Droplet looks to make splash in UK channel
Application delivery start-up targeting partnerships with top UK resellers after signing Prianto as maiden distributor
Two former VMware executives are looking to recruit up to 20 partners for their new application delivery venture, Droplet Computing.
Droplet Computing's patent-pending application container technology is designed to enable applications to be delivered on any device by decoupling applications from the operating system.
Having bagged a share of a £6.6m venture capital funding round in February and this month appointed Prianto as its first distributor, Droplet Computing is hunting reseller partners to act as the "delivery mechanism" for its technology.
Inspiration for Droplet Computing struck when CEO Steve Horne and CTO Peter von Oven were at previous employer VMware.
Horne (pictured) recalled how the duo would meet with large enterprises who had difficulty with consultants coming in with their own devices that were incompatible with the company's own. They observed that what they needed was something where an application could be delivered onto a device and the consultant could work on it, irrespective of it being online or offline.
"We were getting asked time and time again and there wasn't a solution to fulfil the requirements," said Horne, who left VMware to found Droplet Computing in 2014.
Droplet's Universal application container technology will give partners of Citrix and other end-user computing vendors the chance to "go back in and talk to customers that have raised issues that to date have not been able to be solved by technology", Horne claimed.
Droplet Computing selected Prianto as its first distributor because it has a "strong track record" in the technology sector, having brought Citrix to the UK. Both Horne and von Oven also have a pre-existing relationship with Yuri Pasea, founder and CEO of Prianto.
The vendor and Prianto is aiming to recruit the top 20 UK-based resellers in the end user computing space.
"[Partners] need to understand applications and end-user computing and application delivery," Horne said.
Droplet Computing are currently in talks with Prianto US and Prianto Germany to recruit partners in those regions. The vendor wants to go into the customer with their partner and educate them on the uses of their application delivery container. "It's more of a partnership where we go into customers with our partners to understand the application landscape and come up with strategies for them to move forward," explained Horne, adding that there was a "massive" services opportunity attached to this for partners.
As an added incentive for partners, Droplet Computing will offer up to an additional 10 per cent discount on top of the discount Prianto gives, along with "100 per cent" of services revenue going to their partners' pockets. "We are not in it just for the quick wins. We're in it for the long haul," said Horne.