Avnet and EMC Deliver Mobile Data Center Solution

By Gina Roos

Avnet Technology Solutions has launched its EMC VSPEX-based Mobile Data Center Solution for harsh environments that will be exclusively available through Avnet’s U.S. and Canadian partner network. The solution, which leverages the EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure to create private clouds, helps channel partners save time and resources by providing a fully integrated and tested private cloud solution.

Avnet said one of the key benefits of the solution is that channel partners’ enterprise customers will be able to rapidly deploy data centers that can operate in harsh environments to support operations around business continuity, data center moves, disaster recovery, large-scale special events and remote field locations. It also enables them to quickly meet specialized end-user requirements.

However, the development of the new appliance goes beyond fulfilling a need, said Greg Peterson, vice president and general manager for the EMC Solutions Group, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. “It was also designed to help partners understand Avnet’s and EMC’s collaboration and capabilities around these specs, and for them to look at potential niche opportunities around these capabilities,” he explained. “It shows the ability to solve unique problems that an end user may have.”

Avnet fully integrates the Avnet Mobile Data Center Solution for EMC VSPEX with EMC’s VNX unified storage systems, backup and recovery solutions from EMC Avamar, Data Domain and NetWorker. It also includes technology from Brocade, Cisco, Elliptical Mobile Solutions, Metalogix, Microsoft and VMware. Partners can co-brand this solution to increase their value to their customers and to create brand identity, according to Avnet.

Avnet’s service capabilities for this solution are enabled through the EMC Velocity Services program for distributors, which partners can leverage to design and integrate the mobile solution for specialized requirements. These services include a one-stop shop for solution components, quoting, ordering, solution validation and testing, system integration and invoicing.

“The services we provide range from a simple rack and stack all the way to delivering fully functional private cloud infrastructures,” said Peterson. “If it’s an offering that a partner already has capabilities in, we can simply be bench strength.”

Avnet can also help partners that don’t yet have the capabilities. “We can help them get to where they want to be, and if there is a service offering that they don’t see as their core and don’t want to invest in, we can provide that service,” said Peterson.

Partners that are using Avnet’s integration services also can take advantage of its “Ship Complete” invoice, which allows them to pay for the solution once the fully integrated unit is shipped.

Avnet also provides partners with sales support through its EMC VSPEX Unsolicited Bid program. This basically allows partners to offload the entire proposal process for providing private clouds, which is “a huge time saver and sales accelerator,” said John Tonthat, EMC supplier business director, at Avnet Technology Solutions.

“If you think about the challenge they have at articulating what the value proposition is for a private cloud, including a number of return-on-investment factors, detailed analysis of the end user and delivering the proposal, it’s a very time-consuming affair,” he added.

Tonthat noted that most partners and partner reps said delivering a proposal is a “significant inhibitor to success.”

“We do a fair amount of the data collection in terms of the end user’s environment and match it to pre-existing VSPEX architectures, build the ROI story and get those proposals out on behalf of the partner at scale,” said Tonthat. “That certainly accelerates VSPEX as a reference architecture and helps partners find more opportunities. That is a very unique service that we provide to our partners.”

Gina Roos, a Channel Insider contributing writer, specializes in technology and the channel.