Tech Times by Tech Data

May/June 2013

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May/June 2013

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Executive Address A Fond Farewell

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Trends in Cloud Security Addressing your Clients’ Challenges

Lobsterfest Tech Data hosts Halifax-area partners at 5th annual Lobsterfest

2013 Business Builder Tour Kicks Off Highlights from Ottawa, Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto

HP Networking

Extend and simplify the management of your heterogeneous network environment

Tech Data rewards top reseller achievements

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Circle of Excellence Winner’s Circle: Hamilton

TechSelect Spring Conference St. John’s, NFLD

We catch up with Attaché

ViPR Let Loose, Velocity Retired

TechSelect Member Profile EMCworld 2013 Voice of the Vendor Tech Times speaks with Todd Madgett from Cisco Canada

Editor Irene Buchan Art Direction and Design Julie MacAulay Contributing Writers and Editors Irene Buchan, Mary Bonnici, Robert Dutt Project Manager Ralitsa Naydenova Tech Times is published and distributed six times per year to channel resellers across Canada.

Comments, suggestions? Tell us what you think! irene.buchan@techdata.ca

©2013 Tech Data Canada Corporation. Prices, promotions, offers & terms and conditions of sale subject to change without notice. Errors and omissions excepted. All manufacturers’ names are registered trademarks of their respective corporations. This publication comes to you free from Tech Data Canada Corporation. We received your mailing address from your Tech Data customer account information. To make changes or to unsubscribe, please contact your Tech Data sales team at 800.668.5588 or notify us at emailcanada@techdata.ca. www.techtimesmagazine.ca

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ExecutiveAddress

With thanks... In 1999, shortly after I joined Tech Data Canada, we made the decision to acquire Globelle Corporation. Tech Data has considered that acquisition to be tremendously successful on a number of fronts, and I agree that the two companies both benefitted from the collaboration, as did the Canadian channel as well. The two companies and their respective employees did an incredibly good job of coming together and forging a new culture and presence in the market. Through the acquisition of Globelle, Tech Data got access to a thriving hard drive and components business, a complimentary systems and networking business, branch offices in Montreal and Vancouver. And of course, Tech Data inherited a number of fine Globelle employees, many of whom are still Tech Data Canada employees today. Among them was Frank Haid. I announced Frank’s retirement a couple of weeks ago, and though Frank and I had been planning his ride into the sunset for a few months, making his decision public was certainly bittersweet. Over the years, I’ve come to regard Frank as an incredibly talented sales leader and strategist, and I’ll miss his insight as we continue to serve the Canadian marketplace while delivering value to our reseller and vendor partners. More than that, however, I’ll miss Frank’s friendship, humour and camaraderie. Many of you know that Frank and I have spent the better part of the last decade travelling across the country (and beyond) meeting with customers and vendors, shaking hands, and asking for purchase orders. It’s safe to say that

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we’ve squeezed a lifetime of memories in the last 14 years or so. While I’m incredibly happy for him and wish him well in his future plans, I know that the entire Tech Data community will miss him greatly. I consider the acquisition of Globelle one of the greatest achievements of my career. And though we had to buy Globelle in order to hire Frank – which may very well go down in history as the largest executive recruitment fee ever paid - I still think it was the deal of the century. Frank will be with us until the middle of June. I know he’d love to hear from you so feel free to shoot him a quick note of congratulations at frank.haid@techdata.ca

D. R. Reid President, Tech Data Canada

May/June 2013

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small to medium business Avocent® Universal Management Gateway - A Comprehensive Appliance for Infrastructure Management and Control The Avocent® Universal Management Gateway is a multi-purpose appliance that consolidates access and control to all facilities and IT assets. The Universal Management Gateway uses proven technology to deliver a single, unified approach for both data center infrastructure management (DCIM) including remote data center management. Avocent # UMG2000-400 UMG4000-400 UMG4000-400

TD # 2809AR 4245B2 4247B2

Product Description UMG 2000 40P 256SP 8SRL 1000DP UMG 4000 40P(AS) 512SP 5000DP UMG 6000 40P(AS) 1024SP 10KDP-GVT

Call your Tech Data representative at 1-800-858-5566 today

MANAGE AND PROTECT. ALL FROM ONE PLACE. With Kaspersky, now you can. Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business brings together anti-malware, data encryption, systems management, IT policy enforcement and mobile device management into a single platform. See. Control. And Protect your company data. Now you can. Be Ready for What’s next. Call your Tech Data representative at 1-800-858-5566 today

