EMC Rolls Out Managed Services To The Channel

The Hopkinton, Mass.-based storage giant on Wednesday unveiled the new services portfolio.

The new portfolio, which includes services previously available to EMC customers and partners as well as new services, creates a go-to-market strategy around what EMC calls the "six Cs," or six basic customer storage management needs, comprised of consolidation, continuity, comprehensive backup archive, content, compliance and classification, said Derrell James, senior vice president of technology solutions at EMC.

Many of EMC's services capabilities come from a series of acquisitions the company has made over the past two years, including content management services from Documentum and Microsoft-based services from Internosis.

EMC in January acquired Internosis, an IT services firm specializing in IT strategy, application development, infrastructure and managed services in Microsoft environments. That organization became EMC's Microsoft practice within its technology solutions group, with its services aimed primarily at EMC's channel partners.

John Orr, president of Stack Computer, an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider, said his company has been approached by EMC to either resell its services or subcontract its services. "They were looking for help in areas where we complement them in skill sets or resources," he said. "Their resources are mainly on the East Coast."

The first part of the portfolio is EMC Residency Services, under which customers that lack specific skill sets or experience bring in EMC services personnel to assist with day-to-day operations for a contracted time, typically nine to 12 months, said James.

The second, EMC Managed Utility Service, combines on-site services with billing based on actual storage consumption.

The third, EMC Storage Management Services, brings in EMC to manage a customer's storage environment, and is typically available to customers looking to manage capacity of more than 100 Tbytes.

James said that the Managed Utility Service and the Storage Management Services are usually for customers that purchase or lease EMC equipment but keep it at their own data centers. In some cases, EMC may actually own the equipment, but it is kept on the customer site, he said.

All these services are available for either resale or delivery by channel partners, said James. "It's consistent with EMC's professional services strategy," he said. "If we have channel partners who are focused on selling EMC products, and feel it is important to back it up with residency services, we will train them to participate in those services."

As an example, James pointed to backup and recovery services for either the Clariion storage array or Centera compliance appliance. "Backup and recovery is a big channel play," he said. "The same programs to train my team are also available to partners looking to certify in this area. They get our boiler plates, tools, and policies. After we're done, we look at the quality of their work as if they were EMC employees."

Stack Computer resells EMC's resources, including residencies, but does not do subcontracting. "Their sub-contracting rates are not attractive," he said. "Services are our value. We are part of EMC's ASN (Authorized Services Network) program, and credited to perform EMC services directly to customers."

The main reason Stack resells residencies instead of subcontracting them for EMC is the fact that residencies require a lot of time, and Stack's personnel are too expensive, said Orr.

"EMC has the breadth of people to do residencies," he said. "Stack people are like brain surgeons. You don't want to use brain surgeons to monitor the patient. EMC has brain surgeons and nurses."