Bell Micro Channel Voice 2

Channel ISSUE 2

VOICE The Enterprise Newsletter from Bell Micro

Thank you for voting Bell Micro the Storage Distributor of the year 2007 at the Microsoft Aces Awards. Our storage business is going from strength-to-strength as we bring together a complete set of solutions from a wide array of vendors to create the Bell Micro Enterprise Storage proposition.

Look out in this issue for: A Green approach to technology

What customers really want from a storage reseller?

IBM Channel Storage Portal

Ways to Multiply your Enterprise Storage Business to the Power of 2

The changing face of Enterprise Security

Plus important news on The Bell Micro Enterprise Solutions Centre, Partner Services Systems Management Practice, DataCore, McAfee, Maximation programme for ISV’s, Symantec Enterprise Information Security & Availability offerings amongst others.

www.bellmicro.eu

www.bellmicro.eu

Bell Micro Storage: Winning business 2007 sees Bell Micro going from strength-to-strength in storage distribution. Thank you again for voting Bell Micro the Storage Distributor of the Year 2007 at the Microscope Aces Awards, your support is very much appreciated.

This is indeed an exciting time for our storage business, as for the first time we have brought together a complete set of solutions from our wide array of vendor partners to create the Bell Micro Enterprise Storage proposition. By bringing together what we see as the five key components of storage technology; platforms, software, fabric/infrastructure, UPS and professional services – we are now able to provide total clarity around the vendor offer and focus for building a successful storage strategy with your customers.This unified storage approach allows our business partners to go-to-market with the most complete storage message in the channel.

Bell Micro Partner Services is already delivering truly vendor agnostic consultancy, specifying solutions that fit customer environments exactly whilst leveraging advantages from all of the

John Toal accepting the award from the Editor of Microscope, Simon Quicke.

Five key components

We’re aiming to repeat this success in 2008 so whilst your Bell Micro Account Manager is well positioned to outline how we can help, please also let them know what more we can do to support you.

available technologies.

John Toal, Director of Enterprise Channel

www.bellmicro.eu

Give yourself some space:

Take advantage of the Bell Micro Enterprise Solutions Centre (ESC)

Open to all of our business partners, the ESC is a fantastic location and a resource to help you secure business. Whether you’re looking for somewhere to test a solution, train your staff or deliver a technical sales pitch the ESC can provide all the room and resources you require.

Talk to your Bell Micro Account Manager about how you can get access to the ESC and how we and our vendor partners can help you to make the most this resource or see www.oneplaceforit.com

www.bellmicro.eu

Bell Micro IBM System Storage Sales Class Duration:

1 Day (Dates are available in July)

Delivery Method:

Classroom

Skill Level:

Advanced

Overview: This 1 day course equips the students with key skills for selling IBM’s SystemStorage portfolio by providing an in-depth understanding of IBM products and solutions, the storage market space, and positioning against competitors in each product family. Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to identify, validate, qualify, propose, and win IBM storage opportunities. The student should also be well positioned for IBM Storage sales

Agenda: • Introduction – Key solutions include Information Lifecycle Management, Business Continuity and Infrastructure Simplification • Storage marketplace today • IBM System Storage disk products and solutions • IBM System Storage data retention solutions • IBM System Storage tape products and solutions • IBM System Storage Virtual Tape Server system • IBM System Storage SAN fabric solutions • IBM System Storage software solutions • Competitive Analysis • IBM Sales Resources • IBM Certification Test 748 evaluation

Certification Test 748.

Who Should Take This Course: IBM Business Partner employees working in a Sales or Pre-sales capacity or anyone who spends a significant amount of their time selling and/or supporting IBM Storage products and solutions.

Pre-requisites: Students should have a basic understanding of storage technologies and products.

Certification Program: This course prepares you to take IBM Certification Test 748 (IBM Storage Sales, Version 8) to become an IBM Certified Specialist – IBM Storage Sales, Version 8

Please contact your Bell Micro IBM Account Manager for more details on 0871 230 4500

www.bellmicro.eu

with Bell Micro The green debate touches every part of our society and the world of IT is no exception. From both an ethical and commercial point of view Bell Micro believes a green approach to technology makes sense for you and your customers.

