Kace talks up rampant growth

Dell-owned systems management vendor puts out call to non-Dell partners

Systems management vendor Kace is on course to post a sevenfold spike in European sales this year and is hunting for more partners.

The vendor, which was acquired by Dell last year, has quintupled its European headcount to 50 this year, adding 400 local customers over the period.

Its tally of European Certified partners now stands at 60, of which 10 are based in the UK. These include Kelway, Softcat, Lanway, CCS Media, Ricoh, Ultima and JCom.

Kace EMEA sales director Seann Gardiner claimed Kace is outgrowing all its competitors, adding "six or seven" customers a day globally.

"Partners have never had something so easy to sell in the systems management space," he told ChannelWeb.

"Sixty per cent of our customers do not have any systems management at all. But we also see customers moving away from some of the traditional software-based suites such as Altiris, LANDesk and Microsoft, as they are too complex and expensive."

Gardiner's perfect partner would typically sell virtualisation and end-point security appliances, as well as a large volume of client hardware from either Dell or a rival vendor.

The margins on offer range from 23 per cent to 43 per cent, he added.

"If partners are not selling Dell hardware, Kace is still a great fit for them as it is agnostic to end-points. HP and Apple do not have a cross-platform management suite."

Andrew Henderson, commercial director at Lanway, said: "The Kace product is essential for Dell's IDM [intelligent data management] line-up. It means we never have to step outside Dell's portfolio on infrastructure projects."