Bell Micro Channel Voice 5

Channel ISSUE 5

VOICE The Enterprise Newsletter from Bell Micro

Celebrating 5 years of Bell Micro’s IBM division

Our new vendor partnership with Parallels Software

The new IBM PowerCentre microsite, a focal resource point for all of your System p and POWER6 requirements

www.bellmicro.eu

Look out in this issue for: Shorty – the new c3000 BladeSystem enclosure from HP. Short on size – Big on opportunity!

An update on our ground-breaking marketing tool, campaignWORKS

Bell Micro’s dedicated ‘Microsoft Practice’ – helping you scope & deliver Microsoft projects

www.bellmicro.eu

In our business you simply can’t afford to stand still. That’s the reason why Bell Micro is continually exploring new technology and vendor opportunities. We invest significantly in identifying the solutions that work in enterprise IT environments, making sure Bell Micro has the skills and resources in place to help you get to market first and build genuine competitive advantage.

Five years ago we lived up to this promise by entering into a new distribution agreement with IBM for System p and Storage. In the period since 2003 our IBM team has enjoyed huge success. Not only were we the first UK distributor to offer services to IBM business partners, by 2004 we had already become the UK’s leading distributor for IBM System p sales and technical accreditation.

We don’t rest on our laurels and this success continued with Bell Micro being recognised as the fastest growing IBM

Services Partner in 2006. During 2007, we grew our storage business significantly and the success story went global with recognition of Bell Micro as the world’s Highest Utilised System p distributor.

As we progress through 2008 our desire to expand your IT portfolio continues unabashed. The latest vendor sign-up is world leading OS virtualisation provider Parallels. At a time when all of your customers are looking at efficiency in their IT environment, it’s critical that we deliver more options around virtualisation. We think Parallels offer one of the best technology sets in this sector, offering a complete virtualisation solution spanning desktop, server and storage.

Of course it’s one thing for us to bring these business relationships to you, it’s quite another for you to take these to market quickly and cost-effectively. To make sure this is a realistic aim we are continuing to invest in our ground-

breaking marketing tool campaignWORKS. Now with an even more intuitive interface and six new campaigns for you to exploit, the best thing about this online tool is that it lets you tell your own story. We want you to try campaignWORKS as soon as possible, combining your own messages around skills and recent wins with the high quality graphics and professionally composed copy that the application provides.

Your Bell Micro Account Manager can introduce you to our broad vendor portfolio and plug you into the campaignWORKS resource. Please play your part in the proactivity cycle and get involved.

John Toal, Director, Enterprise Division

Charity Update

One of the key events in our charity calendar is a 24 hour, 54 hole challenge that we’re inviting resellers to take part in alongside the enterprise vendors supporting the event. These include RSA, the security specialists, who’ve recently joined HP, IBM and Symantec as main sponsors. Our view on this exciting challenge is perfectly captured by ex-world champion boxer, Barry McGuigan who says: “As a patron of CLIC Sargent I would encourage you to get involved in this fantastic event and help Bell Micro raise much needed funds for CLIC Sargent, the UK’s largest children’s cancer charity.”

Throughout 2008, we’re supporting CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading cancer charity through a full calendar of fundraising events.

Our aim is to raise £20,000 over the next twelve months and have got off to a great start having raised £3,000 in the first month.

You can keep track of our progress and events (and see how to get involved) on the Web. Visit www.bellmicro.eu/uk/charity to find out more.

www.bellmicro.eu

Introducing IBM PowerCentre…

Access the latest promotions, sales messaging and new product information on POWER6 at www.IBMpowercentre.com IBM PowerCentre is the focal resource point for all of your System p requirements. Key features include POWER6, Green IT, sample configurations and a members’ resource area containing sales kits, competitive information, analyst reports, product information, announcements and presentations.

Visit www.IBMpowercentre.com today to access Bell Micro’s new ‘Tree for a System p’ campaign.

a certificate of dedication and information on where the tree was planted.

Register your orders at IBM PowerCentre today to plant your tree.

For more information visit www.IBMpowercentre.com or call the IBM Team on 0871 230 4500.

As the environmental debate becomes ever more prevalent, with society operating in an unsustainable way, Bell Micro have launched the ‘Tree for a System p’ initiative. For every System p server ordered, Bell Micro will plant a tree in the UK, assisting in offsetting the carbon footprint.

Your Tree will help to offset approximately 1 tonne of carbon dioxide throughout the life of the tree. By planting your tree we help maintain and improve new woodlands and support the work to provide local people with opportunities to live healthier, more sustainable lives.

