Channel News Briefs: Week of Aug. 31

Avnet Services Expands IBM Educational Portfolio

The Avnet Services business unit of Avnet Technology Solutions (ATS) is expanding its IBM-related educational offerings. Avnet Services and its partners developed the courses, which will focus on key technical areas, such as AIX, business analytics, content manager, Java, and mobile development (iOS and Android).

The courses will initially be offered in the United States and Canada through Avnet Academy, the education and training group of Avnet Services. As an authorized IBM Global Training Provider, Avnet offers more than 2,500 IBM Training courses.

The courses are available as public instructor-led online or scheduled private classes on site.

In other ATS news, the global distributor now provides business partners in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela) with products and services from SoftLayer, a cloud infrastructure provider and an IBM company.

Tech Data Adds New Cloud Resources

Tech Data has added new dedicated resources and leadership to its cloud business as its channel partners increasingly embrace private, public and hybrid clouds to deploy business applications and services. The new dedicated resources include sales, reseller enablement, field marketing and operations, together with a new organizational structure.

Tech Data also has appointed company veteran Stacy Nethercoat to vice president, TDCloud, Tech Data’s dedicated cloud business unit. She will lead the strategic direction, operations and go-to-market execution of TDCloud in the United States.

In other news, Tech Data appointed Heather Murray to vice president, product marketing, Hewlett-Packard Solutions Group. She will lead the sales, marketing, technical and supply chain operations in support of Tech Data’s HP portfolio in the United States.

Nextivity Opens Cel-Fi Reseller Program to Canadian VARs

Nextivity has announced that its Cel-Fi all-digital smart signal boosters for the Rogers, TELUS and Bell Canada networks are now available to Canadian resellers that are eligible to join the Cel-Fi for Resellers program. The reseller program for VARs and custom integrators was launched in March in response to industry feedback for a simple and flexible program. 

Resellers receive one-to-one support from a member of Nextivity’s dedicated reseller team in San Diego. Resellers are not required to meet minimum inventory commitments, and they can choose to have Nextivity provide customer support. Cel-Fi for the Wind Mobile network will be available by mid-September.

Ayasdi Launches Partner Program

Ayasdi has launched its Ayasdi Partner Program to accelerate the delivery of advanced analytics solutions. The formal alliances program spans technology, vertical solutions and systems integration partners. The company is working with partners that can help enterprises accelerate the discovery of critical intelligence within their data. Initial participants in the partner program include CLC bio, a QIAGEN Company (formerly CLC bio), Cloudera, Hortonworks, Intel, OPS Rules and Praescient Analytics.

CloudRunner Partners With Dell Software

CloudRunner has a new resale relationship with Dell Software that enables Dell managed service providers (MSPs) to leverage the CloudRunner platform to drive cloud solution adoption at small and midsize business (SMB) customers. The Dell CloudRunner platform allows MSPs to deliver hosted high-value business applications, along with end-user management, technical support and monthly service billing to their customers.

The platform, using a self-service approach and easy-to-use interface, allows virtual desktops to be provisioned instantly by end users. This self-service approach allows MSPs to instantly deploy virtual desktops on a large scale without expensive engineering departments and hardware costs, according to the company. The addition of CloudRunner continues to expand Dell’s IT-as-a-service offerings to MSP partners.