Avnet Launches Converged Infrastructure Program

Avnet Launches FSA One Frameworks

Avnet introduced FSA (FlexPod Services by Avnet) One Frameworks, co-developed with Cisco and NetApp to drive the adoption of converged infrastructure solutions. The offering is available to solution provider partners in the United States and Canada.

The new program is a “value-added extension” of the FlexPod Services by Avnet program introduced in May 2011. The FSA One Frameworks is a family of preconfigured and packaged integrated infrastructure racks that combine products and services from Cisco, NetApp and Avnet based on popular customer configurations.

The offering helps simplify sales, speed quoting and speed shipping, and provides an easier purchase request, simpler pricing via automatic price variance requirements and complete solution registration for partners, according to Avnet.

In other Avnet news, the distributor is partnering with NetApp to provide migration services to the NetApp clustered Data ONTAP operating system. Available to U.S. and Canadian partners, Avnet’s clustered Data ONTAP turnkey migration program provides complete upgrade and support. It also offers a “baseline” migration program as a lower-cost option for customers that have internal technical capabilities to perform some of the migration.

Ingram Micro to Buy DOCdata

Ingram Micro plans to acquire DOCdata Nederland B.V. and DOCdata International B.V., the e-commerce fulfillment business of Netherlands-based, DOCDATA N.V. for approximately $175 million. Docdata is one of the leading European providers of order fulfilment, returns logistics and online payment services. The acquisition is expected to significantly expand the global distributor’s commerce and fulfillment services footprint in Europe.

Dell Expands Partnership With CDW

Dell expanded its partnership with CDW to include all Dell products and solutions in CDW’s catalog in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. CDW will offer all Dell products and solutions in the United States and Canada, starting Oct. 13, and offer Dell solutions through its acquisition of Kelway in the United Kingdom, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. The distributor also will provide ProSupport services, including pre-configured IT solutions. Dell’s channel partner business now represents more than 40 percent of the company’s overall revenue.

CompTIA Launches New Certification Website

CompTIA launched a new Web platform to support its certification program. The new website (http://certification.comptia.org) has been redesigned to make it easier for visitors to find resources, including information about CompTIA certifications, IT career opportunities, as well as education and training options. Training options and learning materials from CompTIA authorized partners are also accessible, as are certification exam objectives and sample test questions.

In other CompTIA news, the IT association created a new LinkedIn community, the CompTIA Instructor Network, to provide instructors, teachers and trainers with resources, support and training in a peer-to-peer setting. The community is open to all instructors who deliver training or intend to train students on CompTIA certification courses.

MobileIron Launches Authorized Training Partner Program

MobileIron, a provider of mobile enterprise security, launched the Authorized Training Partner Program, expanding its educational resources. With the new program, MobileIron partners can now deliver product training to customers through live classes and hands-on labs in their native languages.

Previously, training was delivered primarily through MobileIron University, the company’s online training and accreditation portal. Instructors are trained on MobileIron’s advanced solutions and have passed audits for location, content and training ability. The training partner program includes reseller partners Exclusive Networks (U.K.), Logis IT (Spain), Macnica (Japan), mITE (Netherlands), Mobco (Belgium) and PaRaBal (U.S.).