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May/June 2013

By Seth Robinson, Director, Technology Analysis, CompTIA

Addressing Your Clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Challenges Cloud adoption has moved into a new phase. Early adopters have had several years of experience and are making Cloud components an integral part of their IT architecture, and large numbers of companies that have been sitting on the sidelines are beginning to implement Cloud solutions. However, one concern remains the top challenge for adopters and keeps non-adopters in a holding pattern: Cloud security. Two recent reports from CompTIAâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the 3rd Annual Trends in Cloud Computing study and the 10th Annual Information Security Trends studyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;shed some light on the current state of Cloud security. While there are certainly obstacles, companies are demonstrating that these can be overcome, just as Internet security issues were overcome as businesses moved towards Web-centric models. 10

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The primary facet of Cloud usage that creates security concerns is the transfer and storage of data over networks and systems that aren’t under the control of the data owner. This translates into several specific concerns, as seen in the top five Cloud security issues that companies are addressing: •

Exposure or loss of data during file transfers

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System downtimes/business interruptions

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Shared technology vulnerability

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Loss of control

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Concerns over encryption of data, either in-use or at-rest

These concerns span a wide range of possible failure points, so a Cloud security plan must take a comprehensive view at where and how data will travel. One of the primary places data will travel is the Cloud provider, and companies generally seem confident in their provider’s security measures. A net 80 percent of Cloud users say they’re confident or very confident in their provider’s ability to provide effective security. This is not blind faith—78 percent of Cloud users say they perform at least a moderate review of the provider’s policies and practices. Another 14 percent say it depends on the situation—certain data or functions may require heavy review and some are far less critical and require very little review. While these reviews are certainly a positive sign, one of the dangers of Cloud usage is that individual departments may be procuring Cloud solutions without the involvement of the IT team and each department may follow its own review procedures. Forty-six percent of companies with Cloud solutions say that a line-of-business department has been the main purchaser. In many cases, the IT team is at least peripherally involved, even if they don’t hold final approval. In those cases where the IT team isn’t involved, they have typically been called in when something goes wrong (like a security issue). It takes longer for issues to get resolved when the IT team has to come up to speed on the solution. As companies make their transitions, one of the primary strategies for mitigating risk is being selective about what data is placed in the Cloud. The top items on the list of “offlimits” data are company financial data, credit card data and intellectual property. Certain verticals that have a lower overall tolerance for risk (such as healthcare or finance) may be even more discerning about the data they allow outside their control. The end result of this strategy is that the need for robust on-premise systems will continue and private Cloud build-out will increase. Integrating all options will be a major task and securing the entire architecture will still present difficulties. IDC projects the Cloud security market to more than double in the next few years. It’s certainly a time of opportunity for those with the skills to address the challenges. Seth Robinson is the director of technology analysis at CompTIA, the trade association for the IT industry. He examines the underlying technology behind IT trends and analyzes the ways in which technologies complement each other. In addition to the study on social business, he has led research on reports in Cloud computing, mobility and unified communications.

For the 5th consecutive year, Tech Data hosted Halifax-area reseller partners at our annual Lobsterfest on May 22nd at Murphyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on the Water. In what has become a great Tech Data tradition, reseller partners had an opportunity to see new product and program offerings before sitting down to a fresh-from-the-sea Lobster feast. Thanks to all the customers who joined us as well as our outstanding sponsoring vendors!

See you next year!

May/June 2013

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HotSpots Presenting the full Panasonic Toughpad lineup. All three rugged Toughpad models are engineered with enterprise grade security, seamless connectivity and a long legacy of rugged, reliable computing to create the most purpose-built tablets ever for mobile workers in any industry. Call your Tech Data representative at 1-800-858-5566 today.

Save now on the New Tripp Lite SMARTPRO速line! New Tripp Lite SMARTPRO速 Line Interactive UPS systems with LCD interface offer network-grade power protection for critical server, network and telecommunications equipment. Built-in Auto-Voltage Regulation (AVR) actively corrects brownouts and overvoltages while maintaining a full battery charge. These models now include a Pre-installed SNMPWEBCARD network interface. Rebates available until 6/30/2013! Tripp Lite # TD # Rebate (CDN$) Smart1500RMXLN 9237BP $20 Smart2200RM2UN 9238BP $30 Smart2200RMXLN 9239BP $30 Smart3000RMXLN 9241BP $40 Call your Tech Data representative at 1-800-858-5566 today.

The 2013 edition of Tech Dataâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s award-winning Business Builder Tour kicked off in Ottawa on April 11, followed by Quebec City on May 7, Montreal on May 9 and Toronto on May 15. Over 500 Tech Data reseller partners came out to see new product and program offerings from the over 30 participating vendor sponsors, and to reconnect with vendor representatives and Tech Data executives. Between the informative networking vendor fair, educational seminars, and a lively reception capped off by draws for a slew of highly coveted prizes, a fantastic time was had by all! The Business Builder Tour will pick up again in the Fall with stops in Calgary and Vancouver, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking forward to doing it all over again with our Western customers in a few short months!

