Dell pushes partners towards the cloud

Offers new channel certification.

Dell yesterday announced a Cloud Services & Solutions Certification, aiming to help its partners move more easily into cloud deployments.

The certification will become part of Dell’s PartnerDirect channel program, allowing partners to provide cloud services with Dell technology and with their own services.

Dell channel director Bob Skelley said the company needed to steer its partners toward a fast-evolving market.

“This has been a full year in the making,” Skelley said. “We invested the time and resources to fully understand the cloud solutions our partners need to provide in the market.”

Under the Cloud Services & Solutions Certification, partners will be classified according to three models of cloud services and solutions:

• Cloud Builder partner, ready immediately: offers services to design and develop a cloud infrastructure for customers;
• Cloud Provider partner, set for Q2, 2012: operates a cloud networking operating centre (NOC) enabled with Dell technology to provide cloud services, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS);
• Cloud Service Enabler partner, to be completed in the second half of 2012: acts as an aggregator or broker identifying, securing and integrating cloud technologies and services from multiple sources and operates the resulting cloud for their customers through a set of managed services.

These partners will receive Certified (Preferred or Premier) Partner level pricing and existing Preferred or Premier Partner benefits. In addition, partners when providing cloud services to customers will receive additional benefits, including:

• Preferred access to Dell’s cloud services and solution offers;
• Financing options to provide alternative acquisition options; participation in cloud-focused marketing campaigns and access to co-marketing funds;
• Representation as a Certified Cloud Services & Solutions provider in the Find-A-Partner tool; and
• Engagement by Dell account teams for co-selling/joint opportunities through the Find-A-Partner tool.

This article originally appeared at crn.com