Dell CloudRunner Offers MSP Cloud Platform

Dell is hoping its new cloud marketplace offering will ease the transition for solution providers looking to enter the cloud fray.

Through a partnership with IT-as-a-service provider CloudRunner—and with support from Microsoft (MSFT)—Dell has created the CloudRunner offering, which provides a platform of services accessible on all types of devices at any time. Aimed mostly at the SMB space in the healthcare, financial services and legal verticals, CloudRunner aggregates all the necessary business apps along with enterprise-grade security and compliance in one monthly subscription pricing model.

“The SMB market changed overnight, empowering SMBs to no longer have to worry about IT,” said Darrin Swan, director of Worldwide Sales and Business Development, Dell Service Provider Program. “Service providers now can be a part of that, creating a cloud platform under their own brand. We give them a marketplace featuring the line-of-business apps they need in a cloud-based environment, a billing system … everything they need to be a cloud service provider.”

CloudRunner is brandable and customizable, giving channel partners the ability to offer exactly what their customers need, rather than an entire marketplace of cloud services that don’t apply to the business. The result, Swan said, is a smarter, more targeted solution.

“There is an absolute need for this solution,” he said, noting that Dell has worked with a small number of partners in perfecting the system before its general introduction. “We have a whole spectrum of service provider types—smaller, scrappy guys to larger, sophisticated ones with dedicated sales teams.”

So far, 20 partners have signed up with CloudRunner, Swan said. “We’re seeing a high close ratio with partners—they’re asking customers what line-of-business apps they need to be productive and then they can trial it immediately. That’s huge.”

Dell Partner Direct partners are eligible to offer CloudRunner, and tier status doesn’t matter.  “We want to work with partners that can execute,” Swan said.