EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
Building cost effective , software defined , WANs
Bhaskar Peruri at Silver Peak gives an overview of the opportunities for regional channel partners and partner programme .
As a vendor with networking connectivity solutions , describe the ongoing regional market opportunities for channel partners and partner programme
Middle East IT organisations are still using WAN solutions and the migration to software defined WANs or SD-WANs has been slow . With the increasing costs of dedicated MPLS connections and the ongoing reduction of corporate IT budgets , there is now interest in SD-WAN connectivity solutions . Critical market verticals that need robust and wide spread networking , including banks , and oil and gas , as well as consumer segments like retail , are taking interest in SD-WAN connectivity solutions .
Says Bhaskar Peruri , Regional Sales Manager Middle East , Silver Peak Systems , “ Our product is one for all . The software remains the same , but the pricing model changes and there are some features that change .”
In the current depressed regional markets , where IT budgets are being reduced or under pressure to do more for same or less , the first internal cost head to be relooked at is the recurring cost of networking , points out Peruri . This brings into play the merits of the total cost of ownership of SD-WAN connectivity solutions . Silver Peak ’ s SD-WAN solutions sits inside the customer ’ s network , whether
Bhaskar Peruri is Regional Sales Manager Middle East at Silver Peak Systems .
it is a datacentre or branch office . “ The medium does not really matter but what we do is really what matters . So , whatever goes out or whatever comes inside the branch office we optimise it ,” says Peruri .
In comparison to other WAN management vendor solutions , Silver Peak solutions sit in the network . “ We are looking at the overall picture , irrespective of the applications and the bandwidth . We can optimise video , voice , data , they can only do application ,” he mentions .
Silver Peak operates across the Middle East with vendor partners Dell EMC and Hitachi . Channel reseller partners include K Logix , Alpha Data , GBM , Emircom , Oregon Systems , Infotech , amongst others . FVC is the value added regional distributor for Middle East and Africa . For Qatar , Qatar Datamation Systems is the incountry distributor and for UAE it is Gulf IT . Other key channel partners included
Oregon Systems in Bahrain , Sultan and MHD Infotech in Oman , Gerab System Solutions in UAE .
What is Peruri ’ s wish list for onboarding reseller channel partners ? Tiertwo channel partners need to have good skills in networking , storage and security , all key fundamentals built into Silver Peak ’ s SD-WAN connectivity solutions . “ We play a big role in data replication , datacentre to datacentre and datacentre to disaster recovery .” Channel partners of Dell EMC and Hitachi , work well with Silver Peak solutions .
He points out that a few years ago , Silver Peak distribution partners used to arrange less than six proof of concept demonstrations and walk-throughs . Today they are setting up above 20 proof of concepts .
There are three types of partner levels in the Silver Peak partner programme including Summit , Ascent , and Registered . As partners invest in Silver Peak and achieve specific milestones , they advance through the programme and receive additional Silver Peak support and benefits .
Silver Peak has a new SD-WAN certification training programme for sales professionals and will complement it with an SD-WAN certification programme for system engineers . Basecamp is Silver Peak ’ s new easy-to-use partner portal that is designed to cut down partner onboarding time while providing a single , on-demand destination for training and enablement . With Basecamp , partners can quickly access the sales and marketing tools and support they need to help customers build an SD-WAN .
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