Virtual Iron Software (www.virtualiron.com), a provider of enterprise-class server virtualization and virtual infrastructure management software, today announced a distribution agreement with IT products distributor Tech Data. The agreement immediately expands the availability of Virtual Iron’s solutions to a highly qualified group of value-added resellers in the U.S. and opens up the market for server virtualization and management with an affordable alternative to existing proprietary solutions.
Virtual Iron will be distributed through Tech Data’s Advanced Infrastructure Solutions (AIS) Division. Established in February, the division combines a high-touch, consultative sales approach with the distributor's extensive technical expertise and broad product knowledge to help value-added resellers capitalize on the demand for mid-market and enterprise-level server, storage and software solutions. With Virtual Iron, Tech Data will provide a consultative solutions selling approach and target qualified value-added resellers focused on the latest enterprise server, storage and other data center infrastructure solutions.
“By reducing the cost and complexity of production-ready server virtualization and management, Virtual Iron and its distributor and reseller partners are driving mainstream adoption of the technology,” said Jeff Melvin, senior vice president worldwide sales and field operations for Virtual Iron. “Tech Data has a very strong presence across North America and its Advanced Infrastructure Solutions division brings deep expertise in virtualization and IT infrastructure management.”
“Server virtualization enables our value-added resellers to present their end-user customers with a compelling solution that can cut costs and streamline many data center operations,” said Pete Peterson, senior vice president and general manager of Tech Data’s Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Division. “The addition of Virtual Iron strengthens our server virtualization software offering and provides our value-added resellers greater flexibility when developing the latest data center solutions.”
The server virtualization market is growing at 60% per year according to IDC, but user adoption, only at 3-5% today, has been hindered by the high price and complexity of previously available commercial solutions. Virtual Iron addresses this gap by providing customer–proven, enterprise virtualization and management capabilities at a fraction of the cost. The platform combines an industry-standard hypervisor with advanced virtualization services, policy-based management and transparent workload migration capabilities. The software also takes full advantage of new hardware–assisted virtualization (Intel VT and AMD-V) on servers to deliver near native performance. Unlike other virtualization solutions, Virtual Iron requires no installation or management of software on physical servers, further simplifying deployment and data center operations.
Virtual Iron has adopted a 100% channel distribution strategy that maximizes both product and services opportunities for its partners. This affords value-added resellers the opportunity to deliver complete solutions to their customers that include servers, SAN, storage, software and professional services. Some of the typical reseller partner services and consulting engagements driven by Virtual Iron include data center assessments, physical to virtual migration, business continuity and disaster recovery planning, capacity planning and utilization, implementation and deployment, policy-based automation development and various managed services.
“We want to be able to offer different capabilities and solutions based on each customer’s unique needs,” said Aaron Schneider, director of solution engineering at Pinnacle Group, a certified Virtual Iron Channel One reseller based in Southern California. “Virtual Iron provides Pinnacle with a production-ready solution that fully leverages our infrastructure planning and management expertise. It also opens up a whole new segment of the market for our services at the same time.”