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Great event, as always! Nice to catch up with partners and vendors, and put faces to names.â&#x20AC;? Janet Edwards, PureLogic IT Solutions

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Definitely worth attending. This unique opportunity to meet vendors was worth the time committed.â&#x20AC;? Waleed Qirbi,VoicePC Inc.

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Network management complexity Enterprise networks expand in bursts through mergers and acquisitions or they grow organically to keep pace with new business intiatives. That growth often means several changes to the network such as adding wireless networks, provisioning virtual LANs and increasing bandwidth or deploying new virtual machines (VMs) to provide cloud-based services. Enterprise networks need to be consistent, agile, and ready to respond to business demands. Businesses need a management platform that ties together all of the various multivendor devices, provide comprehensive insights into the enterprise and solves issues spurred by new initiatives.

HP Intelligent Management Center HP Intelligent Management Center (IMC) is a unified single-pane-ofglass network management platform that provides visibility across the entire enterprise—from wired and wireless networks to physical and virtual environments. HP IMC provides a holistic view of the enterprise, giving network administrators the insights they need to enhance network configuration and improve performance. IMC is easy to use, deploy, and operate, which translates for most organizations into significant savings on training, network management, and operations. HP has extended the reach of IMC by publishing the IMC Extended Application Programming Interfaces (eAPIs) to enable third-parties to leverage the rich information and functionality of IMC. HP IMC: modular and scalable IMC provides a broad set of features across the Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security (FCAPS) to provision, monitor, and manage network elements. The modular, scalable architecture of HP IMC allows organizations install new features as they grow. IMC supports HP and third-party devices for:

Discover and topology • Monitoring and performance management •

Data center orchestration

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Bulk configuration, configuration backup, and restore

features such as device configuration and monitoring and virtual LAN management, quality of service (QoS) management. Providing a path to the cloud The eAPIs play a crucial role in automating the orchestration of enterprise networks for virtualization and cloud computing. They are part of the HP Virtual Application Networks that allow network managers to:

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Create consistency, reliability, and repeatability across the entire network infrastructure.

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Deliver programmable and agile networks that are automatically orchestrated to streamline operations.

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Support the network in the path to the cloud.

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80% less maintenance per year

Extending HP IMC with RESTful eAPIs The eAPIs are a representational state transfer (RESTful) implementation of Web services and uses a SOAP/XML interface. At the heart of the eAPIs is a data abstraction layer that is leveraged by the eAPIs to cohesively manage a mixed network environment. The REST-style Web services enable third-party developers to create applications that interface and leverage IMC services, including those for HP Virtual Application Networks. Organizations can rapidly and dynamically connect users to applications and services while eliminating device-level management. RESTful eAPIs enable external access to HP Virtual Application Networks functions from cloud and network orchestration frameworks. Integration scenarios: how IMC and eAPI can benefit you Organizations can use the eAPIs to develop customized management solutions for their enterprise. They can be used for internal development to create new services for easier network management or for building out new capabilities for third-party networking devices.

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Networking hardware manufacturers - use the eAPIs to develop applications for their devices to work more effectively and send comprehensive information to IMC.

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Internal IT shop - enable internal IT shops freely develop applications to make their enterprise networks more agile without having to interface directly with myriad networking equipment.

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Cloud service provider- allows cloud service providers to

HP IMC: open and extensible APIs HP IMC is based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) and uses a business application flow model as the core. The eAPIs further extend the openness of HP IMC. Third-parties are able to access and control functions that were only available from a CLI interface, or only from the IMC interface. The eAPIs can be used to tap into IMC’s range of

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rapidly deploy cloud services. To learn more visit hp.com/go/networking

May/June 2013

AIS EmployeeSpotlight Tech Times sat down with Alex Wright, Avaya Inside Sales Specialist at Tech Data Canada to learn how the team provides support to resellers across Canada. Q: How long have you been with Tech Data? A: I will celebrate my two-year anniversary with Tech Data in August 2013! Tempus Fugit! Q: What is your technical background? What technical certifications do you hold?

“There’s such a diverse group of talented and friendly people at Tech Data so I’m always surrounded by positive energy.”

