2016 Partner Program Guide: 5-Star System Vendors

Serious About Systems

The IT systems arena is in a state of flux as next-generation converged infrastructure hardware becomes an increasingly attractive alternative to traditionally separate compute, network and storage servers. While just about every major IT vendor has jumped into the hyper-converged system market, they are being challenged by aggressive startups that are competing for their business – and for the attention of their channel partners.

For solution providers, that means lots of opportunities. It also means lots of decisions about which vendors to partner with. The 2016 Partner Program Guide offers the information solution providers need to evaluate IT vendors they work with or are considering working with. The guide is based on detailed applications vendors submitted outlining all aspects of their partner programs.

As part of the Partner Program Guide, The Channel Company designates some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs. Here we present the 5-Star designees in the system technology space.

A10 Networks Inc.

Program Name: A10 Affinity Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2014

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Kirsten Young

URL: www.a10networks.com

APC by Schneider Electric

Program Name: APC Channel Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1991

Number of North American Partners: 22,500

North American Channel Chief: Shannon Sbar

URL: http://www.apc.com

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Program Name: Aruba PartnerEdge

Year Program Established: 2007

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Jim Harold

URL: http://www.arubanetworks.com/

Asigra Inc.

Program Name: Asigra Hybird Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2009

Number of North American Partners: 450

North American Channel Chief: Eran Farajun

URL: www.asigra.com

AT&T

Program Name: AT&T Alliance Program

Year Program Established: 1998

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Kevin Leonard

URL: www.att.com/alliance

AT&T

Program Name: AT&T Partner Exchange

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Brooks McCorcle

URL: www.att.com

Avaya

Program Name: Avaya Connect

Year Program Established: 2009

Number of North American Partners: 2,414

North American Channel Chief: Joe Lohmeier

URL: www.avaya.com

Barracuda Networks

Program Name: Barracuda Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2004

Number of North American Partners: 5,304

North American Channel Chief: Christopher Meyer

URL: www.barracuda.com/

CenturyLink

Program Name: CenturyLink Channel Alliance

Year Program Established: 1998

Number of North American Partners: 200

North American Channel Chief: Blake Wetzel

URL: www.centurylink.com

Cisco Systems

Program Name: Cisco Solution Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Number of North American Partners: 450

North American Channel Chief: Rick Snyder

URL: www.cisco.com

Cisco Systems

Program Name: Cisco Global Channel Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1996

Number of North American Partners: 20,880

North American Channel Chief: Rick Snyder

URL: www.cisco.com

Citrix

Program Name: Citrix Partner Network

Year Program Established: 1989

Number of North American Partners: 2,670

North American Channel Chief: Rafael Garzon

URL: www.citrix.com

Datto

Program Name: Partner Plus Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Rob Rae

URL: www.datto.com

Dell

Program Name: Dell PartnerDirect

Year Program Established: 2007

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Jim DeFoe

URL: www.dell.com

Digium

Program Name: Digium Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2007

Number of North American Partners: 2,514

North American Channel Chief: Steve Harvey

URL: www.digium.com

Eaton

Program Name: PowerAdvantage Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2009

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Sommer Goodknecht

URL: http://www.powerquality.eaton.com

EMC Corp.

Program Name: EMC Business Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Scott Millard

URL: www.emc.com

Emerson Network Power

Program Name: Innovation Partnership Program

Year Program Established: 2004

Number of North American Partners: 1,753

North American Channel Chief: Jessica Kaiser

URL: www.emersonnetworkpower.com

Extreme Networks

Program Name: Extreme Partner Network

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: 500

North American Channel Chief: Dave Allison

URL: www.extremenetworks.com/

FireMon

Program Name: FireMon Ignite

Year Program Established: 2011

Number of North American Partners: 140

North American Channel Chief: Todd M. DeBell

URL: www.firemon.com

Fortinet

Program Name: Fortinet Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2002

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Joe Sykora

URL: www.fortinet.com

Genband

Program Name: Partner Advantage Program

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Michael Bacus

URL: www.genband.com

Gigamon

Program Name: Gigamon Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: 262

North American Channel Chief: Barbara Spicek

URL: www.gigamon.com

Gridstore

Program Name: Gridstore Accelerate Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2011

Number of North American Partners: 60

North American Channel Chief: Phil Lavery

URL: www.gridstore.com

Guidance Software

Program Name: Guidance Software Global Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1997

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Scott Skidmore

URL: www.guidancesoftware.com

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Program Name: HPE Partner Ready

Year Program Established: 2002

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Scott Dunsire

URL: www.hpe.com

Hitachi Data Systems

Program Name: Hitachi TrueNorth Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2003

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Christopher P. White

URL: www.hds.com

HP Inc.