The Tree for a System p initiative, in conjunction with eForests, will provide you with

e forests

Bell Micro Achieve Highest Utilised IBM SDI in the World!

What is an IBM SDI Centre and How Does it Benefit Business Partners?

Our Solution Delivery Integration (SDI) Centre is the only one based in the UK for IBM System p, enabling Bell Micro to configure low end and midrange servers to the required specification inhouse. This capability, along with our UK based stock holding allows Bell Micro to service customer needs quickly and efficiently.

In October 2007 IBM recognised Bell Micro as having the highest utilisation rate for their SDI centre: ‘Bell Micro have been consistent in driving volumes through their Integration Centre from their certification as a Solution Delivery Integration (SDI) distributor in 2005. It is no surprise to me that they are now the world leader in utilising the program, it is a strong message of Bell Micro’s focus, efficiency and accurate inventory management.’

Clódagh Daly, Channel Logistics Manager, IBM

‘‘

A staggering result with 97% utilisation overall for 2007. Bell Micro has now achieved highest utilisation world wide among 14 SDI Partners across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

It is such a positive message for Bell Micro and for SDI in Europe.

Well done.

Clódagh Daly, Channel Logistics Manager, IBM.

’’

For more information on Bell Micro’s offering around IBM System p please visit www.IBMpowercentre.com or call the IBM Team on 0871 230 4500.

www.bellmicro.eu

Even if you are long in the tooth within your sales role you can still learn something new at the Bell Micro sponsored IBM Sales Academy… and it is FREE. Whether you are new to sales, experienced in sales and with a new company or ‘long in the tooth’ in your sales role, there is knowledge to be gained. At the very least you have the opportunity to remind yourself of skills you may have forgotten… after all, most experienced sales people have forgotten more information than new salespeople know.

There is no bachelor degree available through Higher Education despite so many people being employed as sales people. Good selling does, however, require skill and the experienced trainers (IBM & independent training consultants) will share with you their vast knowledge and experiences of selling within and beyond the IT channel.

The modules are:

The IBM Sales Academy is a condensed version of the full IBM training programme used to educate and prepare newly recruited graduates for careers in selling. It is a modular course with

The Sales Cycle The Sales Call

each of the 6 modules taking 1 day to complete. The modules are run in pairs at various times of

Winning New Customers Effective Proposal Writing

Although the modules do run in a logical order, it is not necessary to complete them in the order

the year (please see www.maximation.eu for course dates and locations).

given, or to complete all of the modules, as they are interdependent subjects. You are free to choose how many you wish to complete whether it is 1 or all 6, wherever you feel a refresher of the

Successful Presenting Closing

fundamentals of that topic is of value to you. For example, a brush up on Effective Proposal Writing may be just what you need right now.

Bell Micro is very happy to be able to offer this training to you and we hope you can join us. If you are a Sales Manager you may want to propose this FREE training to members of your sales team?

Places are limited, so please book early.

You can register through www.maximation.eu The IBM Sales Academy is managed within the Bell Micro Maximation programme and full details of the Sales Academy can be found at www.maximation.eu (select the IBM Sales Academy button on the r/h side of the screen).

See you there!

www.bellmicro.eu

The Enterprise Solution Centre – Assisting partners to develop skills and close deals Offering a mix of both IT lab and classroom environments, use of the centre is free of charge (subject to qualification) for Bell Micro channel partners.

Both the technology and technical support available at the ESC aim to be configured to match your specific demo requirements to maximise

The ESC provides an excellent location for:

the impact of the time spent there.

• Technical sales presentations • Testing • Training

D ATA M A N A G E M E N T D ATA P R O T E C T I O N

PROOF OF CONCEPT BACKUP AND R E C O V E RY

TRAINING V I R T U A L I S AT I O N C O N S O L I D AT I O N STORAGE TESTING D ATA A R C H I V I N G / AVA I L A B I L I T Y INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT

Visit www.oneplaceforIT.com to: • • • •

Book the ESC View the latest equipment list and packaged demonstrations Find out more about the vendors in the ESC Take a look around the ESC with the virtual tour

www.bellmicro.eu

Increasingly, Microsoft technologies and solutions are becoming core elements of the enterprise datacentre. For you this means it’s important to become aware of the enterprise IT opportunities Microsoft offers and understand what value they can bring to your customers.

