Partnership Means Spreading the Expertise and the Wealth
Missing from this piece and many others like it is any notion of partnership, long-term thinking or industry vision. Abundant is more scepticism and nay-saying about how the industry is fundamentally changed for the worse. In this case Mr. Chandrasekaran pinpoints a loss of maintenance revenue as reason to believe that the sky is falling in on the channel.
It's not so - at least it doesn't have to be.
As a company i365 has approached the proliferation of its cloud storage service a bit differently. By demonstrating creativity and flexibility in our business model we have ensured a healthy balance between the Cloud & technology provider, service provider and end user. i365's interest in a robust channel is evidenced through its EVault Cloud Connected Service Provider programme, which ensures ongoing revenue - made by its partners - include support and maintenance. By designing an all-in price per/GB for license, replications to i365's cloud and sales & marketing we, (vendors and implementers) are playing to our respective strengths.
Further troubling is the notion that SME's just aren't worth the effort. i365's partners are geographically dispersed and come in various shapes and sizes to ensure large installations to small ones are benefiting from enterprise-class cloud storage.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