Technology and in particular datacentres have proliferated over the past decade and it is indeed the datacentre that has become the chief culprit for IT CO2 emissions. Ever hungrier for power and capacity, the datacentre presents a significant place to start with a greener approach to managing IT infrastructures.

Green IT: The facts speak for themselves • IT advisory group Gartner estimates that most large enterprise organisations currently spend roughly 5% of their total IT budgets on energy, within five years, that figure is set to triple • A fully-equipped 30,000 square foot datacentre (which is a relative minnow by today’s standards) will consume enough electricity in a single year to result in 44,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere • If left on 24x7 for one year, a typical PC system will consume 874 kilowatt hours of electricity – enough to release 750 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the equivalent of driving 820 miles in an average car • According to the Columbia University Guide to Green Computing, if the paper used each year for personal computing were laid end to end, it would circle the earth more than 800 times

The green debate is adding yet more impetus to the arguments around consolidation and virtualisation as well as favouring new lean and green technologies such as blades with their advanced cooling, power and management features. Green IT is also a great vehicle for IT change within the business, be it moving to new systems and processes or helping to reduce the IT cost base.

Over the coming months you will receive a lot more information from us around this important topic. Much of this will be in the form of material you can use to raise this issue with your customers, perhaps persuading them into new projects or providing scope to generate positive PR from their own green IT efforts.

For specific advice or more information about how Bell Micro can help you with GoinGreen contact your Bell Micro Account Manager or email goingreen@bellmicro.eu

www.bellmicro.eu

Enterprise Gateway Security The explosive growth of the internet has changed the very nature of business communication. As enterprises invest ever-increasing time and resources into ensuring network availability and performance, the opportunity for catastrophic failures due to security holes becomes more prevalent.

The changing face of enterprise security Initially, hackers were interested in notoriety. Today the motivation is profit.

The result is attacks that stay out of the news but not out of the data stream: while it took 20 minutes for an unprotected computer attached to the internet to be infected in 2004, in 2007 it takes just 60 seconds. Internet-enabled applications and corporate intranets and extranets are now mission-critical business processes, and the bad guys have become more sophisticated.

Blended attacks like spam and phishing have grown rapidly, while insertion of malware on internal networks and the conversion of corporate desktops into zombie computers give intruders unfettered access to the most critical elements of your infrastructure. Given the rapid changes in corporate IT environments, security on the gateway must have: • Proactive anticipation of threats to catch them before they cause damage • Integration across devices and protocols to provide broad protection • Bi-directional inspection of incoming and outgoing traffic • Real-time global intelligence with mutual sharing of security intelligence • Multi-layered defence that incorporates multiple security techniques

As the way organisations use the internet continues to evolve, their security infrastructure must adapt, says Andrew Philpott, Vice President of EMEA, Secure Computing.

Current approaches to gateway security The core problem for organisations today is that most existing gateway security approaches suffer from one or more of the following shortcomings: • Protection only against a known universe of It took 20 problems, which is minutes for an ineffective against unprotected computer evolving and blended attached to the internet threats to be infected in 2004.

• Disparate point products Now it takes for various protocols – 60 seconds With the growth of various technologies for communication over the web, For more information companies have been forced to on how Secure Computing deploy standalone products that and Bell Micro can improve your perform limited functions security infrastructure, contact • Protection is limited to the data Mark Corrigan on 0871 230 4666 or stream and lower-level protocol email mcorrigan@bellmicro.eu

‘‘

’’