Always committed to developing our

We would welcome the opportunity to

Primarily focusing on Microsoft Server

reseller partners, Bell Micro has created

discuss how The Microsoft Practice can

technologies, many of the solutions that

the dedicated ‘Microsoft Practice’ as a

help you to scope and deliver Microsoft

we have worked on also relate to

focal point to support margin-friendly

projects. Bell Micro is already delivering

emerging technologies such as MS

services sales around this vendor into

a range of channel-only services and

SharePoint, CRM and System Center

enterprise environments. For Bell Micro

support to resellers around Microsoft

Operations Manager. Our expert teams

this move is a logical progression, we

and can assist at any stage from

have hands-on knowledge of how to sell

are a long established Microsoft

scoping to installation. We also have key

scope and deliver any type of Microsoft

distribution partner, selling approx £75m

channel specific resources in place such

solution to ensure your implementations

of Microsoft technologies into the

as our online licensing application (LDi)

are trouble-free.

channel year-on-year.

to make Microsoft business more profitable for you.

More information can be found on the Partner Services or Microsoft

Your customers will already be asking for core Microsoft services including: Windows 2003 server installations, Exchange 2003 and 2007 installs, clustered Exchange, SharePoint installation, SQL Server 2005 installs and clustered SQL Server.

Our Microsoft resources are designed to

microsites:

extend your reach around Microsoft

www.partner-services.co.uk or

business. We can help you to scale up

www.reachformicrosoft.com.

resources when you can see the opportunity but haven’t the resources in

Alternatively please contact your Bell

house to respond. We can also help you

Micro Account Manager to discuss

to scope the Microsoft opportunity, filling

your Microsoft options in full.

in any gaps in the knowledge required to win the business. You can also benefit from our geographically widespread vendor resources to make every Microsoft site visit worthwhile.

www.bellmicro.eu

Short on size – Big on opportunity

Get Shorty!

Or get his big brother Tally for that matter. These two new c3000 BladeSystem enclosures from HP are designed specifically for SMB organisations and bring the enterprise qualities of the datacentre into any size of operation.

The c3000 answers the big questions facing your customers, how to: simplify technology, extend IT service provision, enhance security and build flexibility into the computing environment. If your customers are talking about consolidation, virtualisation or Green IT then Shorty and Tally should also be on the agenda.

•

Shorty extends the range of the broad HP BladeSystem solution portfolio, enabling you to increase account penetration and loyalty, creating a larger footprint within your customers and capturing new revenues and margins

•

Not short on attach opportunity, Shorty provides you with a competitive edge and far-reaching scope to add-in storage, software, networking and services business

•

Blades are also market proven as the replacement technology for today’s rack-mounted and tower servers, providing scope for long-term blade component business

•

The c3000 lets you explore the power and cooling argument with customers, employing the latest HP Thermal Logic Technology and Active Cool Fans to provide smart answers to energy use

Enabling your customers to bring together their server, storage and networking needs in one infrastructure, Shorty and Tally offer an exceptionally small footprint, with the Tally option providing deployment options for customers with no racks in-situ.

SMB customers with up to 100 servers, those looking to reduce IT infrastructure costs and those that complain about how to manage a complex IT environment are key prospects for c3000 business.

To help you explore the Shorty and Tally opportunity Bell Micro has created a range of sales support tools including: • A racks to blades cheat sheet • Simple online sales training • Our online go-to-market tool campaignWORKS

To access these resources please visit our HP BladeSystem microsite at www.cuttingthecomplexity.com or contact your Bell Micro Account Manager for more information.

www.bellmicro.eu

Storage for any size of business For either your SME or true mid-size customers, HP has a new offer in storage with the launch of new products in the MSA and EVA product lines.

The HP StorageWorks MSA 2000 family brings enterprise class features to the SME market and lets customers centralise their IT storage, in turn leading to reduced TCO, reduced downtime and increased IT administrator efficiency. Your enterprise customers will also find the MSA 2000 portfolio useful for remote offices and departmental or non-core storage needs.

If you are talking about storage consolidation availability or virtualisation with customers then the MSA 2000 family is now an option.

Similarly this product set integrates seamlessly with HP BladeSystem for simpler configuration and management.

Moving up the scale, the EVA 4400 bridges the gap between affordability and high performance, scalability and powerful virtualisation capability. This product lets your customers remove the complexity of storage management to create an environment that is simpler to maintain and cheaper to run.

Based on EVA 4100/6100/8100 architecture, the EVA 4400 offers dual-redundancy and 99.999% availability, alongside easy setup, instant configuration and self-repair ability. Using Command View and Dynamic Capacity Management software, the EVA 4400 means your customers can get more out their storage yet spend less time and money on it.

