Tech Data AirVM Deal Brings Cloud Services to Partners

Distributor Tech Data (TECD) last week added Ontario, Canada-based AirVM, a white-label infrastructure provider and VMware (VMW) cloud specialist, to its supplier lineup to help channel partners capitalize on cloud services sales without significant capital expenditure for infrastructure.

Under terms of the agreement, Tech Data’s channel partners will gain access through the TDCloud portal to AirVM's Cloud Delivery and Commercialization Platform—built on VMware's virtualization infrastructure—for services housed under the hosted AirSembly brand. The AirVM-backed AirSembly white-label infrastructure enables channel partners to brand, sell, and manage their own customized catalog of cloud services and hold down infrastructure-associated costs.

Services range from bare bones virtual machines, customized Microsoft (MSFT) applications, or a suite of vertical applications, said Joshua Vautour, AirVM chief executive. And, channel partners can build their own branded storefront and customized cloud service, as well as deploy IT services to their customers, he said.

"For decades, SMBs and enterprises have purchased their traditional IT products and services from VARs," said Vautour. "Hosted AirSembly, powered by AirVM, enables Tech Data partners to customize and sell cloud services off AirVM's robust carrier-grade VMware cloud, all while alleviating the challenge and expense of deploying and managing their own infrastructure.”

AirVM has positioned the hosted AirSembly service to address the needs of businesses moving their IT applications to the cloud and is suited to resellers looking to sell cloud services and boost revenue without a heavy upfront investment in infrastructure, he said.

Tech Data will support the AirVM relationship through its TDCloud business unit, which backs channel partners with training, enablement and adoption of cloud and subscription-based services.

"The TDCloud team has worked closely with AirVM to deploy a cloud services platform to meet the needs of our channel partners," said Bharath Natarajan, Tech Data TDCloud and software services product marketing director. "AirVM's platform and infrastructure provides a selection of managed cloud services to our solution providers, giving them the ability to further customize their catalog of services, providing a seamless way to offer cloud solutions to their end users."