The hard drive vendor's Seagate Premier program rewards system builders that are either high-volume players or leading in new growth segments such as surveillance and rugged solutions, the firm said.

Resource Library:

John Teeple, director of Americas Marketing at Seagate Technology, in Scotts Valley, Calif., said in a statement, "Seagate Premier allows us to focus our efforts in areas of tremendous growth potential for both Seagate and our channel partners. Seagate is pleased to be strengthening our commitment to these partners by offering enhanced tools and benefits that can help our Premier Partners accelerate their business growth and ultimately become more profitable."

Click here to read about the Seagate Recovery Services program.

The new program will be part of the existing Seagate Partner Program. However, the Premier members will also receive access to account management support, product and solution training, solution seminars, partner matchmaking events and market development funds.

Seagate said the marketplace has become increasingly competitive and the program aims to help partners differentiate themselves.

Royson Ng, president of distributor Samtack, based in Markham, Ontario, said in a statement, "Seagate's new product and solutions tools and market development dollars, in particular, will enable [Samtack] to plan and market more strategically, as well as effectively target new customers."