StrataScale Seeks Partners To Sell Hosted Infrastructure Services
Company:
Headquarters: Sacramento, Calif.
Technology Sector: Infrastructure
Key Product: IronScale
Year Founded: 2007
Number of Channel Partners: Recruiting first partners now
Ideal Channel Partner: Midmarket-focused solution provider
Why You Should Care: StrataScale's hosted server offering allows control of the entire IT infrastructure, including instant provisioning and dynamic reconfiguration of servers, storage, security and networks, on-demand at any time via a Web portal.
The Lowdown: StrataScale earlier this month launched its first channel partner program to bring on resellers of its IronScale on-demand managed server hosting solution.
IronScale features auto-commissioning and auto-provisioning of servers, allowing solution providers to expand their managed services practice, according to the company. The offering can bring up a server environment in minutes and it also features on-demand real-time control of servers, security, storage and network management from anywhere, according to the company.
"We released our first product in December 2008 and have recently engaged in our go-to-market strategy. What's become clear to us is the emergence of managed services, SaaS, cloud computing as one of the few growth areas of 2009," said Bob Vincent, CEO and general manager of StrataScale, a wholly owned subsidiary of RagingWire Enterprise Solutions.
The Sacramento, Calif.-based company's new partner program includes product training, presales technical support, dedicated channel sales manager and inside sales support, pricing discounts, a partner Web portal, demonstration accounts and an ROI tool and pricing calculator, all built to ensure that the design and implementation of IronScale automated hosting solutions satisfy each customer's unique business requirements. The company is currently recruiting SMB- and midmarket-focused solution providers, as well as MSPs.
StrataScale touts IronScale as the first managed server hosting solution, or infrastructure-as-a-service. The company has a 200,000-square-foot Tier 4 data center that includes full network management, backup, replication, failover, security and management for multiple operating systems and VMware, Vincent said. StrataScale intends to focus its sales efforts through channel partners and is negotiating with two national distributors to bring IronScale to a broader reach of partners than it could build quickly itself, said Glenn Young, senior manager of channels.
"Our focus is not around the cost of the end customer, but what you'll see is our real focus on economies of scale and cost reduction for MSPs themselves," Young said.