Program Name: HP Partner First

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: 18,827

North American Channel Chief: Stephanie Dismore

URL: www.hp.com/

IBM

Program Name: PartnerWorld

Year Program Established: 1999

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Michelle Stern

URL: ibm.com/partnerworld

Intel Corp.

Program Name: Intel Technology Provider Program

Year Program Established: 1980

Number of North American Partners: 23,399

North American Channel Chief: Todd Garrigues

URL: http://www.intel.com

Juniper Networks

Program Name: Juniper Partner Advantage Program

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Jonathan Belcher

URL: www.juniper.net

Lenovo

Program Name: Lenovo Partner Network

Year Program Established: 2006

Number of North American Partners: 29,000

North American Channel Chief: Sammy Kinlaw

URL: www.lenovo.com

Mellanox Technologies

Program Name: Mellanox PartnerFIRST Program

Year Program Established: 2008

Number of North American Partners: 1,150

North American Channel Chief: Darrin Neil Chen

URL: www.mellanox.com

Microsoft

Program Name: Microsoft Partner Network

Year Program Established: 2010

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Stephen Boyle

URL: www.microsoft.com

NetApp

Program Name: NetApp Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2002

Number of North American Partners: 1,045

North American Channel Chief: Scott Strubel

URL: www.netapp.com

Nimble Storage

Program Name: Nimble Storage Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: 450

North American Channel Chief: Keith Macove

URL: http://www.nimblestorage.com

Nutanix

Program Name: Nutanix Partner Network

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Chris Morgan

URL: www.nutanix.com

Oracle Corp.

Program Name: Oracle PartnerNetwork

Year Program Established: 1999

Number of North American Partners: 5,500

North American Channel Chief: Bill Swales

URL: www.oracle.com

Palo Alto Networks

Program Name: NextWave Program

Year Program Established: 2010

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Todd Palmer

URL: www.paloaltonetworks.com

Pivot3

Program Name: Pivot3 Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2014

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Jason Peoples

URL: www.pivot3.com

Polycom Inc.

Program Name: Polycom Global Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2009

Number of North American Partners: 2,610

North American Channel Chief: Nick Tidd

URL: www.polycom.com

Pure Storage

Program Name: P3 (Pure Partner Program)

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Michael Sotnick

URL: http://www.purestorage.com/

Quantum Corp.

Program Name: Quantum Alliance

Year Program Established: 2002

Number of North American Partners: 6,900

North American Channel Chief: Andrew Brinck

URL: http://www.quantum.com

Riverbed Technology

Program Name: Riverbed Performance Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2014

Number of North American Partners: 591

North American Channel Chief: Michelle Hodges

URL: www.riverbed.com

Samsung Electronics America

Program Name: Samsung Team Of Empowered Partners

Year Program Established: 2014

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Gregory Taylor

URL: http://www.samsung.com/business

Server Technology Inc.

Program Name: Power Rewards Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2002

Number of North American Partners: 200

North American Channel Chief: Mike Johnston

URL: www.servertech.com

ServiceKey

Program Name: Independent Service and Maintenance Organization

Year Program Established: 2004

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Danielle Thiery

URL: www.servicekeytss.com

Silver Peak

Program Name: Global Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Derek Dal Ponte

URL: www.Silver-peak.com

SimpliVity

Program Name: SimpliVity PartnerAdvantage

Year Program Established: 2014

Number of North American Partners: 408

North American Channel Chief: George Hope

URL: www.simplivity.com

Talari Networks

Program Name: Talari SMART Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: 63

North American Channel Chief: Michele Hayes

URL: www.talari.com

Tegile Systems, Inc.

Program Name: Tegile Authorized Partner Advantage Program

Year Program Established: 2010

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Charles Bass

URL: www.tegile.com

Tintri Inc.

Program Name: Tintri Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2012

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: John Schwan

URL: www.tintri.com

Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Business Solutions Division

Program Name: Toshiba Preferred Partner Program

Year Program Established: 1985

Number of North American Partners: 3,000

North American Channel Chief: Richard Vaughn

URL: http://www.toshiba.com/us

VeloCloud Networks

Program Name: VeloCloud Channel Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Ratnesh Sharma

URL: www.velocloud.com

Verizon

Program Name: Verizon Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2013

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Janet Schijns

URL: www.verizon.com

Viavi Solutions

Program Name: Viavi Velocity Partner Program

Year Program Established: 2015

Number of North American Partners: Undisclosed

North American Channel Chief: Sergio Bea

URL: www.viavisolutions.com