Following hot on the heels of the launch of its agent and reseller program, data center services provider FiberMedia is expanding its channel partner program to focus in on new opportunities to extend the reach of its cloud and managed business services, with the appointment of Matthew Alexander as director of channels.
True to his title, Alexander will oversee the company’s channel efforts. He was previously the channel chief at Sidera Networks, and logged time as a channel executive at NTT America, PAETEC Communications and Cypress Communications.
For partners, the opportunity in cloud and managed services is significant. With the proliferation of data creation, worldwide cloud storage subscriptions will increase by 25 percent in 2013, growing to 625 million according to a report by IHS iSuppli. That’s up from 300 million subscriptions in 2011 and 500 million in 2012. Those numbers include both consumer and enterprise services, but the growth is telling in both categories.
“Protecting company intellectual property and/or confidential data, while at the same time enabling employees to have flexibility and anytime, anywhere access to corporate data has become a bigger challenge for many industries over the past few years,” explained FiberMedia’s John Panzica, in a blog. “The trend toward cloud data storage is picking up steam as some of the largest content providers on the web provide enterprise-grade solutions for businesses.”
The sale is a consultative one however, again opening a door for partners. Typically in data archiving, companies make an expensive upfront investment, and then end up purchasing additional storage space in anticipation of growing backup demand that they may or may not end up using. In managed cloud-based storage, companies only pay for what they actually use, reducing cost as well as IT complexity.
“One of the most important aspects of cloud based solutions are customization and personalized attention,” Panzica said. “It is difficult to change from an IT service that is delivered in-house and has been customized for your company, to a one-size-fits-all solution and limited support options.”
FiberMedia has launched the Accelerate program for agents and resellers, a channel-neutral program that lets partners work with the company’s dedicated direct sales team to market and deliver its portfolio of colocation and cloud services.
