EMC vows not to compete with partners in cloud

Storage titan takes wraps off programme for service providers at Las Vegas partner summit

Storage giant EMC used its partner summit in Las Vegas this week to launch a service provider channel programme and reassure partners that it has no plans to compete with them in the cloud.

Speaking to ChannelWeb, Nicolas Leblanc, vice president of EMEA channels and mid-market at EMC, said the launch of the Velocity Service Provider Programme was proof of its commitment to supporting partners on their journey to the cloud.

"The key message is that EMC will not become a service provider," he said. "We will partner with service-providing companies to make sure we can capture this market by building alliances."

The programme is aimed at service providers that want to build, deploy and market EMC-based private and public clouds, and will provide them with the marketing, education and sales tools needed to do so.

The firm is also planning to include a Service Provider accreditation within its Velocity Solutions Provider Programme for its VARs later this year.

"The main goal is to tie the service provider programme up with the current Velocity [Solutions Provider] programme," he said. "We are aligning the programmes, but want to keep things as simple as possible for our partners."

The certification is aimed at VARs that want to branch out into the service provider market or partner with someone else that does, said Leblanc.

"The larger resellers across EMEA are building some kind of service provider capability and business units to address this opportunity with new and existing customers," said Leblanc. "We are also seeing some of our distribution partners putting models in place with mentoring and billing capabilities to sell this to VARs in a clear pay-per-use way."

Partners that acquire the certification are expected to be rewarded with marketing resources and sales tools and may also be able to combine their service provider sales with those achieved under the Velocity Solutions Provider Programme.

Kevin Collins, solutions development manager at EMC distributor Magirus, said the launch of the programme should leave the channel in no doubt about the firm's stance on cloud.

"I think there has been an amount of confusion about where EMC stands on the cloud," said Collins. "It is such a large company and I think some people have assumed EMC is going it alone in the cloud but that is definitely not the case."