HP Storage is a core offer at Bell Micro, please contact your Account More information around HP

Manager to understand more about these products and the skills and

Storage products is available at

support we can provide to help you sell and deliver them.

our microsite www.secureintheknowledge.com

www.bellmicro.eu

HP Integrity Blade 3 to the power of February 2008 saw the launch of the new HP Integrity BL870c blade, and to maximise the value of this breakthrough technology HP has packaged the system with the proven HP-UX platform and the versatile c-Class enclosure to offer your customers 3 fantastic technologies in one solution.

Deliver the powerful computing ability of HP Integrity with market leading availability, scalability and virtualisation capabilities alongside the familiarity and low-cost of ownership normally associated with the ProLiant server family.

This combination of leading HP technologies really does move customers towards a true adaptive infrastructure position by allowing enterprise class HP Integrity blades to be supported and operational in c-Class environments.

This Integrity blade solution is targeted at two enterprise areas – firstly in application environments such as application consolidation, SAP and BI in data mart settings and secondly in key verticals including: retail, distribution, telco and manufacturing. Specifically, this technology allows customers much greater flexibility in their consolidation projects.

Whether your customers are looking for a large data-centre solution or a versatile hassle free BladeSystem for a small space, HP Integrity Blades can form part of this equation.

The new c3000 ‘Shorty’ and ‘Tally’ enclosures house varied combinations of Integrity, ProLiant and storage blades in an easy to manage all-in-one infrastructure, whilst the c7000 offers the lowest cost per blade and true data-centre features.

Both offer access to market leading power and cooling technologies.

The solution also delivers a strong software proposition, marrying the latest HP-UX 11i v3 with a suite of HP Integrity management software covering everything from deployment to protection and ongoing monitoring. This same software also offers common ProLiant and Integrity infrastructure management and additional OS specific tools for the broad set of operating systems available on HP Integrity.

This is new technology from HP, make the most of this opportunity and be the first to discuss with your customers how these three elements together can dramatically impact on their IT strategy.

For more information please contact your Bell Micro Account Manager. Information regarding HP Integrity solutions is always available at our microsite www.questioningyourintegrity.com

www.bellmicro.eu

HP 2008 Software Business Partner Program 1

2

Software solutions are now a mandatory requirement.

HP has simplified entry into its new Software Partner Program.

3

Bell Micro has the skills and resources to drive Channel Partners sales cycle.

In the past HP Software conjured the picture of a Partner Program consisting of specialist resellers, complex solution selling, upfront investment and long ROI. This is about to change for two key reasons: 1. The Economical Slowdown With fears of an economic slowdown, analysts continue to state that channel partners offering software solutions within their portfolios are best placed to ride out a recession. If a company is going to invest in a period of downturn this is most likely to be in productivity and efficiency of its existing infrastructure through software management tools.

In fact, Gartner forecasts global spending on business software to grow 8.2% in 2008 to $191 billion. Twice that estimated for hardware sales (3.4% to $394 billion).

To ensure success in the future, software solutions are no longer a nice to have but a mandatory requirement within any channel partner’s portfolio!

2. New HP Software Partner Program From 1st February 2008 HP completely revamped its existing Software Partner Program. Not only have they simplified entry, but also allowed partners to prove the business feasibility of HP Software before investing in resources.

Consisting of four categories – Implementer, Silver,

For further information on how to become a HP Software partner please contact Martin Jackson on 07767 382345 or mjackson@bellmicro.eu.

Gold and Platinum – the new program positions and rewards based on attaining financial and certification requirements, with each category providing its own financial and support benefits.

Importantly, to become a Silver partner no longer necessitates investment in upfront accreditations but rather the commitment and execution of an agreed business plan with specific financial measurements.

How can Bell Micro Help Develop Your HP Software Business?

Year on year, Bell Micro continues to be #1 CDP for HP Software (by market share) within UK&I. As such we have developed the experience and resources necessary to support channel partners entering this program, integrating HP Software into their specific portfolio and maximising financial return.

Our HP Software team consists of dedicated professionals whose IT expertise is second to none, including business development, presales, consultancy & implementation, project management, upfront warranties and contract renewal support.

Together HP and Bell Micro are providing the sales and marketing tools, technical tools, and comprehensive training programs to ensure that both existing and new partners are proficient throughout the HP Software portfolio. Claire Coughlan, HP Manager of Software Channel and Alliances UK&I, recently endorsed Bell Micro’s HP Software channel strategy: “HP Software has worked very closely with Bell Micro over a number of years, jointly developing the UK&I Partner Channel.

As a Platinum CDP they have not only invested in the resources and skills necessary to add real value to partners but their proactive approach has greatly helped to drive business development within their base. The result being year on year growth and over achievement of targets set by HP” Bell Micro is currently recruiting partners and would welcome the opportunity to discuss further the potential of HP Software with your business.

www.bellmicro.eu

Mismatched?