A: Before joining the AIS Division as Inside Sales Specialist at Tech Data, I worked in various Sales / Territory Development and Technical roles for vendors such as D-Link, HP and Apple. I currently hold my Avaya APSS for SME Communications and Networking and also the ShoreTel System Design and Architecture. Q: What do you like most about Tech Data? A: There are many things to like but I’d have to say the culture. There’s such a diverse group of talented and friendly people at Tech Data so I’m always surrounded by positive energy. We work hard but we also enjoy our time and have some laughs. Flying screaming monkey, anyone? Q: Describe a typical day for you: A: Our team has so many things going on it would be difficult to call any day typical. With over twelve people on our extended team and supporting the Telco / Telus Team and all the TD sales groups and resellers across Canada, my day could involve working on configurations and manipulating pricing, pre-qualifying promotions, locating and validating part numbers, training and informing partners and teams and renewing support contracts. It’s a long list! I am also very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with customers at their facilities as well as our ATSC, events such as BBTs and various other partner gatherings. Q: What do you like the most about your job? A: Definitely the people we work with and the dynamics of my role. Products and promotions are constantly evolving which makes for new learning experiences every day. Being in a bilingual role also allows me communicate with our sales teams and customers in the Eastern Region to stay sharp en Français. Shout out to MON and QUE Teams! Q: What motivates you in your job? A: Knowing that I’m helping people motivates me. Since folks rely on us to get their projects finished, we really do our best to be a strong link in that chain. I try to keep the Carpe Diem state of mind. Q: What has been your most memorable moment or biggest success since joining Tech Data? A: There are many memorable moments for me but receiving the Over the Top Award in Q2 of FY2013 was a certainly a highlight. The quarterly meetings and awards ceremonies are always informative, motivational and entertaining. It’s great to see co-workers get recognized! Q: Anything else you think we should know about you? A: I’m single ; ) Just playing around. Don’t actually print this.

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Tech Data Canada announced the winners of its 11th annual Circle of Excellence Awards. Reseller partners are recognized from across Canada for their excellence in revenue achievement, as well as their continued dedication, commitment and leadership both in the channel and in partnership with Tech Data. Nominees are reviewed annually by Tech Data’s executive team. They are evaluated on their growth, partnership, electronic commerce integration and joint strategic initiatives. “I am excited to recognize this year’s Circle of Excellence award winners for their growth and achievements in 2012.” explained Frank Haid, Vice President, Sales, Tech Data Canada. “All of this year’s winners have demonstrated their dedication to the channel and their partnership with Tech Data throughout the year. I look forward to their continued success and partnership.”

This year’s Circle of Excellence reseller award winners include: •

CDW Canada (National Partner) – www.cdw.ca

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Softchoice (National Partner) – www.softchoice.com • OnX Enterprise Solutions (National Partner)) – www.onx.com •

Insight (National Partner) – www.insight.com

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SHI (National Partner) – www.shi.ca

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TELUS (Solution Provider Partner) – www.telus.com

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IMAGINIT Technologies (Central Region) – www.imaginit.com

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Long View Systems (Western Region) – www.longviewsystems.com WBM Office Systems (Western Region)) – www.wbm.ca

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TeraMach (Capital Region) – www.teramach.com MP Solutions (Atlantic Region) – www.impsolutions.com

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Informatique EBR (Region du Quebec)) – www.ebr.ca

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Informatique Pro Contact (Region du Quebec) – www.procontact.ca

The 2012 Circle of Excellence winners will receive their awards over the next few months when Tech Data Canada executives visit each region to personally deliver the awards and congratulate the award winners. Recipients will receive a commemorative glass plaque.

Congratulations to all of this year’s Circle of Excellence winners!

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On April 18, Tech Data and 14 sponsoring vendors hit the Queen Elizabeth Way and brought a scaled down version of the Business Builder Tour to the great city of Hamilton, Ontario. This was the 3rd time Tech Data has hosted Hamilton-area reseller partners in an event of this kind, and the feedback keeps getting better and better! Attendees had an opportunity to talk to key industry-leading manufacturers in their own backyard, and capped off the night with a reception featuring great food, cocktails and an exciting prize draw. Thanks to all our Hamilton-area customers and sponsoring vendors!

See you in 2014!

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Over 40 Canadian TechSelect members, together with sponsoring vendors and an extended Tech Data team, gathered in St. John’s, NFLD in late May for our annual Canadian TechSelect Conference. While there, members shared best practices through member-only sessions, benefited from informative seminars and round table discussions led by our sponsoring vendors, and had an opportunity to learn from the fascinating business management insights of Mark Smith, a renowned speaker and management consultant. Of course it wasn’t all work and no play. During our first night in St. John’s, members and vendors took in the breathtaking scenery from The Rooms, a spectacular cultural facility that houses both the Art Gallery and Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador. The unique venue offered unrivaled views of the The Narrows and St. John’s Harbour. The TechSelect community spent the last night of the conference experiencing a true Newfoundland tradition with a Scuff an’ Scoff. Everyone brushed off their dancing shoes, learning how to Irish Step Dance and also showed off their vocal chops by joining in a Newfoundland Sing-Along. While in St. John’s, members participated in the local ‘screeching in’ custom, where everyone kissed the cod! We have the pictures to prove it! Many thanks to our participating members and sponsoring vendors. We appreciate the time you spend with us and enjoy working closely together to continue to drive meaningful business practices for us all.

