Traffic management software specialist Zeus is looking for applications specialists to cash in on lucrative opportunities in the cloud.

Zeus Traffic Manager 6.0 was launched last month and the vendor’s Cloud Traffic Manager product is set to launch early next year. The firm claims its 25 UK VARs can cash in on the number of businesses that have invested in cloud technologies, but not the means to manage them.

The vendor’s chief executive, Paul Brennan, said: “There is consolidation of partners in the market and I am always looking to work with new, quality partners.”

Zeus currently works with UK distribution partners Zycko and Bell Micro, but Brennan said he was happy for VARs to buy directly.

“The value-add from a distribution standpoint is still in flux,” he said. “We do not want organisations being a conduit for other partners.”

Brennan added that Zeus’ Service Provider Licence Agreement (SPLA), allowing partners to deliver product on-demand on a monthly basis, was a differentiator.

“We are the only software vendor in the cloud that can support that,” he claimed.
Brennan claimed he was looking for integrators with a background in applications and strong services credentials. He added he did not want those with a “hardware dependency”.

A recent study from analyst Ovum claimed systems integrators and service providers need to find ways of delivering cloud-based services as hardware integration demand dries up.

Ovum research director John Madden said many service providers see cloud-centric application services as a potential growth area.

“Service providers are trying to stake a claim as to how they are going to fit it into their portfolio,” he added.