Over time, it’s easy for things to grow apart – take for instance your customers’ IT infrastructure and the HP Services they have in place to support it. They are likely feeling the pain of agreements that have evolved with the business at a tactical level and now are mismatched with their IT needs, costing them significant time and money. Read on to find out how Bell Micro Vendor Services can help you turn mismatch into opportunity.

There are a variety of reasons why this service mismatch can occur; • Systems themselves change and evolve typically growing with the business • Your customer may have outsourced IT in the past • Their IT team skills may have changed over time and they now have skills in-house that are also covered in a support contract • Customers may be consolidating hardware and software with an overall change in the infrastructure requiring support The picture is further complicated since many customers employ a combination of three core HP Services offers – ‘Break-fix’ for hardware, ‘Telephone Support’ and ‘Licence to use/Media’ for software. Within these services there are further options around timeframes where your customers can choose options for cover by hours in the day and days in the week.

It is unlikely your customers will have a clear picture of what is supported and what is not, with hardware for instance supported by a 2-year agreement and the related software only covered for one year.

Or worse still the software isn’t supported at all, yet they think it is.

revenues. As hardware margins continue to diminish, HP Services provide genuine scope to replace this revenue with a solid platform for future activity.

Talk to your Bell Micro Account Manager about HP Services and find out more about how HP and Bell Micro are already working with channel partners to build this business.

You can also find more information at www.partner-services.co.uk

In any event the HP Services agreements in place simply don’t keep up with the complex reality of the IT infrastructure leaving your customer typically over or under provisioned for HP Services.

Mismatch is out, normalising is in?

To counter this complexity Bell Micro advocates a process of ‘normalising’ HP Services agreements, mapping the services in-situ against the cover actually required and moving towards simpler, optimised HP Services. Bell Micro and HP can help you scope HP Services in your customer environments, working with you to audit the current topography and eliminate unnecessary service costs.

For you HP Services is a strong commercial proposition, offering enhanced margins, a better quality and trusted service provision to your customers, to build both loyalty and simple to forecast annuity

The Green Computing debate continues to gather momentum, with this in mind, we have commissioned an independent research report that looks at how widely green initiatives are being implemented across UK businesses; and what the key factors are in this space that are yet to be addressed. Entitled “Passing the Green IT Buck” the research looks at the opinions, and uncovers the concerns, of senior IT decision makers across the UK as well as identifying how far UK businesses have come in successfully addressing Green issues.

If you are looking for campaigns that deliver the right solutions to customers, with a positive environmental angle, we are confident that Bell Micro now has a “Green opinion” in the market that positions your business and Bell Micro as a knowledgeable channel partnership on this matter.

Watch out for further information on the findings coming your way early April.

www.bellmicro.eu/campaignworks

Get the me It’s important that you stay in touch with your customers on a regular basis. Not just by telephone or sales meetings, but making sure they see your involvement in the big issues driving technology in hard copy or online. Our web-based marketing tool campaignWORKS lets you do just that, simply and cost effectively.

Newly updated, with a more innovative look and feel, campaignWORKS lets you talk to your customers about issues like: consolidation, virtualisation and Green IT. You can use the copy we have pre-written for you but of course you have your own story to tell so campaignWORKS lets you edit every word of the direct mail piece or e-shot you create.

Now you can cover even more ground as we have launched new campaigns for: High Availability, Data Management, Compliance, Systems Management and Disaster Recovery. You will find product campaigns online too, a new HP ‘Shorty’ c3000 blade enclosure campaign launched February 2008.

Tell customers about your recent wins in consolidation or the extensive skills you have in-house around virtualisation. You may have a specific offer around technology such as a successful workshop you run or an insightful white paper you can offer to customers. Whatever you have to say, campaignWORKS lets you get the message out.

www.bellmicro.eu/campaignworks

essage out! ‘‘

With regard

to campaignWORKS, the new-look campaignWORKS is very user friendly and the increased feature-set made putting the campaign together very straightforward. We believe the content of the campaign is informative, concise and of a length to ensure that the reader’s interest is maintained. The printed version of the postal campaign was very professionally produced and we have already received positive comments from recipients.

campaignWORKS provides you with a wide choice of professional

In summary, campaignWORKS turned a potentially difficult marketing campaign into a

design templates to choose from, ensuring your communications have impact and represent your business effectively.

simple and speedy process.

Steve Foley, Managing Director, Envision Technologies.

campaignWORKS gives you flexible options for delivery too. With a direct mail item you can have either a PDF file for use as soft copy, or get your local printer to

’’

print them, or you can use a complete print and fulfilment service online with campaignWORKS, just provide the data.

