Zlago Brings The Cloud Down to Earth For Small Businesses
Company:
Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
Technology Sector: Services
Key Product: Zlago Hosted Windows Desktops and Cloud Services
Year Founded: 2008
Number of Channel Partners: 50 in North America
Ideal Channel Partner: SMB-focused solution providers
Why You Should Care: Zlago offers a hosted desktop for small businesses, complete with e-mail, security and storage, that VARs can private-label to their customers.
The Lowdown: Zlago offers solution providers a way to provide a slew of hosted services without having to invest in a lot of infrastructure itself, according to CEO Michael Gold.
"We look at what are the 80 percent of services and applications that most SMBs use, and try to package them up [and offer them from a single] source. Those include your desktop, e-mail, backup, security, storage, and variety of business applications," Gold said. "Many businesses still want a mixed environment, but our bet is more will wanted hosted [services and applications] over time."
The company is looking for solution providers with strong SMB customer relationships who are ready to start integrating cloud services, said John Rice, vice president of channels at Zlago. In particular, Zlago hopes to attract the attention of distributors' partner communities like VentureTech Network, VARnex and TechSelect, but any solution provider in the managed services space is also a target.
Partners can expect to make margins between 25 percent to 40 percent bringing Zlago solutions to market, Gold said. Zlago launched its channel program in August and offers Webinars and other sales and marketing support to help VARs get on board, he added.
Kevin Gregg, vice president of business development and technical services at Connecting Point Las Vegas, said his company added Zlago because the solution provider can private-label the services to its own customers.
"I like the fact that they're flexible. They also have better expertise from a technical standpoint. When you're dealing with cloud services, it helps if [the vendor] is a little more tech savvy, if you will," he said.