Dell gives channel a good vStart

Vendor opens up range of pre-built virtualisation solutions to its reseller partners

Dell is giving its EMEA channel partners access to its vStart range of virtualisation products from next month.

At its annual PartnerDirect Solutions Conference in Barcelona this week, the vendor announced that its partners will be able to offer the full range of pre-build and ready-to-run virtualisation solutions that include all the infrastructure (server, storage, network, rack, cabling and power) and software (hypervisors, plug-ins) needed to run virtual machines.

Initially partners will offer vStart with deployment and setup delivered by Dell’s services arm, but a co-delivery option – which enables partners to certify and deploy vStart themselves – is set to be available early next year.

Kathy Schneider (pictured), executive director of channel marketing and programmes Europe at Dell, said: “With cost containment still a business priority, virtualisation has increasingly become backed by executive support, making it an extremely lucrative and fast-growing business for partners.

“Dell vStart gives partners an extremely simple and effective way of delivering virtualisation – partners without virtualisation expertise can benefit from Dell doing all the heavy lifting involved in sizing, configuration and deployment. For partners with significant virtualisation expertise, vStart allows them to save time and effort on the basics and concentrate on delivery value-add further up the stack.”

Partners will have access to vStart 100 and 200 – preconfigured to support 100 and 200 virtual machines respectively – from 8 November, the vendor said.