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TechSelect Member Profile

In this issue of Tech Times we learn how TechSelect membership is helping Attache Group Inc., of London, Ontario grow their business.

Attache began operating in 1995 as a reseller and IT services provider in the London, Ontario market. The technical group was comprised mainly of exXerox XBS employees looking for new challenges in their home market. The company has evolved over the years and now covers the entire Southwestern Ontario (SWO) market serving the needs of over three hundred customers, making up most of the sectors of the region’s economy. A key component of Attache’s profitability model is its reliance on contract technical resources providing the company with on-demand labour access throughout the coverage area. Attache has been a TechSelect member since 2006 and uses information and lessons learned from other members to help guide the company’s own strategic thinking. Although much has changed in the industry over the past eighteen years the one constant that remains is the need to develop, maintain and enhance the relationship with customers. Through those relationships Attache has been able to identify emerging customer needs and match those needs with the vendor products and services best suited to enhance the business and operations of each and every customer. Challenges come in the areas of needing to maintain a current level of knowledge of industry and product trends as well as keeping customers informed. Through relationships with another local London firm, InfoTech Research Group, Attache keeps abreast of bigger picture trends. Access to Tech Data resources and vendor representatives, the company has access to specific product information and sales support programs. To keep in touch with customers, Attache works off its highly successful

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annual Technology Showcase event that has consistently increased attendance and vendor participation over the past nine years. From that event the company has developed and continues to enhance a private LinkedIn group providing customers with on-going access to topics, information and contact with vendors as facilitated by the Attache group coordinator. Attache relies on its vendor partners to actively support the company’s contact with customers. From Attache’s state-of-theart video training facility Paul Jeneroux, Business Development Manager, Attache Group Inc., London Ontario. vendors can provide both in-person and web • Offer vendors best-possible based presentations to customers in SWO. In addition, market access to customers in Attache makes regular use of the Tech SWO Data Advanced Technology Solutions • Increase utilization of the Tech Centre (ATSC) facility to help it and the Data ATSC for in-person and participating vendors make that last remote presentations presentation needed to close sales. Attache plans to continue to profitably • Enhance partnering opportunities grow its revenue base over the next with other TechSelect members five years through a combination of the to meet Attache’s customer needs following: and service the needs of other members’ customers in Attache’s • Maintain a strict focus on geographic territory. development and enhancement of customer relations •

Selectively add vendors to complete the company’s desired compliment of seventeen go-to vendors

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Work with vendor partners to ensure reasonable cost-effective access to training programs and ensure certification requirements are reasonable

Combining the market trends of mobility, cloud, BYOD, big data and security with the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of technology faced by customers, 2013 will see Attache spending more time and effort enhancing customer contact to protect and enhance those valuable relationships!

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EMC uses its annual partner and end-user conference to announce its SoftwareDefined Storage Play, and significant changes to its partner programs By Robert Dutt

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EMC’s annual EMC World conference at the Venetian in Las Vegas proved to be the platform for several key developments, including the launch of ViPR, the company’s Software-Defined Storage platform, and significant changes to its channel program, and Tech Times was on-hand for all the news of the week. The biggest product and directional announcement of the event was ViPR, a major initiative by the company to manage its own storage, as well as offerings from competitive vendors, and ultimately, any generic storage. ViPR aims to allow customers to separate data from the storage on which it is housed, allowing easier management of a company’s storage resources as a virtualized pool of storage, while allowing additional services to be brought to bear on the data contained on that storage. The idea behind ViPR is to allow service providers and enterprise to “operate a Web-scale data center yourself,” said EMC president and COO David Goulden. And because of that, the primary opportunity EMC is courting with ViPR is the service provider market, according to Jeremy Burton, executive vice president of operations and marketing. But that’s not the extent of EMC’s ambitions. “A lot of enterprises are creating their own cloud,” Burton noted, and that’s where ViPR fits in. EMC argues that SDS is a change necessary for the coming “third platform” for applications, which includes mobile devices, social interactions, and cloud structure. The sheer number of applications, and the number of devices accessing those devices (jumping from 83 million apps today to 500plus million apps in 2016, by EMC’s estimation) requires moving beyond block-and-file storage built for transactional consistency, and basing their resiliency on hardware, and into object-based storage, with software-based resiliency, and “eventual consistency” – that is to say that it’s okay if not every possible viewer of a piece of information gets it instantly updated, as long as the master record is respected and updates get out there in a reasonable timeframe. The SDS platform includes two elements, ViPR Controller and ViPR Data Services. ViPR Controller will offer management and automation services for storage infrastructure, and the company says it will support EMC and rival enterprise will eventually include support for any generic storage hardware. Burton likened it to “a universal remote for the datacenter.” “There are too many dedicated controls for specific devices,” Burton said. “It’s more efficient, it’s way more productive, and it’s more reliable because you tend to do things in a standard way.” ViPR Data Services aim to speed object-based storage by allowing storage objects to be treated like files, doing away with the latency associated with object storage. It will also allow for analytics across enterprise storage infrastructure, rather than doing it on an array-by-array basis. Goulden said that EMC consciously decided to introduce ViPR as an integrated suite, and to have it debut together in the second half of the year, to make easier to consume as a complete platform rather than a collection of point software offerings tacked into EMC’s lineup. “We could have introduced ViPR as ten different things, but we didn’t,” he said. www.techdata.ca