Imperatives for enterprise gateway security A comprehensive enterprise gateway security infrastructure should have: • Appliance-based delivery • Application and content awareness –The gateway needs a deep knowledge of the underlying communication, an understanding of its context and the ability to interpret the content • Centralised policy, management and reporting • Bi-directional protection – The security gateway needs to scrutinise inbound traffic in order to block bad traffic while simultaneously performing deep inspection of outbound content to protect against leaks of confidential information or intellectual property • Proactive protection – With the rapid increase in polymorphic threats, the ability to know immediately what could be dangerous is imperative • User management and education • Performance – As traffic volumes increase, the gateways must be able to keep up and scale for performance • Resiliency – Security gateways should not introduce points of failure to the mission at hand

www.bellmicro.eu

Practice‌ Introducing the Bell Micro Systems Management Practice Bridge the IT skills gap to access a wealth of Systems Management opportunity

‌makes perfect

Many of the key technology vendors have gone to market with Systems Management solutions, helping customers to effectively control their burgeoning IT estates and exploit their technology investments for maximum RoIT.

To ensure our business partners keep pace with this emerging market segment, Bell Micro has brought together a team of experts in this field to form our Systems Management Practice. Skilled at configuration, service delivery, operations and network management this team works seamlessly alongside our business partners own teams to deliver effective Systems Management solutions into the customer environment.

For more information on how Bell Micro can help you access this business, contact your Bell Micro Account Manager or the Partner Services hotline on 0871 230 4999.

www.bellmicro.eu

Recommending Virtualisation?

Don’t forget your storage…

Let DataCore do to storage what VMware does to servers.

DataCore adds the ‘Storage Server’ personality and functionality to standard servers in the same way that VMware transforms standard servers into virtual machines.

DataCore software eliminates the barrier of high SAN costs whilst allowing users to obtain the benefits of server and storage consolidation, meaning that for the first time, SME users can affordably enjoy the benefits of virtualisation. Over 85% of VMware server deployments require a SAN for high-availability shared storage and DataCore dramatically shortens the sales cycle for these virtual infrastructure deployments. In many cases, server consolidation frees up existing servers that can then be re-utilised within the SAN environment.

As the virtual storage layer, DataCore solutions complete a total Enterprise Virtualisation strategy offering your customers:Visit • Optimal, cost-effective, disk space utilisation and extra capacity www.datacore.com for • Centralised storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, VMware, MacOS, and NetWare systems. case studies; white papers • Increased I/O performance on the challenges confronting • Zero downtime virtual server deployment; • Hardware independence giving agility and savings with present and future investments solutions and benefits; and find • High availability, business continuity and disaster recovery out more on the SANvantage For further information, please contact Keith Joseph, DataCore on 01189 497024

margin-rich partner programme.

DataCore Software – allowing you to deploy a tactical approach to storage virtualisation that provides excellent product and service margins; enhances your consulting/services account penetration; and speeds-up your server consolidation implementations.

www.bellmicro.eu

Datagate: The Next Inevitable Corporate Disaster?

McAfee and Datamonitor Go Behind the Headlines to Assess the Impact of Data Loss The motivation may be malicious, and the consequences can be disastrous. A tarnished reputation.

Weakened market position. Financial loss. Stiff fines and even jail sentences. And finally—complete meltdown.

Datagate: The Next Inevitable Corporate Disaster; revealed a widespread belief that a major security breach, even an unintentional one, could lead to the collapse of a major corporation. The global research, conducted for McAfee® by Datamonitor, surveyed more than 1400 IT professionals at companies with at least 250 employees in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. Thirty-three percent of respondents said they believe a major data loss incident involving accidental or malicious distribution of confidential data could put them out of business.

The research also suggests that while awareness regarding the danger of breaches is high, the problem continues to grow. Sixty percent of respondents said they had experienced a data breach in the past year, and only six percent of respondents could say with certainty that they had not experienced one in the previous two years. However, despite the prevalence of breaches, enterprises are still devoting just a fraction of their IT budgets to the problem. On average respondents spend just one-half of one percent of their overall IT budgets on data security.

