EMC launches private cloud platform for channel

EMC has launched a pre-configured white label private cloud offering designed to be sold through a partnership with six software and hardware vendors.

The VSPEX Proven Infrastructure cloud platform will be available to the company’s Velocity Program channel partners, who can then take the product and re-brand it for sale to end user organisations. EMC will not be selling VSPEX equipment direct to customers, after learning the lessons of its Atmos public cloud storage service which put some in the channel’s noses out of joint.

The product is aimed at SMBs looking for quick deployment on trusted infrastructure.  The platform integrates technologies from Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Intel, Microsoft and VMware, including server, storage, networking, hypervisors and applications.

Initially, EMC has put together 14 VSPEX configurations and it said there were two use cases for the platform at the moment: private cloud deployment and virtual desktop infrastructure. IT expects to see other uses to arise as customers take up the solution.

While the technologies behind the platform aren’t new, the way they have been brought together is, and this, EMC said will provide certainty to customers that all the different parts of the stack will work properly with one another.

"By integrating these technologies tightly with the hypervisor and end-user computing environments, customers can also benefit from simpler administration and lower management costs," the company said in a statement.

VSPEX offers channel partners such as Ingram Micro, Arrow, Avnet and Tech Data, the ability to configure an appliance for a customer that offers a much wider range of technology options than the Vblock appliance developed by VMware, Cisco and EMC. The configurations let the customer pick and choose which is most suitable for their own infrastructure needs.

"With VSPEX we're giving our channel partners the tools to address the fast growing market in virtual infrastructure and private cloud computing,” said Gregg Ambulos, senior vice president of Global Channel Sales, EMC.  “VSPEX will accelerate customers journey to the cloud as it enables our partners to build value and differentiation. VSPEX has changed how solutions are delivered with partners."

The announcement comes just after IBM launched its own PureSystems solution, combining compute, networking and storage as well as management software in an integrated system.