EMC is expanding its Velocity Service Provider Program by adding more tiers to help cloud service providers differentiate themselves, and by making it easier for traditional solution providers to take advantage of the services offerings of EMC and its service providers.
The expansion is focused on growing both the number of cloud service providers working with EMC as well as their ability to deliver services to their customers, said Michelle De Hertogh, senior director of global alliances and services provider marketing for the storage vendor.
"Our go-to-market focus is with service providers," De Hertogh said. "EMC decided to not stand up a cloud. So we need partners."
[Related: EMC Moves Enterprise, Cloud, Services Business To The Channel]
EMC is looking to better engage with cloud services providers by adding Backup-as-a-Service and Storage-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud solutions and reference architectures available to participants in the program.
The Backup-as-a-Service offering takes advantage of EMC's Avamar backup management software to enable the building of managed, hosted, or replicated cloud backup solutions. The SaaS solution offers secure cloud storage with enterprise-class security in partnership with Oxygen Cloud, a Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of private storage cloud technology that provides mobile access to a business' files stored on local or cloud storage.
The company also is looking to triple the number of service providers in its Velocity Service Provider Program, in part by moving away from merely inviting partners to join the program to opening the doors to partners to actively apply for membership, De Hertogh said. "We'll make it clear to partners what they need to do to join, how they can qualify, and what benefits they get," she said.
Solution providers who are currently members of EMC's Velocity Solution Provider Partner program will also be encouraged for the first time to join the Velocity Service Provider Program, De Hertogh said.
"For VARs who aren't interested in standing up their own cloud, but who have customers looking at cloud services, we'll help them resell the service from our other VSSPs," she said. "Also, we'll help our services providers build their own reseller programs for VARs. That is not something services providers will be required to do. But we run channels well. For those services providers who want to run a VAR program, we will help them."
The changes to EMC's Velocity Service Provider Program are scheduled to formally launch in January, De Hertogh said. EMC is introducing the enhancements now so that partners are not surprised when they become available, she said.
PUBLISHED NOV. 1, 2012