Your eshots can also be provided as html for you to send, or you can broadcast online. With full statistics provided afterwards giving detailed ROI – again just complete your e-shot online, provide the data and pre-select the date and time for release.

If you would like to know more please visit www.bellmicro.eu/campaignworks or contact your Bell Micro Account Manager for more information.

www.bellmicro.eu

Data storage crimes can cripple your business (extract from an article by Steve Murphy, UK Managing Director, Hitachi Data Systems) Many SMB and mid-sized organisations have been left exposed by their data protection solutions. Steve Murphy, UK Managing Director for Hitachi Data Systems, suggests some questions IT managers should be asking their storage vendor and technology partners in order to avoid unnecessary complexity, cost and risk to valuable data.

Data and information is increasingly vital to the success and growth of any business, whatever its size. Technology has advanced to the point where protecting your data need not be complex or cost prohibitive and a scalable and cost effective solution is now a reality for SMB and mid-market organisations.

The usual suspects associated with data protection are data loss; no back-up; failed restore; and system down time. These are all situations that companies of all sizes work hard to prevent, but in many instances customers are being sold over-priced, overcomplex solutions which leave businesses exposed in one or more of the following ways: • businesses’ applications are at risk either because the specific application is not supported or it is required to be offline in order to back-up the related data.

• businesses are left coping with expensive and unreliable backups due to poor processes, poor scalability and a reliance on tape.

• businesses face avoidable management costs because they have been sold multiple back-up and data protection products in order to accommodate an evolving spectrum of data protection needs.

Organisations, especially SMBs, are not always aware that this need not be their reality. An affordable, unified data protection solution is an option which will be good news for customers with an underperforming solution as well as those companies which faced with complexity and over-priced solutions suffer from inaction and have no data protection solution in place.

Losing 24 Hours of Data is a Real Possibility for Some Businesses Failure to provide adequate protection for Microsoft-based environments and key applications is commonplace. Currently, IT may need to take Exchange, SQL Server and SharePoint applications offline to run their back-up routines. To prevent user downtime, IT is restricted to single nightly back-ups but in the event of a systems failure they could lose up to 24 hours worth of critical data.

SMBs should not have to settle for less than a solution which offers back-up capability for live applications with no down time and consequent interruption to day-today business. Businesses should look for a solution which uses granular policies to simplify and automate otherwise complex backup operations.

To view this article in full please visit www.bellmicro.eu/uk then go to the Enterprise/HDS/News section or contact your Bell Micro Account Manager for more information on HDS products, services and solutions.

www.bellmicro.eu

AU T H O R I Z E D

Red Hat provides all the answers

DISTRIBUTOR

For IT professionals who face the daily dilemma of doing more with less, delivering innovative solutions in a short amount of time and with a small and often shrinking budget, is a difficult and time-consuming process. But those professionals who value performance and reliability would do well to look at Red Hat.

Both Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Advanced Platform include fully integrated server and storage virtualisation, coupled with high availability clustering* capabilities – providing critical technologies together in a single and easy to manage solution.

With Red Hat virtualisation, processing and data resources (servers and storage) are grouped into a single resource pool.

Virtual servers and storage can then be allocated in just a few seconds, as business demands dictate. This allows IT managers to quickly deliver more to customers, while gaining control of costs.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform delivers the benefits of virtualisation within all aspects of the IT environment.

It provides everything needed to create the virtual enterprise in a single package, and the robust environment supports servers of any size with an unlimited number of virtualised guests.

The Red Hat difference The Red Hat portfolio blends three critical primary technologies in order to provide the most effective and innovative virtualisation solutions on the market. These technologies offer: Server virtualisation: Allowing a single server to host multiple operating systems, run multiple versions, and provide multiple performance and security settings, all running on the same server.

Storage virtualisation: Allowing multiple guests, running on the same or different servers, to access and share logical storage volumes and file systems; so storage environment for every guest remains consistent, regardless of where it is running.

Virtualisation management: Allowing the management of all aspects of a virtualised system including the virtualised guest environment.

This fully integrated, ready to go virtualisation means there is no need to go anywhere else for additional products – saving both time and money.

For details about how Bell Micro can help you grow your open source business, visit www.redhat-portal.com today

*Red Hat Enterprise Advanced Platform only

This year’s hottest ticket If you want to find out more, go along to the Red Hat and JBoss Partner Summit, running from 2nd-4th April.

As the most comprehensive event since these two heavyweights joined forces, the agenda promises the latest technologies, strategies, best-practices, hands-on training sessions and industry insights – something for everyone.

