Monday Morning Impact – April 22

AT&T Business Updates Channel Program for SDN, IoT, Connected Car

AT&T Business has rolled out a series of updates for its Alliance Channel, ACC Business, and Partner Exchange programs. Allied solution providers now have access to a new software-defined networking solution, expanded access to IoT services including connected car solutions, and voice and collaboration tools. Additional enhancements intended to streamline the ordering process and accelerate installation for select services have also been made.

Alliance Channel solution providers are gaining access to “SD-WAN NOW,” an offering that uses software with application-based routing to give businesses centralized control of their multiple branch networks.

AT&T is also turning to partners to sell and deploy a plug-in connected car device and application that provides emergency crash assistance, vehicle diagnostics, location information, and roadside assistance.

On the Internet of Things side of the channel strategy, AT&T Asset Management Operations Center (AMOC) is a multi-device, IoT platform that allows users to track, monitor, and manage virtually any connected asset from a single user interface. In addition, AT&T DataFlow is a managed, cloud-hosted IoT service that allows users to connect, collect and orchestrate their data.

“Our commitment and investment in our channel programs remain steadfast,” said Zee Hussain, channel chief and senior vice president of AT&T Partner Solutions. “This year, we are excited to take it to the next level with new and innovative products, enhanced enablement tools and more education to help solution providers boost their business.”

The carrier recently launched a new program that shortens the time it takes to install AT&T Dedicated Internet at qualified sites, and launched a new tool within the partner portal that allows partners to access detailed order information such as equipment delivery and service activation confirmations. Plans for improved partner enablement and education are also on the drawing board.

Channel Impact^®
The moves represent a concerted effort to help partners more easily engage key technologies as well as emerging technologies.

HPE and Nutanix to Deliver Hybrid Cloud as a Service

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Nutanix, Inc. have announced a global partnership to deliver an integrated hybrid cloud as a Service solution. This offering will leverage Nutanix’s Enterprise Cloud OS software including its built-in, AHV hypervisor, delivered through HPE GreenLake to deliver fully managed hybrid cloud. As part of the agreement, Nutanix will also enable its channel partners to directly sell HPE servers combined with Nutanix’s Enterprise Cloud OS software so that customers can purchase an integrated appliance.

The strategy targets mission-critical workloads and big data applications; virtualized tier-1 workloads such as SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft; and also supports virtualized big data applications, such as Splunk and Hadoop.

Anticipated benefits include expense reductions and accelerated time to value.

“Hundreds of global customers now leverage HPE GreenLake to get the benefits of a cloud experience combined with the security, governance, and application performance of an on-premises environment, while paying for the service based on actual consumption,” said HPE president and CEO Antonio Neri. “Today, HPE is expanding its leadership in this market by providing an additional choice to customers seeking a hybrid cloud alternative that promises greater agility at lower costs.”

“Our customers tell us that it’s their applications that matter most,” said Dheeraj Pandey, founder, CEO and chairman of Nutanix. “Our partnership with HPE will provide Nutanix customers with another choice to make their infrastructure invisible so they can focus on business-critical apps, not the underlying technology.”

The combined offering is expected to be available in Calendar Q3 2019 and will be showcased by the two companies at a variety of customer conferences and industry events this year.

Channel Impact^®
Businesses today are frequently under pressure to accelerate digital transformation. This global partnership is intended to address the challenges of this transition by delivering a combined offering for fully managed hybrid cloud infrastructure delivered as a Service and deployed in customers’ data centers or co-location facilities.

Centrify Rolls Out Security Channel Program Supporting Zero Trust Privilege

Centrify, a Santa Clara, California-based security vendor, has launched a brand new partner program intended to help the channel stop a leading cause of data breaches: privileged access abuse. The Centrify P.E.A.K. Performance partner program leverages a maximized discount structure, engagement and support tools, marketing campaigns, and modern training modules to better support partner enablement.

“The Centrify P.E.A.K. Performance partner program is the result of listening to our partners and global system integrators so they can successfully sell Privileged Access Management solutions based on a Zero Trust approach that can actually stop breaches,” said John Andrews, Vice President of Worldwide Channels at Centrify. “Our research shows that more than half of organizations haven’t even implemented some of the basics of [Privileged Access Management] like a password vault or multi-factor authentication, and a big part of tapping into those opportunities is expanding our reach. The P.E.A.K. Performance partner program will energize the channel and put more resources toward securing the privileged credentials that grant access to modern attack surfaces.”

Centrify Zero Trust Privilege helps customers grant least privilege access based on verifying who is requesting access, the context of the request, and the risk of the access environment.

A company statement explains that the new program is based on profitability tied to revenue and training, engagement tools and sales support, accelerated go-to-market tactics, and effective training programs. Centrify has also added Tech Data to its list of participating distributors, and has expanded its team to support strategic partners and global system integrators, who can choose from three tiers in the P.E.A.K. Performance partner program.

Channel Impact^®
The updated program is expected to help partners minimize the attack surface, improves audit and compliance visibility, and reduces risk, complexity and costs for the modern, hybrid enterprise.