Additional key findings from the research include: • A data breach that exposed personal information would cost companies an average of $268,000 to inform their customers-even if the lost data is never used • Sixty-one percent of respondents think that data leakage is the doing of insiders, and 23 percent believe those leaks are malicious • Nearly half (46 percent) of respondents don't debrief or monitor employees after they have given notice that they are leaving the company • Twenty-three percent of respondents were able to estimate the total annual cost of data leakage, and the average figure they gave was $1.82 million • Respondents rated loss of intellectual property and financial information as the two most valuable classes of data-with the average estimated cost of leaked financial data reaching $1.68 million.

McAfee Data Loss Prevention McAfee is the largest dedicated security company to offer comprehensive data loss prevention that addresses data loss perpetrated by insiders as well as from external threats. We cover all sources of data loss—from roaming laptops to the network, from email and IM to USB flash drives and printers.

McAfee Data Loss Prevention provides multi-layered protection at the endpoint and the gateway to prevent data loss at work, at home, and on the road. Even confidential data on guest laptops and non-Windows endpoints are protected.

Through the logging and analysis server, monitor real-time events, and generate detailed forensics reports. Apply centrally-managed, security policies to regulate and restrict how your employees use and transfer sensitive data without interfering with normal business activities.

To request a copy of the full report or more information about McAfee Data Loss Protection contact: Anthony Westacott on 0871 230 4667 or email awestacott@bellmicro.eu.

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Introducing the HP Server R Giving direction on HP BladeSy HP Integrity

www.bellmicro.eu

Route Planner:

stem vs

Specifying either HP BladeSystem or HP Integrity is no simple task.

To help you navigate which platform is most appropriate to your customers operating system (OS) and application environment Bell Micro has created an online server decision tool.

Get your slice of HP BladeSystem business in 2007

HP BladeSystem Roadshow July 2007 3 July – The Belfry, Birmingham

4 July – Marriot County Hall, London Easy to navigate the HP Server Route Planner is available now at www.cuttingthecomplexity.com and www.questioningyourintegrity.com In addition to providing insight and platform suitability for specific OS and applications, this tool also links to a variety of useful resources to add weight to your business arguments.

At Bell Micro we always strive to make sure our business partners have access to the resources and expertise needed to scope and win HP BladeSystem business. Reserve your space now at these key upcoming blade events to see how VMware and Emulex work best in a blade environment and a demo of HP SIM and HP BladeSystem working together.

Register for this event now at www.cuttingthecomplexity.com

www.bellmicro.eu

To encourage continuity for the reader, May 1st saw the launch of the Bell Micro Maximation programme. Maximation is a programme that brings together Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Business Partners, Key Vendors and Bell Micro. Through collaboration, Bell Micro creates cross-selling coalitions to enable reach into the channel that offers partners a simple and effective route to new business opportunities.

Key to the success of Maximation is recruiting, enabling and developing ISVs.

Recruitment: Bell Micro is on a constant lookout for ISVs that qualify for Maximation. If the following qualification criteria are met an ISV can qualify for the programme and benefit from the technical, creative and financial resource on offer: • • • •

ISV ISV ISV ISV

application application application application

embeds IBM Software Informix, DB2, Websphere, Tivoli runs on a UNIX platform is ported to IBM system p server/intends to port within 3 months or drives large amounts of data which in turn drives a storage requirement

Enablement: An ISV application usually addresses an acute end user need, but add to the equation a *Business Partner (reseller) and see the scope of the solution broaden to include such things as managed services, the latest and greatest hardware product (servers & storage), complementary software and hosting facilities. This coupled with technical expertise, allows an ISV to offer a more comprehensive value proposition / solution to their customer and this also increases the financial value attached to an opportunity.

Development: Several ISVs have been working with Bell Micro for many months and automatically qualified onto the Maximation programme at launch. In some instances as with the ISV Baytouch (REACHsuite application – compliance solution for the chemical industry) the relationship is a mature one and the marketing campaigns have already delivered results in the form of orders.

Baytouch is a good example of an ISV that engaged early in its ‘go to market’ strategy with Bell Micro and benefited from the technical, creative and financial support from both the Maximation team (as it is now) and their assigned business partner, PCS.

*Maximation maps an appropriate Business Partner to each and every ISV who qualifies onto the programme.

