Topic: Partner Programs - Page 33

Rolled out in March alongside higher deal registration discounts, the changes are designed to minimize the cost of switching from perpetual licensing to “everything as a service”, according to North American Channel Chief Kevin Rooney (pictured).

The former broadline distributor is collecting partners and building platforms in conjunction with an all-in bet on a high-growth market.

The changes to specializations, incentives, and rewards are interim steps on the road to more sweeping revisions that will take effect a year from now, and reflect NetApp’s ongoing reinvention of itself as a maker of cloud and container storage solutions.

Rex Frank (pictured), founder and CEO of the managed services consultancy, will become head of Pax8’s partner education unit, which will add one-to-one coaching services to its current lineup of one-to-many training classes.

Both offerings reward users of the company’s Microsoft Azure and Windows Virtual Desktop tools for acquiring new customers, while arming them to land and support additional ones.

Growing even faster during the pandemic than before it, the cloud business apps leader desperately needs to attract more members to its partner program and more trained professionals to its partners, according to channel chief Tyler Prince (pictured).

Actually, SCSI is an interface. Not sure who this bear is. Neither are Matt, Rich, and returning guest host Dave Seibert of managed service provider IT Innovators and the SMB TechFest event series. They do, however, have plenty to say about the change of channel chief at Microsoft, the latest firewalls from Sophos, the pending SYNNEX/Tech Data merger, and work-from-home security stacks.

A new benefits structure is designed to establish parity between resellers of on-premises security products and the often younger, cloud-oriented partners Trend Micro needs to keep pace with accelerating adoption of cloud computing.

The online ERP vendor and its partners continue to profit from a software and services opportunity that few VARs hungry for richer cloud margins are exploring, according to channel chief Craig West (pictured).

Proof of life! Matt’s back after a three-week absence, but Rich is apparently being held for ransom. That’s how it looks on video towards the end of the show, anyway. Before then, he, Matt, and guest host Amy Babinchak of Harbor Computer Services and Third Tier discuss Microsoft’s new channel chief, Datto’s new commerce solution, the challenges of virtual sales calls, and the future of healthcare IT.