ST. JOHN’s, N.F.L.D. – Power and cooling vendor Eaton Industries is making a push up the technology stack.
The channel typically treats power and cooling solutions as an afterthought and not part of its core expertise. Eaton is trying to change that mindset in the channel. Jodi Bonham, the area director for Eaton Canada said that Eaton wants to position power and cooling as the fifth element for converged infrastructure after the operating system, servers, storage, and networking.
According to Bonham, the plan is to integrate Eaton power and cooling technology within the converged infrastructure solution from vendors such as VMware, Citrix, RedHat, NetApp, Cisco, HP and others.
“We are more than a UPS vendor. We are part of the full solution. We are not trying to replace anything, but we do want to add value. At Eaton, our channel programs allow you to transact and roll your business. We are not stocked locally at Best Buy, Future Shop, and Costco and this allows us to add more margin with our products,” Bonham said.
The biggest development coming out of the TechSelect Canada conference is Eaton’s announced that they collaborated with NetApp and Cisco for the FlexPod. Eaton technology is now integrated into FlexPod and ExpressPod. Eaton’s Intelligent Power Management software, which is available at no charge, uses a dashboard for VMware vCenter hypervisor. This will add functionality to automate the ability to move, consolidate or suspend virtual machines in the event of a power disruption. You will also be able to move the VM to a safe place. Eaton is also providing FlexPods with remote agentless shutdown.
Under the Eaton Power Advantage Reseller Program, solution providers are offered three levels starting with a zero clip level registered area, where they can make margin off of deal registration.
Bonham believes that Eaton will gain the interest of NetApp solution providers now that there is an integrated solution with FlexPod.
The other two levels are: Authorized and Certified. Solution providers can qualify for the Authorized level at $25,000 of sales. This level will offer resellers five per cent upfront margins along with deal registration, leads, training and growth programs.
The top level is called Certified and solution providers will need $50,000 of sales per year to get to this level. The benefits for Certified partners are concierge marketing, four per cent back end rebate, five per cent up front margin, deal registration, leads, training and growth programs.
Pina Fiorillo, channel manager for Eaton Canada, told CDN that all these levels are stackable and Certified partners can make close to 20 points inside the Power Advantage Reseller Program and can go higher to 30 points with Eaton’s GEM program.
Also the Power Advantage Reseller Program has no paperwork. “This is an easy program. No paperwork all you have to do is sell,” Bonham said.
Bonham added that Eaton is putting the finishing touches on a new growth program where the solution provider who grows a certain level with Eaton is reward with rebate cheque. There will be three levels in this program and more details will follow when the program is officially launched in Canada.