A recent example of a latest and greatest hardware product is the new IBM UNIX server. IBM system p accredited partners receive comprehensive training (from IBM) and in turn can enable an ISV to offer cutting edge technology along with their application.

On 22nd May 2007 IBM announced new ground breaking performance, flexibility and efficiency capabilities for its System p UNIX servers.

POWER6 provides enhanced performance, flexibility and efficiency.

Performance – Customers will see a 35-40% performance improvement Flexibility – Allows customers to move workloads within and between System p servers to reduce occurrences of total system downtime that affects service quality.

Efficiency – Reduced energy costs through highly optimised and capacity-utilised systems.

Allows for consolidation of even larger workloads resulting in further energy and resource savings.

Being on the Maximation programme allows an ISV to benefit from not just the latest hardware or software product for their application to run on but also the expertise behind the deployment of hardware and software, bringing a whole new set of value propositions that complement the ISV application.

If you are an ISV or you know of an ISV who could benefit from this programme, please contact the Maximation team at maximation@bellmicro.eu or call: 0871 230 4575 today.

www.bellmicro.eu

www.ibmservicecentre.com IBM Service Centre is a new online portal from Bell Micro which provides a focal point for IBM System Storage resources to support the Business Partner Community. IBM Service Centre is your portal and it’s our aim to make it easy for you to access relevant information quickly and effectively.

Bell Micro is working with IBM and a growing number of complementary vendors which include Symantec and Brocade, to bring you a solutions portfolio of products, services and training to help develop and support your IBM System Storage business.

The Portal provides easy access to: Bell Micro IBM Storage Community Events • Networking Events • Quarterly Storage Counsels ( Sales and Technical ) • Training and Educational Events Product Information downloads • IBM • Complementary Products Promotions Marketing Support • Maximation and ISV programs • Marketing campaigns

Resource details • Sales information • Skills matrices • Useful Web Links • Technical resource library Details of our Enterprise Solution Centre (ESC) Partner Specific Areas • Exclusive initiatives for Programme members The online portal will continue to evolve as we enhance and develop its content ensuring Partners derive real value from its use. In the short term we will continue to update our competitive information and feeds and we plan to launch an enhanced member’s area, allowing partners to quickly develop their own brandable proposals and marketing collateral.

To find out more about IBM Service Centre and join the System Storage Programme visit IBM Service Centre: www.ibmservicecentre.com or contact your Account Manager on 0871 230 4500.

www.bellmicro.eu

Access All Areas

Bell Micro was recently granted access to the final piece of the Symantec product portfolio – the Enterprise Security piece. While Symantec remain famous in the mid-market channel for their Enterprise Vault and NetBackup products, their offering now covers a wide range of information products addressing security and availability concerns. These complementary product ranges, covering infrastructure and information protection provide a compelling story for a growing number of customers in the mid-market.

Enterprise Information Security

Enterprise Information Availability

Guard and protect your customers’ enterprise networks at the gateway, server, and client tiers – helping ensure the integrity of the information that powers business

Ensure maximum uptime and performance for your customers’ storage, server, and client systems – and bring organisational data back in the event of a disaster.

• • • • • • •

• • • • •

Compliance & Security Management Endpoint Security Intrusion Protection Firewall / VPN Virus Protection Content Filtering & Anti-Spam Security Appliances

Symantec also supply a wide range of security products targeted at the SMB market.

Data & System Protection High Availability Storage & Server Management Application Performance Management Client Management

Symantec also supply a range of backup and recovery products targeted at the SMB market.

The Bell Micro Symantec team, headed up by Jamie Farrelly, and Bell Micro Security team are committed to help develop your business by delivering a full service package of technical, sales, practical training and efficient logistics. Our skilled specialists are available to extend your own capabilities, ensuring that you can deliver everything your customer needs with a Symantec solution.

To understand in detail how Bell Micro can help your Symantec business, contact your Account Manager, or Jamie Farrelly on 07770 210293.

www.bellmicro.eu

What do customers really want from a storage reseller?

