Channel Daily News

SAP to boost partner and Cisco business

Two channel developments came from SAP today. The first is the launch of its Partner Service Delivery (PSD) team launched a new service portfolio that provides channel partners with a set of tools to enhance day-to-day SAP business.

The new PSD portfolio offerings emphasize customized service to help drive business growth for solution providers. By providing tailored services to partners, this portfolio increases focus on developing and delivering enablement content through:

• A comprehensive services portfolio accessible through the Partner Enablement Center (PEC).

• Partner Services Advisors (PSAs) in regional service centers.

• Operations and business support through Partner Business Services (PBS).

SAP channel partners now account for more than 30 per cent of its software revenues.

Related story: SAP Canada’s new channel chief outlines 2012 priorities

Also today, Cisco Systems introduced a full suite of solutions for the SAP High-Performance Analytic Appliance or HANA platform built on the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS).

According to Cisco, consumer technologies are proliferating business along with virtual machines. The volume, velocity and variety of data have increased because of this. Access to such data is critical for business decision-making as well as market analysis. The integration of SAP HANA on UCS will help organizations evaluate operations based on large volumes of detailed information, allowing a mobile workforce to make decisions in real time.

Solution providers can utilize UCS with unified fabric, hardware abstraction and central management, to lower operational costs at the system level. SAP’s in-memory computing technology, coupled with Cisco UCS, can provide customers with solutions that have been architected to provide high-availability and multisite disaster tolerance, both of which are vital for mission-critical adoption.Cisco is highlighting the all-in-one rack mount solutions as part of this release. The Cisco UCS portfolio for SAP HANA includes extra-small, small and medium-sized rack-mount solutions that support up to one-half terabyte (TB) of compressed user data. Each of these fits inside a single Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Mount Server with internal storage. The portfolio also includes scale-out blade server solutions, which support up to eight terabytes of memory.

Cisco is also encouraging customers to work with its solution provider network as they will provide the professional services planning, building, and managing a UCS solution for HANA.

Distributor Avnet Technology Solutions will be providing solution integration capabilities, allowing customers across Canada, the U.S. and Europe to order the Cisco UCS servers for SAP HANA as a single, pre-integrated solution that is pre-assembled and configured at the Avnet Global Solutions Center starting Oct. 31.