Tech Data Corp. has equipped StreamOne, the platform underlying its Cloud Solutions Store, with consumption and budget management functionality for Microsoft Azure.
The new tools, accessible to U.S. and European partners of the Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor via a new analytics dashboard, display real-time Azure resource utilization figures on a customer by customer basis, as well as data on monthly usage, projected consumption, spending totals, and credit limits. Partners cans also receive automatic notifications if Azure-related charges exceed pre-set thresholds.
The new functionality, which according to Tech Data is the first of its kind in the industry, answers requests from partners struggling to help clients monitor Azure usage and enforce Azure budgets.
“With infrastructure-as-a-service, once you’ve got credentials on a public cloud essentially you have the keys to the kingdom to spin out new services,” observes Stacy Nethercoat, vice president of Tech Data Cloud for the Americas. The new analytics dashboard enables Tech Data partners to limit Azure consumption without manually checking the management interface repeatedly.
Tech Data has rolled out multiple enhancements to its cloud offerings generally and cloud marketplace specifically in recent months. In July, the company introduced a new service allowing partners to add white-label storefronts to their websites, or to tap into StreamOne resources from directly within existing e-commerce systems.
That move came 1 month after the addition of services from cloud-to-cloud backup vendor Spanning Cloud Apps LLC and content management vendor Akumina Inc., among other vendors, to the Cloud Solutions Store, and 2 months before the introduction, in partnership with NetEnrich Inc., of new Microsoft cloud migration services.
The StreamOne consumption and budgeting tools announced today arrive as Tech Data’s TechSelect partner community holds its annual fall conference in Orlando. That event also served as the launching pad today for a new 4-hour technical security partner education class. Called Security 360 and available to Tech Data resellers in the U.S. via the distributor’s Cisco Solutions Group, the course provides guidance on positioning Cisco security solutions with customers and conducting proof-of-value assessments.
“As the cybersecurity landscape evolves, Tech Data continues to expand our portfolio through trainings like Security 360,” said Angie Beltz, vice president of the Cisco Solutions Group, in a press statement. “Tech Data is currently the only distributor offering Security 360, and we are excited to further expand our exclusive Cisco Momentum program to include an additional security training that offers our partners specialized support. Tech Data’s channel partners can leverage these programs, along with the rest of Tech Data’s enablement offerings to build, strengthen and grow their security practices.”
The TechSelect fall conference concludes on Thursday.