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EMC had a full house of partners for its Global Partner Summit, part of EMC World in Las Vegas.

With ViPR, EMC is looking to do for storage what VMware did for servers. But other attempts to introduce “software defined” systems have proven challenging. While software-defined networking has been a major buzzword in networking circles over the last 18 months, many enterprises are taking a wait-and-see approach as various networking vendors introduce their competing views of what SDN really means. And VMware itself has sought to redefine itself with the new craze, calling its overall approach to datacenter virtualization “the software-defined datacenter.”

Farewell Velocity, Hello EMC Business Partner At its second-annual Global Partner Summit as part of the show, EMC announced that 2013 will be the final year for the company’s series of Velocity partner programs that cover a variety of partner types, including solution providers and service providers. Come 2014, Velocity will be replaced by a new program that will brand all of the company’s partner base as simple EMC Business Partners. Gregg Ambulos, the company’s global head of channel sales, said the change is designed to let all classes of partners more closely align themselves with the EMC brand. “The name Velocity goes away. All of you market yourself as EMC Business

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Partners with all the equity and all of the clout of EMC behind you,” Ambulos said. Along with the new name, Ambulos suggested at least one additional change was on the way. He announced that the company’s PowerLink site will be replaced by a new partner portal, as well as new mobile apps for the EMC Business Partner program. The Velocity program has been EMC’s main vehicle to connect with the channel community coming off what Jeremy Burton, executive vice president of product operations and marketing at EMC, called “the dark days” of EMC’s tight partnership with Dell. That relationship was largely severed over a number of storage-focused acquisitions by Dell that made the two increasingly more competitors than allies, and prompted EMC to embrace the channel, whereas before it had been primarily focused on direct sales and ultimately the Dell relationship. And Velocity has done its job; depending on whom at EMC you ask, the company gets between 50 and 60 per cent of its revenues via partners. And although he declined to specify a targeted long-term balance between channel and direct sales, CEO Joe Tucci told attendees in Las Vegas that the percentage will continue to grow, and that it will continue to grow intentionally. But the company clearly feels it’s time to bring all of its partner constituents under

one roof, and to more clearly attach the company’s brand to that program.

A Pivotal Program And there may be at least one more partner program to consider in the EMC family. In response to a partner question, Tucci told attendees to keep their eyes open for a formal partner program from EMC’s latest business, the Pivotal big-data company it spun up along with VMware last month. Today, he said, all of the various parts of the Pivotal stack are available to partners through various partner programs, but Tucci acknowledge the company has to do more for its partners. “We have great pieces, but we haven’t stitched those great pieces together for you,” Tucci told partners. He said he expects to see that level of product integration into a Pivotal suite, as well as a partner program from the spinoff led by Paul Maritz, by the end of 2013. For his part, Maritz said Pivotal would ultimately build a channel focused on enterprise partners.

“When you’re building a platform, you’re interested in people who can add value on top of or underneath that platform,” said Paul Maritz.

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“We see interest from high-end service providers, to systems integrators, to ISVs. We’re an enterprise company, and we’ll be following channels that lead to the enterprise.” Given the company’s focus on big data and fast data challenges – the Pivotal One platform is intended to be an “operating system” for cloud-based applications – Maritz said he didn’t see much opportunity with the SMB-focused VAR channel, but did say that ultimately, service providers are likely to build on top of Pivotal’s technologies to extend its reach further down-market. While Pivotal’s plans may not include the VAR partner, many of those partners already sell pieces and parts of the Pivotal platform - for example, the Greenplum database from EMC that has been rolled into Pivotal. The good news, Maritz said, is that the components that have been brought into Pivotal will continue to be offered, and developed, as stand-alone items, as well as rolled into the overall cloud platform. Perhaps the biggest channel opportunity around Pivotal may be around application development. The company is predicated on the idea that enterprises need to build out their next-generation applications in a way similar to the big Internet companies – the Facebooks and Googles of the world – for scaleout and handling large volumes of data over short periods of time. Maritz said one of the biggest questions he faces is where the apps for his new platform will come from. In part, it will depend on enterprise buy-in, and that’s already started happening. General Electric, for example, bought ten percent of the new company because it intends to write a new generation of applications based on the soon-to-be-realized capability that most everything it sells - from jet engines to toasters - will be capable of “reporting home” via the Internet. This, of course, turns the current deluge of Big Data into the wildest rainstorm ever seen. Maritz says that airline customers tell him that if they were to capture every bit of data generated by a Boeing 777 on a single trans-Atlantic flight, it would be in the order of 8 TB of data. And all of that data would have value for the airlines as well as the manufacturers of aircraft and jet engines, among other interested parties.

