Tech Data Canada has formed a distribution agreement with Elfiq Networks of Montreal headquartered in Montreal, a privately held company that specializes in the development of innovative telecommunications and security solutions.
According to Greg Myers, Vice President of Marketing, Tech Data Canada, Elfiq offers VARs a unique business opportunity and he expects this relationship to blossom in the coming years.
What makes Elfiq unique is its Link Balancer, which are a network-based appliance designed to proactively manage bandwidth and multiple ISP or private links. Typically, these devices are installed between the firewall and modems and/or routers.
Elfiq enables organizations to ensure business continuity and improve network performance through innovative link balancing technologies. Elfiq has built unique expertise in this field and can help organizations of any size or vertical sector especially in hospitality, finance, banking and government. Link Balancers are also ideal for small businesses to global enterprises who use VOIP or any solutions that feature Citrix or Microsoft.
J.P. Hebert, Vice President of Business Development of Elfiq, Tech Data is a market leader and by joining forces, we bring to Canadian VARs a new type of network-based product to ensure their customers are always connected to the Internet, as this service is critical to any business of any sector.
Elfiq link balancers enable organizations to utilize multiple concurrent ISP circuits to prevent Internet connectivity downtime and improve overall access performance.
With more Internet-based applications and services being used in organizations every day, proper access to the Internet has become a critical asset for normal business operations, where loss of connectivity or ISP link saturation can result in lost revenue.
Elfiq maybe little known in their own home country, but it has been doing business in about 100 countries.
Avnet a chip off the old Vblock
If any attending the Cisco Partner Summit in New Orleans this February you would have known that Vblock alliance was looking for a value added distribution partnership that was global in nature.
Today, the Vblock alliance formed between Cisco, EMC and VMware announced that Avnet (NYSE: AVT) would be that value-added distribution partner. However, it will not be global yet as this deal is only for Canada and the U.S. Avnet will be asked to support partners through the newly crafted VCE Partner Program, and streamline the VCE (Virtual Computing Environment Company) engagement and supply process through its close alignment with VCE parent companies – Cisco, EMC and VMware.
VCE also hopes that channel partners will be able to leverage Avnet’s SolutionsPath methodology to gain deeper expertise in data center technology areas and how to sell solutions into high-growth vertical markets.
The standard portion of this agreement will also see Avnet accelerate the sales cycle of the Vblock Infrastructure Platform based on its solutions distribution know-how around converged data centres. Darren Adams, vice president and general manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, Cisco Solutions Group, said Avnet understands the sales and technical skills partners need to address their customers’ business challenges with converged data center environments and cloud-based computing models. Avnet will work side-by-side with our partners to provide them with the support they need to bring Vblock-based solutions to market quickly and in line with their customers’ business goals. We will also help our partners target new customers and markets with our proven SolutionsPath methodology, capturing additional revenue-generating opportunities.
Avnet will be able to ensure continuity of the supply chain for reseller partners and assist them in achieving the vendor certifications required to become VCE certified.
Also, through its dedicated practices, Avnet’s SolutionsPath provides partners with the education, tools, resources and skills needed around core data center technologies. These data centre technologies include mobility, networking, security, storage and virtualization.
Additionally, Avnet provides partners with the specialization required to successfully sell these solutions into high-growth vertical markets, including energy, finance, government, healthcare and retail.