VAR datacentre boom prompts new Quantum MSP offering

Vendor to expand service offering so VARs can host it from their own facilities

Quantum has launched a new managed service provider (MSP) programme after its resellers demanded the ability to be able to host its cloud offering from their own datacentres.

Last year, the vendor launched its Q-Cloud service – a cloud storage offering which it claims is cost effective for the channel, hosted from its own UK-based datacentre.

The firm said that while the service has gone down well with resellers, some were desperate to be able to host the offering from their own facilities to make it even cheaper for them, which inspired the announcement.

A flurry of Quantum's large and medium-sized partners have built their own datacentre facilities recently, according to the firm.

The new MSP programme hands partners the ability to brand, market and sell its cloud offerings and partners will be offered free online sales training, marketing resources and technical training as well as access to its software for trial and demo purposes.

Quantum's channel sales director for Northern Europe, Chris Bowing, did not feel that handing over the cloud service to the channel to host will eat into sales of its Quantum-hosted service as the market is clearly segmented.

"If you segment the partner landscape today, you've got a lot of morphing between resellers – traditional businesses, cloud businesses, some have datacentres and some don't," he said. "We need to ensure we can cater for the mixed business needs of our partner community.

"Some larger [partners] and medium ones are building their own datacentres and we need to have the right offering for them. From a cost perspective, partners with their own datacentres won't want to bear the costs of using Quantum's datacentre.

"But having said that, a lot of partners don't have back-end infrastructure and still want a cloud solution – we're giving the partner community choice."