EMC COO David Goulden and Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz discuss partner opportunities in cloud and Big Data at the EMC World Global Partner Summit. www.techdata.ca

May/June 2013

The 2013 “Tune into Storage with IBM & Tech Data” conference took place April 23 – 26 in Tucson, Arizona. Sixteen partners took part in a two-day storage technical training at the IBM Storage Executive Briefing Centre where they gained valuable insight into Entry and Mid-Range Storage offerings. These included products from the Storewize group, tape offerings, and storage within the PureSystems family just to name a few. The event was not only informative but entertaining! Partners enjoyed a Sonoran desert four-wheel ecology adventure with sunset BBQ as well as a round of golf at one of Arizona’s top golf courses, Mountain Golf Course. Thank you to everyone who joined us and made it a success!

May/June 2013

www.techdata.ca

Driven to Succeed:

Insights from Tech Data’s Top Performers

Jose Brito – Director of the Year

Terrie Thoman – Manager of the Year

Bruno Sodaro– Employee of the Year

What is your role? I’m the Director of Credit and Customer Care for Tech Data Canada.

What is your role? I am the Manager of Product Management for our Peripheral Division, responsible for six Product Managers and one Digital Signage Sales Specialist. As a team we manage the day-to-day inventory for our assigned vendors, ensuring that we have the right mix of product, achieve our inventory turns targets, and participate in business planning with our dynamic Tech Data sales teams.

What is your role? Field Sales Representative for the TELCO Team.

How long have you been with Tech Data? I have been with Tech Data for 20 years. I started as an Assistant Credit Analyst at Tech Data Corporation, in Clearwater, in April of 1993. In 1997 I moved to Miami as the Sr. International Risk Manager for Tech Data Latin America, and then in April of 2001 moved to the Great White North and never looked backexcept for that one time…but that’s a long story. Having said that, I’ve recently accepted a position at Tech Data in the US as Director of Credit responsible for our Credit Operations in Canada, as well as Financial Services in the US. While I’ll no longer be based in Canada, I’ll still support all the credit needs of our wonderful Canadian VAR partners. What were your key accomplishments this year? My team’s performance was phenomenal, and better than most years. Our performance was at or near historical best for DSO, bad debt, and accounts receivable aging, which are the primary metrics measured in our department. What made this extraordinary was that, because of the recent roll-out of SAP in Clearwater, the team that supports us from Clearwater had to focus more of their efforts to make the SAP roll-out a success, and had less time to focus on our business. Lisa, Safija, Jackie and Sara did a fantastic job putting in the extra effort and making sure that all accounts were properly looked after. How do reward and recognition programs motivate you personally? Being recognized is a fantastic pat on the back and for many years to come it will be a tremendous source of pride for me. Considering the immensely talented team of Directors representing Tech Data Canada, I’m elated just to know that my name hits the radar screen for such a prestigious award as the Director of the Year.

How long have you been with Tech Data? I am in my 13th year with Tech Data and have spent 25 years within IT distribution. What were your key accomplishments this year? It is hard to break down as we are in a fast-moving environment and the days, weeks, months and years all seem to roll into one. That being said, Digital Signage has been a key focus and within this space we grew our market-share and increased our revenues significantly by working closely with our Digital Signage vendor partners and our resellers. The supplies business is another area that we have focused on with very positive results. Other accomplishments would include the opportunity to continue lead a great team and assist each of them to grow and become better than yesterday.

How long have you been with Tech Data? 14 years. What were your key accomplishments this year? It was a busy year. I contributed to the onboarding a large national VAR as their primary Avaya distributor and helped the team grow in doubling their business. We also maintained primary share for my territory’s Cisco business and completed a critically important RFP that we hope to win. How do reward and recognition programs motivate you personally? It is an honour to be recognized for my work and accomplishments. It shows me that Tech Data appreciates the effort and extra hours I put in to ensure success. That makes me feel proud of my work and the Tech Data organization on the whole. We are a winning team and I can call myself a part of that team. This award tells me I should continue to work hard to make Tech Data successful.

