Channel fever: Microsoft partners join WANdisco dancefloor

Sheffield-based data replication firm now able to package its offering with Microsoft Azure

Data replication firm WANdisco has gained co-sell status through the Microsoft One Commercial Partner Programme.

WANdisco can now take the WANdisco Fusion Live Data Platform to market as a packaged offering with Microsoft Azure.

The new status was achieved after it met the criteria to become ‘Co-Sell Ready', including integration of WANdisco Fusion with Microsoft Azure Databox and Azure HD Insights.

The Sheffield-based firm's partner managers will work directly with the Microsoft field sales team on hybrid cloud customer opportunities and related account planning activities.

David Richards, CEO and co-founder of WANdisco, said: "This is another exciting development in our relationship with Microsoft and significantly expands our sales channel opportunities.

"Our new co-sell status is another validation of our go-to-market strategy and helps to ensure the most effective route to market for our technology."

WANdisco Fusion provides replication of selected data at scale between multiple big data and cloud environments. Microsoft Azure customers will now have access to WANdisco Fusion's hybrid architecture for on-demand data analytics and offsite disaster recovery.

"We are seeing significant demand from customers who want to expand their on-premise data lake into Microsoft Azure," said John Chirapurath, general manager of data platform marketing, Microsoft Corporation. "WANdisco Fusion enables continuous data replication for Microsoft Azure and HDInsight customers who also want to maintain on-premise consistency at scale."

Angela Eager, research director at TechMarketView, said following a positive set of financial results last week, the deal with Microsoft was another indication of the turnaround at WANdisco.

"The development is notable as another validation of its partner-based go-to-market approach and one that will increase its sales channel because it further opens up the Azure market.

"WANdisco has long aimed to establish itself as an accepted part of cloud infrastructure stacks and its partnerships and sales testify to its progress, now its challenge to return to profitable growth," added Eager.