ScienceLogic Launches Channel Program To Bring VARs Into The Mix

ScienceLogic launched a channel program Tuesday to enable VARs, a new class of partner for the hybrid cloud management vendor, to resell its platform directly to customers.

To broaden its channel beyond the MSPs who use ScienceLogic's platform to manage customer clouds, the Reston, Va., vendor introduced a program called ChannelLogic, Steve Kazan, ScienceLogic's senior director of channel development, told CRN.

"What we've discovered is that some of those managed services partners have been asked by their customers to buy ScienceLogic for them to set up on-premises or in their data centers," Kazan told CRN. "We are creating a channel program to give customers the ability to buy ScienceLogic either way."

[Related: ScienceLogic, Driven By Surging Demand For Microsoft's Cloud, Integrates Deep Monitoring Capabilities For Azure]

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The program aims to empower both types of partners with the right tools, products and messaging to tap a $25 billion hybrid IT market, he said.

ScienceLogic launched ChannelLogic with 10 inaugural VARs -- four of them existing MSPs and six new partners, Kazan said. He's looking at 30 others, and the goal is to sign 50 across North America by the end of the year.

"We're not shot-gunning this out," Kazan told CRN. "We're being pretty careful about who we're signing up and who will commit."

Previously, ScienceLogic only sold its platform direct to customers.

But Kazan, when he joined the company in November, saw a large degree of crossover between the managed services and resale sides of the channel.

"We've had a lot of success on the managed services side, but a whole section of the market was still open," Kazan said. "This is part of the growth strategy of the company."

Some of the new partners are joint-selling ScienceLogic's product with cloud orchestration solutions or other cloud services.

Integration with ServiceNow, SAP and Nutanix allows partners of those companies to add a greater level of visibility and automation to their management. "They get more out of their investments in those products with ScienceLogic," Kazan said.

"I think we'll find folks who are reselling cloud today, partners who are selling hybrid cloud technologies -- they are good targets for us and are very interested," Kazan told CRN.

While the goal was to add VARs to the mix, ChannelLogic also aims to facilitate the company's traditional MSP partners by providing them new tools to productize and monetize their offerings and manage their businesses better, he said.

MSPs might sell some services to large customers, but they typically don't manage the entire network. Being able to resell the platform adds another avenue of engagement.

Because ScienceLogic supports Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and IBM SoftLayer, as well as OpenStack and CloudStack-powered private clouds, it gives partners the flexibility to offer different clouds to their clients.

"What we find is there are clients out there hedging their bets, using multiple different cloud providers," Kazan said. "We want to be flexible in supporting all the different permutations of the cloud."

Andy Schroepfer, chief strategy officer at Hosting, an inaugural ChannelLogic partner, told CRN via email that his company, the largest managed services provider using the ScienceLogic platform, sees great potential in also reselling the product.

Because of its own success using the ScienceLogic platform to manage customer accounts, the cloud services provider based in Denver believes the platform offers value to businesses that would like to run it internally.

"Our experience has prompted us to engage with ScienceLogic together in the field to give our customers more options to adapt their own platforms, which can include us remotely managing a client’s IT environment," Schroepfer told CRN.