Canonical, a provider of a widely employed Ubuntu distribution of Linux and other open source platforms, this week announced it has created a formal channel program for global systems integrators (GSIs).
The company has been engaging with GSIs on a tactical basis for years. In the wake of the acquisition of Red Hat by IBM, it became apparent GSIs that compete with IBM are looking to participate in a more formal program, says Regis Paquette, vice president of alliances at Canonical.
At the same time, more GSIs are focusing on open source technologies to help end customers lower the total cost of IT projects in the wake of the economic downturn brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, adds Paquette.
“We now have a small team dedicated to GSIs,” says Paquette.
Canonical will also train GSI sales and consulting teams and collaborate with them to create proof-of-concepts (PoCs). Technical teams can be certified both for first level support and delivery of all Canonical services. Canonical has created a portal through GSI can take advantage of deal registration and aggregated volume discounts.
In addition to providing support services for a broad portfolio of open source platforms, Canonical has also extended the scope of its portfolio to include managed services that it provides. GSIs will need to determine to what degree they are comfortable with Canonical potentially providing managed services as either a complement to their focus on applications or potentially as a competitor.
Regardless of the relationship, Paquette says it’s clear open source platforms such as Ubuntu and Kubernetes will provide the foundation for a raft of forthcoming hybrid cloud computing opportunities. Ubuntu us the most widely employed distribution of Linux employed by cloud service providers, which Paquette says provides partners and their customers with an opportunity to deploy and manage Ubuntu in on-premises IT environments in a way that is more easily managed and integrated within the context of a hybrid cloud.
Canonical in comparison to rivals such as Red Hat and VMware also makes it simpler and less costly to acquire the platforms needed to drive a hybrid cloud solution under a single license, adds Paquette.
It’s too early to say to what degree the current economic climate will drive organizations to embrace open source platforms as an alternative to commercial platforms such as VMware. However, channel partners at the very least can rest assured a lot more end customers will be evaluating their platform options as the current economic downturn becomes more extended.
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