Are you providing the service and value demanded by your customers?

Why should you ask the question?

Hardware profits are diminishing.

HP research carried out by IDC recently continues to point to a concerning trend for the HP Channel: while storage capacity shipments remain set to double every two years, the revenues we can expect to see from that capacity look to only grow at around 2% per annum. Naturally, while the capacity requirements are increasing at such a rate, the products themselves become more and more commoditised, forcing down the prices and margins recoverable by channel partners.

Market growth isn’t in the tin.

The healthiest growth in terms of both revenue and margin potential lie in the attachment of software and services to the traditional hardware implementation – growing faster than the hardware at 9% p/a for software and 4% p/a for services.

Business contribution Consolidation of supply chains to those providing real business contribution is increasingly common, with contracts being won on perceived value rather than price. A supplier who can demonstrate their ability to help a customer achieve their strategic goals, making a contribution to the profitability of their business is far more likely to succeed.

Vendor focuses Vendors’ long term strategies are focused on clothing hardware sales with software and service products in order to maintain profitability and fund expensive R&D. This means the channel partners who are focusing, showing investment and innovation in these areas become more important to the vendors’ strategic planning.

How do you address this demand?

This all makes sense, but putting plans into action often proves more difficult than the theory. Selling solutions and the contribution you can make to your customers requires a mind shift and a fundamental change in behaviour for many reseller organisations. Bell Micro are uniquely positioned to help our reseller partners make this transition with the help of our HP Software Sales Specialist, Pre-Sales Consultants and initiatives such as the Software Sales Academy. Bell Micro is the only UK distributor offering the whole HP software portfolio for solutions sales.

Where to start From the vast range of software products available, Bell Micro has identified the following two key deliverables for our resellers to take to market to breakthrough key new storage opportunities: •

HP Storage Essentials Standard Edition

•

HP Discovery Services

What makes a solution?

• Attach software • Attach services • Attach support

For further information, please check www.keepingsoftwaresimple.com or call Martin Jackson on 07767 382345.

www.bellmicro.eu

Multiply your enterprise storage business to the power of 2 We’ve all been intrigued by Newton’s Cradle and the way its steel balls react in absolute symmetry with one another. It’s also a perfect

Who can join the Bell Micro EMC Programme?

From Bell Micro’s perspective, the Programme is very resource intensive and we have to restrict membership in order to

analogy for the partnership between EMC and

provide the quality and level of support that will make a

Bell Micro, which crystallises in the newly

difference to qualifying resellers. Together with EMC we select those resellers with the strongest go-to-market strategy and

launched Partner Programme from the two

growth potential. This involves existing EMC Velocity Partners -

companies. We asked Ian Stephens, Bell

and those with the potential to achieve accreditation - that are

Micro’s Open Storage Product Manager, to explain more:

committed to selling solutions.

What solutions are you talking about?

It is important to remember that EMC delivers best of breed

What is the EMC Partner Programme?

applications and technology in every area of information storage

In simple terms, it’s a collection of resources, skills and facilities

and management. EMC solutions are truly open, supporting

that combine to support partners who are serious about

more platforms and more innovative protection, management

capitalising on the far reaching opportunities created by EMC. It

and security solutions than any other IT provider. Solutions scale

combines all the benefits of the EMC Velocity Programme with

from small businesses right through to the enterprise sector with

a host of value-added benefits from Bell Micro.

options for every type of customer and environment at the right price. The table opposite summarises what you can help your

Why is the strap line of the programme EMC to the power of 2?

Essentially the programme is all about synergy. The strap line reflects the fact that both EMC and Bell Micro are resolutely

customers to achieve with the help of EMC and Bell Micro.

Helping you to help your customers to:

committed to supporting those partners who are serious about

Store data via:

margin-rich, EMC solutions business. Through the Programme

SAN: Symmetrix, CLARiiON, Connectrix

and our partnership we aim to multiply the potential of our

NAS: Celerra

resellers to the power of 2, thereby creating real competitive

CAS: Centera

edge in this important marketplace.

