Virtual Iron drives channel strategy

Virtual Iron hopes to offer an affordable alternative to VMware

Vendor Virtual Iron has revealed bullish plans to drive virtualisation into SMEs across Europe, claiming its products are an affordable alternative to VMware.

Virtual Iron’s two-tier approach includes distributors Avnet and Tech Data, but the vendor has aggressive plans to add additional distributors and help recruit resellers through them.

Bill Simpson, vice president for channel sales at Virtual Iron, said the vendor may suit resellers that already offer VMware and would like an alternative in their portfolio.

“VMware has done a great job creating a market and pretty much building an industry, but in the current economic climate, businesses , SMEs in particular, cannot always afford VMware ­ if the customer wants their project done cheaper, the reseller does not lose the deal as they have Virtual Iron to offer.

“We are putting together our 2009 plan, in which we have two directions to grow ­ through additional distributors selected for different countries and through the recruitment of VARs in those countries. We will be careful not to overload each region so margins are not eroded.”

Simpson said Virtual Iron plans to attract new partners through existing benefits, such as deal registration, and a slew of incentives yet to be announced.

Bob Tarzey, service director at analyst Quocirca, said: “VMware has a dominant position in the market, but more vendors are joining all the time, such as Microsoft and Citrix.

“If Virtual Iron is targeting the SME space, the one to watch would be Microsoft, not VMware. It makes sense to target SMEs as a cheaper alternative, but they should watch over their shoulder for Microsoft as competition.”

In June, Microsoft announced the final release of its long-awaited Hyper-V server virtualisation software, available from its web site. From 7 July, companies running Windows Server 2008 were given access to the Microsoft hypervisor to create virtual machines.