Taking place in sunny Malaga, the event will also help you to benefit from joint marketing programmes and provide everything you need to be successful in driving more Red Hat and JBoss business in 2008.

www.bellmicro.eu

Thin-Provisioning Real-life examples of reducing storage footprint.

Thin-provisioning is a technology that is revolutionising storage management and energy savings – businesses of all sizes are taking advantage of the cost saving benefits of virtualising and consolidating their storage. It’s software that produces dramatic results, in radically lowering both TCO and carbon footprints. Normally technology of this level is only available through purchasing expensive storage arrays and disks, but one vendor, DataCore, has revolutionised the concept and made thin-provisioning an open network-based service that works with nearly all storage brands and devices. Network based thinprovisioning automatically and nondisruptively allocates physical storage capacity to application servers only when it is actually used. This dramatically improves storage utilisation and reduces the total number of disk drives required. The software installs on any available standard Windows server in minutes.

Paul Vernon, Head of IT at international music publishers, Boosey & Hawkes, noted there had to be a better way to reduce his storage footprint;“We recognised that direct attached storage had distinct limitations.

Constantly resizing and reallocating disk space and purchasing additional disks was becoming an ongoing challenge.”

Boosey and Hawkes reduced their overallocation of disks through adoption of thin-provisioning software from DataCore.

Put simply, their SANmelody software presents pre-defined virtual volumes from a central storage pool to needy applications, while the capacity is allocated automatically when really needed. The change for Boosey and Hawkes was significant as Paul notes: “The ability to have flexible management to expand disk space has been a Godsend. Several times in the year we have to resize and increase volumes –

This issue of Channel Voice examines the versatile, hardware-independent, thinprovisioning storage virtualisation software that is radically reducing the storage hardware burden across UK SMBs.

something that with our old direct attached storage would have been much more difficult, costly and time consuming”.

It’s not just a reduction on the wallet that customers experience. Adopting thinprovisioning actively helps reduce carbon footprint. Not a case of ‘green washing’, but a case where true energy savings of up to 50% can be achieved using fewer disks – through reductions in space, power and cooling costs of fewer physical disks and arrays. There’s also a reduction in the amount of new storage that needs to be purchased – bad news for hardware suppliers, but good news for landfills and pressed budgets. Thinprovisioning software provides up to 50% improvements in capacity utilisation, thereby reducing the total amount of storage that must be purchased and allowing previously redundant storage to be utilised. Mike Duxbury, Senior Networking Specialist at Volkswagen Financial Services noted, “Cost benefits (of thin-provisioning) are significant and for us outweighed the cost of the SANmelody solution after three months.”

His team was also able to redeploy existing storage arrays and use blade servers with half the price tag of traditional servers.

When it comes to manpower savings, thin-provisioning again kicks in, automating and simplifying unnecessary provisioning steps. This instantaneous provisioning of storage capacity significantly reduces disk administration burden and time management and eliminates application service disruption.

Great news for Mark Aylwin, IT Support Team Leader, at manufacturing giant Truck-Lite Europe, who notes that through his thin-provisioning software, “Management has been handed back into our control, flexibly and agilely using resources to gain higher storage capacity.”

Thin-Provisioning promotes energy efficiency and saves money. Customers can even access a 30-day free trial by simply downloading: www.datacore.com/download.asp

To find out more about recommending thin-provisioning and storage virtualisation solutions that work on any physical and virtual machine (VM) contact your Bell Micro Account Manager or visit www.datacore.com. We are actively recruiting virtualisation partners who want to recommend Total Enterprise Virtualisation and gain rich margin, account penetration and dramatically shorten sales cycles whilst robustly supporting desktop and server virtualisation implementation projects.

www.bellmicro.eu

Working in Parallels

To bring you more choice in virtualisation and automation.

Bell Micro is delighted to announce a new vendor partnership with Parallels Software, a worldwide leader in virtualisation and automation software across all major hardware, operating system and virtualisation platforms.

Bell Micro and Parallels can help you become a complete virtualisation solution provider to your customers.

Virtualisation is more than just Hypervisor technology, there are different types of Server virtualisation technologies available for each scenarios’ consolidation requirements: • Hardware Virtualisation – Hypervisors (multiple OS – performance loss) • OS Virtualisation – Containers (single OS – Native performance) Parallels Virtuozzo Containers provides OS level server Virtualisation solution with the highest levels of efficiency and manageability for the enterprise so will complement your existing Virtualisation portfolio and help you provide the best consolidation solutions.

It enables large organisations to consolidate multiple servers onto fewer physical servers, creating more flexible, scalable, easily managed IT infrastructures and reducing energy consumption.