Leverage data via: Enterprise content management: Documentum

Will it work?

Information acquisition: Captiva, Acartus

Over the last couple of years, Bell Micro has launched a series

BPM and collaboration: ProActivity, eRoom

of very successful Partner Programmes. By delivering exclusive

Enterprise search: AskOnce

benefits in specific technology and solution areas we’ve brought our vendor and reseller partners closer together for their mutual benefit. The Bell Micro EMC Partner Programme builds on this proven track record through an

Optimise data via: Virtualisation: VMware, Rainfinity, Invista Information management: Legato, Documentum, Infoscape Resource management: ControlCenter, Smarts, nLayers Protect data via: Array replication: SRDF, MirrorView, etc.

Backup to disk: Legato Data de-duplication: Avamar

initiative that I

Continuous data protection: Kashya

believe is one of

Security: RSA, Authentica, Network Intelligence

our best ever.

www.bellmicro.eu

How can resellers benefit from the Bell Micro EMC Programme The short answer is, in many ways. We have produced a guide to the Programme that details everything – copies are available from your Bell Micro account manager. Members of the Programme gain access to an exclusive set of benefits that can save money, help them to deliver sales and technical skills in-house and achieve real competitive edge. The Programme is centred on providing the knowledge, tools and resources needed to generate margin-rich EMC solution business while providing useful networking opportunities and the chance for resellers to raise their profile within EMC. The table below provides summary of the benefits.

Priority access to EMC pre-sales specialists An increased profile within EMC Closer engagement with Partner Services Full utilisation of our Enterprise Solution Centre Exclusive marketing programmes EMC promotions and initiatives exclusive to Programme members Invitations to all Bell Micro sales, pre-sales training

How do I find out more?

The best starting point is our newly published guide to the Bell Micro EMC Partner Programme.

For your copy, simply contact your Bell Micro Account Manager or any member of our Open Storage Team on 0208 286 5000.

sessions and technical roadshows Unrivalled access to EMC skills, expertise and resources Genuine differentiation over non-member resellers Regular communication on EMC updates Priority access to account support

Is there anything else that you would highlight about the Programme?

One of the key benefits of our Programme is undoubtedly the access resellers gain to our Partner Services. This team has a list of EMC accreditations as long as your arm, creating the capability for any partner to deliver enterprise storage solutions.

The Bell Micro EMC Partner Programme is one aspect of our overall Open Storage capabilities. As the graphic below summarises the full extent of these capabilities can add considerably to any reseller. To understand how we can help you enhance your capabilities in this critical area of the market, contact your Bell Micro Account Manager or any member of our Open Storage Team.

www.bellmicro.eu

Bell Micro achieves EMC ASN I2 certification Bell Micro offers seamless installation and implementation of EMC information infrastructure solutions Following the attainment of EMC

OpenStorage at Bell Micro said:

Authorised Services Network (ASN)

“Our aim is to take EMC to a new

Installation and Implementation (I )

level within the channel. In

certification, Bell Micro is now certified

support of this goal we

to install and implement the EMC

have invested heavily in

CLARiiON UltraScale family of midrange

EMC and their leading

networked storage solutions. This

information

important certification has been secured

infrastructure

through Bell Micro’s Partner Services

products and

2

Tony Fitzpatrick, Director, CSPA Partnerships and Alliances, reinforced this view when commenting that:

‘‘

We are thrilled that Bell Micro UK has made

the investment in the EMC Authorised Services

Network to deliver implementation and installation

Organisation. Resellers can market Bell

expertise and are

Micro’s Partner Services as their own,

proud to be

effectively outsourcing or supplementing

recognised as an

their own technical services business.

ASN I2 certified

With the new EMC certification in place,

partner in the UK. This

resellers can now offer for the first time a

is great recognition of

complete EMC midrange storage service

our commitment to EMC

to end-users – drawing on the

and Bell Micro’s ability to

investment and commitment of Bell

implement and integrate complex,

Micro. Commenting on the

information infrastructure solutions

announcement, Nigel Dunn, Director of

within multi-vendor IT environments.”

services around EMC CLARiiON networked storage solutions to its reseller community. We are impressed by the skills and expertise of the Bell Micro Partner Services Organisation and we are confident they will deliver quality services to both their resellers and end-users.

