Virtual Iron Taps Tech Data To Take On VMware
Virtual Iron launched its Windows and Linux server virtualization and management products, which include the Virtual Iron Virtualization Manager, Virtualization Services and Open Source Virtualization platforms last December.
The Lowell, Mass.-based Virtual Iron has about 125 North American resellers and wants to grow that number to about 250 this year now that the software will be available through Tech Data's Advanced Infrastructure Solutions (AIS) division.
"We ultimately have an alignment with Tech Data because we thought AIS was the perfect bridge for us to go from single-tier to multi-tier distribution," said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer with Virtual Iron.
"We felt based on our own analysis that AIS was the perfect solution for us. Ingram has a longstanding relationship with VMware. Tech Data has no formal relationship with VMware. We felt we wanted to align with someone where there wasn't going to be an internal conflict," he said.
Virtual Iron's Channel One partner program has both authorized and premier tiers for partners, and premier partners that sell enough product are eligible for higher discounts from Tech Data, Grandinetti said. The company does offer direct sales on a limited basis at $499 per motherboard socket for up to 8 sockets, but encourages customers to go through resellers.
Aaron Schneider, director of sales engineering for Stamford, Conn.-based The Pinnacle Group, said that resellers and Virtual Iron will benefit from Tech Data's partnership.
"It is the only alternative in the market to VMware. If you're going to virtualize an enterprise data center it's the only other cost effective alternative out there right now," said Schneider.
The Pinnacle Group is a premier partner and Schneider said that the company's partner program and support rate high. "We've had a very good experience with them."
In addition to giving it a leg up in competing with virtualization frontrunner VMware, Virtual Iron also hopes to leverage Tech Data's AIS staff to support new partners as it grows its channel program.
"Virtual Iron being a young, growing company, while we certainly have our own support teams, those folks are in-demand in customer environments today and certainly in supporting our channel partners, but AIS brings a lot more capacity to bring the right level of support to our channel partners," said Grandinetti. "We see this as an opportunity to dramatically accelerate our distribution footprint within North America."
For Tech Data, the move gives the distributor an expanded line card for virtualization solutions which includes XenSource, Parallels and PolyServe, which was recently acquired by Hewlett Packard.
"We think there is some unique technology that is out there today and any time we have an opportunity to bring on a competitively priced new solution or new technology to the marketplace we're excited about it," said Pete Peterson, senior vice president and general manager of AIS.
"Their strategy is clearly focused around the midmarket. Given our knowledge and expertise in this area we think this is a good fit for us," said Peterson.
"It's just going to be interesting to see what Tech Data's AIS department is going to come out with in regards to their collaboration with Virtual Iron," said Schneider at The Pinnacle Group. "We're very excited for them to be able to deliver and compete with what VMware has already gobbled up in the marketplace. It will be interesting for us to see how this all pans out."