The two diagrams below show the hypervisor or hardware Virtualisation technology in comparison to OS Virtualisation.

The hypervisor model has a base layer (usually a thin Linux kernel shown here as a hypervisor or standard OS) that is loaded directly on the bare server. To allocate hardware and resources to the virtual machines, all of the hardware on the server must be virtualized. The next layer up shows each chip, board, etc. must be virtualized so that it can be assigned to virtual machines. Once in the virtual machine itself, there is a complete copy of an operating system and finally the application or workload.

The OS Virtualisation model is streamlined for the best performance, management and efficiency. At the base resides a standard host operating system, in the case of Virtuozzo Containers that includes Windows and Linux. Next is the Virtualisation layer with a proprietary file system and a kernel service abstraction layer that ensure isolation and security of resources between different virtual environments. The Virtualisation layer makes each virtual environment appear as a standalone server. Finally, the virtual environment itself houses the application or workload.

For more information please contact our Parallels specialist Mervyn Hall via MDHall@bellmicro.eu or telephone 07921 493242.

www.bellmicro.eu

Desperately seeking: IT staff The Bell Micro Security Academy programme has a range of training courses for sales people, enabling them to acquire critical skills around a number of vendor products and solutions. This programme ensures that a constant supply of skilled security consultants is available, allowing them to confidently build larger security businesses.

Bell Micro Security Academy

Who should attend?

The Security Sales Academy consists of a half day overview of general security issues, followed by two streams of specific solutions for both Enterprise and SMB partners. These aim to increase the number of skilled security sales people in the marketplace. The Academy has been designed and organised in partnership with several leading security vendors to: • develop a sustainable and profitable security business • build their organisations’ security sales expertise • maintain healthy profit margins • obtain access to exclusive campaigns and offers from vendors

Existing sales staff with NO previous security experience. The sales people attend the Bell Micro office in Chessington, familiarising themselves with the offerings from our leading security vendors. They will be supported after the course via access to security product specialists and the possibility of co-op marketing assistance from Bell Micro and the vendors.

Following the training, the participating resellers will have regular access to Bell Micro’s product management team and

pre-sales consultants. Also, partners who fully embrace the programme by sending more than 3 sales people will be invited to participate in exclusive marketing and lead generation campaigns with the vendors involved.

The next Security Sales Academy takes place on 8th and 9th April.

To book your place or for more information about the Security Sales Academies visit www.bellmicrosecurity.co.uk or email security-uk@bellmicro.eu

See us on stand F230 at Infosecurity 2008 Bell Micro has a complimentary security portfolio that provides

Finding great staff is never an easy task, harder still in the fastmoving and competitive IT marketplace where the right skills are hard to find. New people need to make an immediate contribution and recruitment mistakes can prove costly.

best of breed products across the IT Security market. With this in mind, Bell Micro will be exhibiting at this year’s Infosecurity Exhibition on stand F230. Infosecurity Europe is Europe’s most comprehensive convergence of information security professionals. The event delivers an audience hungry for education and information on how, what, why and when to purchase the products on offer. It also offers vendors the platform to evolve current or create new channel relationships.

When and where can you find us?

Stand F230 Grand Hall, Olympia, London Tuesday 22nd April: 09:30 – 17:30 Wednesday 23rd April: 09:30 – 17:30 Thursday 24th April: 09:30 – 16:00 For more information email: security-uk@bellmicro.eu

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Secure Computing IronMail – Comprehensive Messaging Protection IronMail® delivers a centrally managed, integrated, best-ofbreed messaging gateway security appliance for enterprises of all types and sizes. Find out why IronMail is the messaging solution of choice for over 57% of the Fortune 500.

No software to deploy and maintain • Reduces data-center and IT staffing by deploying a turnkey, easy-to-use appliance

Inbound and Outbound protection in one comprehensive appliance • Reduces load on email servers by controlling all incoming and outgoing mail in one best-of-breed appliance • Reduces costs by combining email security functionality into one best-of-breed solution from one vendor

Designed for high availability with global scalability and unmatched processing speed • Peace of mind that your messaging network will be secured, no matter how large your enterprise is, how many facilities and users you have to protect, and what new threats come down the road

Positioned at the corporate gateways • Prevents attacks before they reach vulnerable email servers; ensures that no attacks will infiltrate the network or users • Saves costs on hardware, bandwidth and networking infrastructure For more information about Secure • Gateway protection doesn’t interfere with users’ normal business Computing’s IronMail contact the functions; no end-user training required ensures faster adoption Bell Micro Security Team on 0871 230 4670 or email security-uk@bellmicro.eu

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