Avnet Expands Cloud Offerings With New PeakColo Distribution Partnership

Avnet Technology Solutions has entered into a new distribution partnership with Denver-based cloud provider PeakColo, the Tempe, Ariz.-based IT solutions distributor said Monday. The partnership will make Peak's cloud services platform more readily available to channel partners. In addition, Avnet introduced its first cloud solution powered by Peak that features NetApp(R) Private Storage for Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Cloud Accelerator Program Powered by Peak combines the flexibility of AWS with NetApp's enterprise storage and is a full operational expense model, according to Tim FitzGerald, vice president of Avnet. The solution allows channel partners to white-label Peak's cloud, enabling them to offer cloud services by integrating PeakColo's enterprise-class cloud services platform, he said.

"What PeakColo provides is the technology for a [cloud] solution but consumed in a way that doesn’t require customers to own it," said FitzGerald. "It allows end customers to sign contracts that could be as short as 12 months for the services built on NetApp Private Storage for AWS."

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As the world of IT expands, channel partners will ultimately benefit from this solution because it will speed the time to market and lower costs, said Fitzgerald.

"It helps those partners get to market faster with a compelling solution and it takes the [capital] cost out of them [allowing them to become] more competent in cloud solutions," said FitzGerald.

According to FitzGerald, Avnet's existing solutions fall into seven different categories, including backup and disaster recovery, productivity, test and development, security, application hosting and management, remote management and monitoring, and data center as a service. The NetApp Private Storage AWS cloud solution will address customers' challenges with IT infrastructure, including disaster recovery, storage and backup, production workloads and networking. Readily available, enterprises will be able to access the solution through Avnet's channel community without having to purchase additional hardware or software.

"PeakColo works as the infrastructure-as-a-service [IaaS] platform that provides a unique opportunity for overall solutions to be brought to market under the partners' brand," said FitzGerald. "It allows partners to add services over and above what PeakColo and Avnet are providing to that partner, and gives increased profitability and a longer-term strategic partnership with their end customer."

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Dennis Mueller, vice president of CMT, an Avnet partner of 10 years, believes this new solution program will provide better performance and secure cloud storage for customers.

"The pay-as-you-go OPEX model, along with the infinite scalability, is the promise of the cloud" said Mueller. "Avnet's solution, powered by PeakColo, delivers a cost-effective alternative to purchasing hardware or having our customer feel like they need to compromise on security and performance."

Santa Clara, Calif.-based CMT is looking forward to working with the channel to engage existing Amazon customers and offer the benefit of a secure and high-performance storage platform, said Mueller.

"Avnet continues to partner with CMT to win business over our competition because of our reliability and value-added services," said Mueller. "We believe that many of our government-regulated customers will now feel more confident in moving to the cloud."

According to FitzGerald, Avnet's new relationship with PeakColo is based on PeakColo's 100 percent channel-centric focus. The channel is an especially important leverage to partners and customers' needs, FitzGerald said.

"The channel and partners are vital in helping clients in how they want to consume IT and partners are best equipped when they are competent in addressing those end-customer needs," said FitzGerald. "Leveraging that new ecosystem capability brings greater value ultimately to the end client."

PUBLISHED AUG. 6, 2013