Nerdio, a provider of tools for deploying, managing, and optimizing Microsoft Azure and Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), has introduced its first partner program and an associated certification process.
Announced in conjunction with Technology Marketing Toolkit’s annual Boot Camp event, which takes place this week in Orlando, the new offering arrives amid rapid ongoing adoption of Microsoft cloud solutions and mounting interest in Nerdio among MSPs, according to Joseph Landes, the company’s chief revenue officer.
“We’ve heard so many times from partners that they want to be more competent in Azure, they want to be more tied into the Azure ecosystem, they want to be more tied into Nerdio,” he says. “We felt like now was the right time to do it.”
The Nerdio Partnerd Program, as it’s officially called, contains four tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Members at all four levels receive access to an extensive set of benefits that includes free internal use licenses, an assigned partner sales executive, and access to a team of “Go Live Engineers.”
“We will assign one of our engineers to you to kind of virtually look over your shoulder and help you onboard your first customer or two to Nerdio and to the cloud, because we know that MSPs are nervous about moving to the cloud,” Landes says.
All Partnerd members can also speak with a Nerdio “quoting and architect concierge” about sizing and pricing cloud solutions profitably. According to Landes, the service is designed to allay widespread anxiety among MSPs about cloud margins.
“They know they want to move to the cloud, but they get nervous about am I really going to make as much money on Azure as I’m making on premises?” he says.
Partners at all levels receive a 30% discount when selling Nerdio solutions to non-profit customers. Additional discounts for program members are under consideration for the future.
Membership benefits grow richer as partners rise above the bronze tier. While bronze partners get 10 no-cost internal use licenses, for example, silver partners get 15 and gold partners get 20. Platinum members qualify for unlimited free internal use seats.
Platinum partners also receive two all-expenses paid VIP tickets to the annual NerdioCon partner event. Gold partners get one. Held online this year, NerdioCon is slated to be held in person in 2022 at a location to be announced.
The certification program Nerdio launched today includes two courses at present, one each for the vendor’s Nerdio for Azure product and its recently introduced Nerdio Manager for MSP solution. Technicians who pass the final exam for either course will be officially recognized as Nerdio Certified Engineers.
Each course takes about two to four weeks to complete. Silver Partnerd members get two free certification exams, gold members get five, and platinum members get 10.
Earning certifications is one of two requirements for climbing to higher tiers in the new program. Silver partners, for example, must have at least two certified engineers on staff, while gold partners must have five and platinum partners must have 10. To accommodate smaller MSPs, Partnerd members can also satisfy the certification requirement by putting half of their current technical team through a training course.
The other standard by which Partnerd members are measured is how many live clients they have on Nerdio’s platform. MSPs with up to two live customers qualify for bronze membership and those with three to five qualify for silver status. Gold members must have six to nine live customers, and platinum members must have at least 10.
Alongside the debut of its partner and certification programs, Nerdio also announced today that Nerdio Manager for MSP, its multitenant management and optimization platform for WVD, is now generally available. First unveiled in January at the first-ever NerdioCon show, that system had been in public preview until now.
Nerdio had more than 1,000 partners as of that event, and according to Landes is steadily attracting interest from other firms thanks to the continued sales momentum behind Microsoft Azure. Indeed, Azure revenue climbed 50% on a year-over-year basis in its third fiscal quarter, according to results posted by Microsoft late in April.
“If you’re an MSP, why not take advantage of that? Why not ride that wave of massive investment Microsoft is making? Why sit on the sidelines?” Landes asks. “More and more MSPs are saying, ‘I think it’s time for me to do this.'”
