Nutanix today announced extensions to its channel program that include a new influencer program along with now providing partners that participate in that program discounts and differentiated pricing opportunities as they move higher up the tiers of the program.
In addition, Nutanix starting in February of next year will also provide partners that participate at the Scaler and Master tiers of its Power to the Partner channel program access to XLAN software licenses that can be involved to create proofs-of-concept in a laboratory setting.
Finally, Nutanix is also extending the benefits it provides to distributors, including a self-service channel for simplified quoting and ordering that includes access to a Distributor Price Book, incentives to reward distributors for enablement and partner management at the Pioneer level of the Nutanix program, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Integration to give distributors a faster time to revenue using Quote-to-Cash Automation tools.
That EDI capability is significant because it means Nutanix is now moving to embrace pricing and quoting in real time, says Rodney Foreman, vice president of global channel sales for Nutanix. The primary distributors for Nutanix in the U.S. are Tech Data and Arrow.
The Influencer program is mainly aimed at global systems integrators that often recommend solutions rather than implement them, says Forman. But traditional VARs can also participate in the program as well if they are so inclined, adds Foreman.
“This is not one of those what have you done for me lately programs,” says Forman. “It’s about empowering the partner.”
Changes the pricing and discount rewards, meanwhile, were driven by feedback Nutanix received from partners after launching the Power to the Partners program last summer, says Forman.
These moves come on the heels of an alliance between Nutanix and Intel announced earlier this month under which solution providers will be able to combine Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software with Intel Data Center Blocks to create their own white-label systems.
In general, Nutanix is trying to drive a hybrid cloud computing strategy that spans HCI software and appliances running in an on-premises IT environment to cloud services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). Nutanix, which supports both its stack of HCI software in addition to VMware, has been an early pioneer of a hybrid cloud platform. In its most recent quarter, Nutanix reported revenues of $313.3 million, up from $275.6 million. The results include the elimination of approximately $104 million in pass-through hardware revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2019, up from $8 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2018, as the company nears the completion of its shift towards becoming a software company. However, as part of that transition Nutanix also reported a net loss of $94.3 million, compared to a net loss of $61.5 million in the first quarter a year ago.
Competition across HCI and hybrid cloud computing platforms is already fierce. But as Nutanix continues to rack up hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred revenue, determining who is winning this contest may require looking beyond profit and loss for any given quarter.
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