Citrix touts Microsoft cloud hook-up to snare 'avalanche' of resellers

Vendor's partner director claims its 'partnership with partners' alongside Microsoft is turning heads in the channel

Citrix has claimed that its closer ties to Microsoft around the cloud have spiked the firm's channel relevance as it welcomes "with arms wide open" new reseller partners.

The software firm has a long-running partnership with Microsoft, but the cloud era has tightened the bond between the organisations, with the channel of both firms doing the same, the vendor claimed.

Justin Sutton-Parker, partner director for Northern Europe at Citrix, told CRN the firm spoke to partners about their plans in cloud and received resounding confirmation of it being a long-term ambition for resellers.

"At Citrix we are well set up to be in the cloud marketplace as the whole point of our software is that people can work efficiently and securely from anywhere, so that will include a hybrid cloud solution somewhere along the line," said Sutton-Parker.

"There are so many cloud brands, relevance is of real importance to us. Microsoft are also hugely moving into cloud, with their focus being on Azure.

"If you look at the concerns of most CIOs, they are thinking about security, scalability and agility. What Microsoft are managing to do with us on this 'partnership with partners' is many clients are asking for that type of access in the cloud and Citrix fits that bill very well.

"Many of our products work beautifully with Azure. We can help Microsoft's customers adopt cloud, particularly Azure technologies."

Sutton-Parker said many of Citrix's partners already offer their own managed service in cloud and then incorporate Citirix technologies.

"I speak to so many partners all across Northern Europe and there is a mix of approaches towards cloud. Some are completely evolved and can offer everything they did previously, plus an effective managed service which includes hybrid cloud," he said.

"Then you have the mid-range who have been offering outsource services previously, which are translating into cloud services. Then there are a limited few that still haven't made the move to offer cloud services, but all of those are not looking to scale up their own datacentre capabilities, they will be looking to utilise a hybrid cloud to sell into their customer base."

Sutton-Parker said there is no disputing that cloud is here to stay and no partners are fighting that fact, as the firm increasingly works with more Microsoft partners on the cloud.

"We are working with the Citrix managed partners, who often have Azure skills as they are a Microsoft partner too, but might need additional support on that front. We are also accepting with arms wide open the born-in-the-cloud partners who have been doing cloud transformation projects with Microsoft over the last five years and we would work with them to see where their gaps are and bring up their Citrix capability. We are working with these new partners to us and ensuring there is a combined conversation."

Sutton-Parker said it was great to see more diversity come into the Citrix reseller pack, including at events such as its Partner Executive Club, a quarterly thought-leadership event, where new partners have been sharing ideas with existing partners.

"These new partners are mainly working as a cloud consultancy. They do not have massive datacentres, they do not have huge overheads, they are consulting on cloud transformation," added Sutton-Parker.

"There is an exciting relevance around Citrix in the partner base. Since the partners understood the connection between Microsoft, Citrix and the cloud there has been an avalanche of partners looking towards us."