margin from competition that makes it appealing for selling Microsoft-focused solutions, said Jean.

"We are a large Microsoft solution provider, and a lot of clients rely on multiple servers and Exchange. And, Microsoft provides the high availability, but [the services around those solutions are] not provided by Microsoft," said Jean. "You need a machine in front of those servers to manage the routing and the communications for multiple servers and provide this high level of availability and that's what Kemp provides."

Additionally the partner program will provide technical training, documentation, co-marketing and webinars, Frazer said.

"We are generating thousands of leads per month that get allocated by region to respective partners, so we are all about driving mutual business at a very low cost point and training, training, training," said Frazer.

NEXT: Looking For Prospective Partners

Currently, Kemp is looking for new partners that address the public sector, financial services and education vertical and are Oracle and Microsoft application-focused, said Frazer.

"With the application world, it's where we see more demand," said Frazer. "For this level, we're looking for a higher-level competency in the Microsoft world and a commitment to [consultancy] and adding value-added services around our software."

For 2014, Frazer said VARs should look at the prospects around applications.

"The big message here is that there has been a growth of apps, with 7,000 new apps developed from APIs. Six months from now you won't know what apps you need in running your business; it will be come more application-centric," said Frazer. "It's a huge opportunity for the VAR channel with the growth to scale, raise and optimize on demand as easily as you do your CRM, and that's the big opportunity."

PUBLISHED JAN. 14, 2014