How do reward and recognition programs motivate you personally? Reward and recognition programs are great, but at the end of the day motivation for me comes from enjoying my job and having a strong, fun team to work with. I am proud to say Tech Data has these qualities. In my opinion Tech Data has the best President’s Club in the industry; who doesn’t want to strive to earn an extra week off with pay along with some cash to share with the family!? Receiving a quarterly award or President Club recognition, without a doubt, gives you that ‘feel good’ feeling, and it reinforces that people do notice all your efforts and accomplishments. Makes me want to continue to give it my all!

www.techdata.ca

May/June 2013

In this edition of Voice of the Vendor, we sit down with Todd Madgett, Director of Distribution Sales, Cisco. Q: What are the responsibilities of your role?

I have responsibilities for Cisco Canada distribution sales and operations. Q:.How did you get started in the industry?

My first job was inside sales at Bell Canada selling 800 service to customers in the GTA. It was (at the time) bleeding edge technology! Q: What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Set realistic expectations and learn the industry. I am a big believer in transitioning roles early in your career several times to gain experience and knowledge across all segments in sales, marketing, channel and services.

Professionally it’s the change of business needs of our partners and customers. As technology continues to change daily, the biggest challenge is to understand the relevance and how it impacts our customers and partners for success. Q: Tell us about your greatest achievement.

Director of Distribution Sales, Cisco

Todd Madgett

Q: What challenges you?

My children… It’s something that nothing else can compare too. Professionally my greatest achievement is the mentoring I give to new hires in our industry and watching them develop into successful professionals. Q: What do you see as the biggest benefit to partnering with Tech Data?

Your relationships in our VAR community is second to none. Tech Data continues to build foundational relationships that last a lifetime. It’s very rare to see this kind of partnership in our industry and it is a huge asset to Cisco when we approach new partners and markets where Tech Data is already engaged. Q: What is Cisco’s outlook for 2013?

We continue to focus on double digit growth across our entire suite of architectures. Our partner enablement, distribution partnership, and our approach to the midmarket has never been more focused and I am extremely optimistic on our success in 2013.

www.techdata.ca

May/June 2013

www.techdata.ca

Here’s How You Can Win!

Exclusively with Tech Data! Tech Data is excited to offer it’s reseller partners the opportunity to win great prizes when selling Cisco Security, Switching, Routing, Wireless, Data Centre and Services Solutions!

$5,000 in Summer Sweepstake Prizes!

$40,000 in Summer Sweepstake Prizes!

Two Early Bird Winners - $2500 Weekend Getaway! Earn a ballot for every cumulative $1000 in Cisco Catalyst 2K and 3K series switches for a chance to take a mini break or take the cash!

Double and triple your opportunity to qualify to win and take a luxury break OR take the cash.

• Six Partners will WIN a $5,000 Caribbean Vacation for two OR a $5,000 Backyard Oasis Prize Package! • One Partner will WIN a $10,000 European Vacation for two!

Cisco Security, Switching, Routing & Wireless

Combine Cisco Security, Switching, Routing, Wireless, Data Centre and Services Solutions!

Cisco Data Centre

Cisco Services

Earn a ballot for every cumulative $1000 of Cisco Server purchases with Tech Data! Double those ballot on every $1000 of Cisco C-Series Servers with Tech Data AND - Triple those ballots for every $1000 of Cisco CTO/BTO Servers with Tech Data!

Earn a ballot for every cumulative $1000 of Cisco Services purchases through Tech Data!

2 Winning Partners will be drawn to WIN one of two sweepstakes offers!

1 Winning Partner will be drawn to WIN the GRAND prize sweepstakes offer!

A Caribbean Luxury Dream Vacation for two valued at $5000!* OR A Backyard Oasis Sweepstake Prize Package valued at $5000* giving your staycation a whole new meaning!

A European Dream Vacation for two valued at $10,000!*

*minimum of $25,000 in purchases of Cisco Security, Switching, Routing and Wireless products from Tech Data required to qualify.

*minimum of $25,000 in purchases of Cisco Data Centre products from Tech Data required to qualify.

*minimum of $8,000 in purchases of Cisco Services from Tech Data required to qualify.

*minimum of $50,000 in combined purchases of Cisco Security, Switching, Routing, Wireless, Data Centre, and Services Solutions from Tech Data required to qualify.

Earn a ballot for every cumulative $1000 of Cisco security, switching, routing and wireless products purchased with Tech Data. AND - Triple those ballots on every $1000 of Cisco Catalyst 2k and 3k series switches with Tech Data!

www.techdata.ca

Earn a ballot for every cumulative $2000 of Cisco Switching, Routing, Wireless, Data Centre and services purchases with Tech Data to qualify for the GRAND prize, a $10,000 European Vacation for two!

May/June 2013