’’

New rules for ASN accreditation Bell Micro will have been ASN accredited for over 18 months by the time the new requirements for ASN become live in July 2007. As we became ASN under the more stringent rules, we have a background of using Implementation Engineers certified to the higher ‘Expert’ level as well as those certified to the ‘Specialist’ level required by the new regulations.

This higher level of certification means that Bell Micro have Implementation Engineers who can work on the whole CLARiiON range, from the installation of hardware through to the full implementation of complex multi-site solutions.

This coupled with Bell Micro’s experience of multi-vendor servers and software means we have the people, processes and technology in place to provide you with design, installation and configuration services for complex customer solutions.

Resellers interested in EMC infrastructure solutions or the support of Bell Micro can find out more by calling the Partner Services Hotline on 0871 230 4999 or emailing pss@bellmicro.eu or visiting www.partner-services.co.uk.

www.bellmicro.eu

Cheetah Informix Dynamic Server v11.10 IBM’s latest version of Informix Dynamic Server, code-named Cheetah, is released this summer.

Cheetah, or IDS 11.10, is the latest major upgrade to IDS and reinforces IBM’s commitment to the Informix database. Cheetah offers availability, performance and manageability improvements, as well as significantly enhanced security features – vital for mission critical applications. Enhanced scalability in Cheetah means customers’ hardware requirements stay low – helping keep down the costs of the system.

This new IDS release also has improved administration tools – combining high availability with ease of use, which is ideal for customers with multiple locations and limited technical resources at each site.

These admin features combine to provide a lower cost of ownership and deployment and with Cheetah’s very low “set it up and forget about it” capabilities DBAs can focus on business oriented tasks rather than database admin.

Upgrades from IDS v9 and v10 are free of charge to supported customers, while a chargeable upgrade is available for supported Please contact the IBM software team on 0871 230 4845 for more information on Cheetah.

IDS v7 users.

www.bellmicro.eu

Growing an IT service business Throughout the last few months, Partner Services Sales has been going through various changes with regards to our customer presentation accreditations approach. We have found that it is becoming less and less effective just listing our skills sets and accreditation, our customers are gaining true tangible benefits from understanding our approach to growing a services division within a business.

Partner Services are now approaching Bell Micro’s clients with a far more consultative approach, understanding both short and long term customer

Once we understand our customers needs, objectives and goals, we are able to fit the various services to match these, be it through The Associate

objectives. Understanding

Model, the Technical

their business before

Academy or our

presenting our skills

multitude of vendor

is paramount to

accredited skills.

long term partnerships and success.

For further information, please contact your Account Manager or the Partner Services Hotline on 0871 230 4999 or email pss@bellmicro.eu

It’s all about getting the customer to value Bell Micro’s Partner Services advice and experience within the IT marketplace.

New starters Finance Lorna Brownbridge

Management Accountant

Partner Services Mandeep Singh

IBM Consultant

Enterprise Graham Hutchinson Kevin Davis Neil Davis Sophie Manuel

HR Hayley Mitchell Ireland John Williams

Account Manager Account Support Operations Manager Marketing/Order Management Administrator

How to get in touch 25 Wellington Business Park, Dukes Ride, Crowthorne, Berkshire RG45 6LS T: 0871 230 4500 F: 0871 230 4994 Block 1, Millbank, County Dublin T: 01 601 5024 F: 01 621 3369 2 St. Crispin Way, Haslingden, Lancashire BB4 4PW T: 0871 230 4500 F: 0871 230 4501

HR Administrator

Nepshaw Lane South, Gildersome, Leeds LS27 7JQ T: 0871 230 4800 F: 0871 230 4848

Account Support

Cox Lane, Chessington, Surrey KT9 1SJ T: 020 8286 5000 F: 020 8286 5056