Cyxtera Launches Partner Program, Signs Avant, Others

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CHANNEL PARTNERS EVOLUTION — Cyxtera Technologies, a global secure infrastructure company that includes CenturyLink’s former data centers and colocation business, on Monday launched its global channel program with Avant, Westven and SageNet as inaugural partners.

The company made the announcement at Channel Partners Evolution, being held this week in Austin, Texas.

Cyxtera’s Partner Network allows partners to package their own offerings with data-center services across 57 facilities around the world, and secure their customer’s applications and infrastructure with a suite of what the company calls “adaptive, intelligent” cybersecurity offerings.

Cyxtera’s Tina Gravel

Tina Gravel, Cyxtera’s senior vice president of global channels, tells Channel Partners the new program includes elements of CenturyLink’s program around payments and terms. Her goal was to ensure that partners felt comfortable with the change.

“We didn’t have a big selling process so that they could understand what it is we’re trying to do,” said Gravel. “Plus, CenturyLink had a very nice program, and we were honored to be able to fold some of the terms and ideas from that.”

In May, CenturyLink completed the sale of its data centers and colocation business to BC Partners, in a consortium that includes Medina Capital Advisors and Longview Asset Management. The consortium then launched Cyxtera.

Cyxtera brings together a complete suite of authentication, access control and analytics capabilities with a data-center footprint, providing enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations a secure infrastructure platform.

The program’s three-tier structure gives partners increasing access to various levels of benefits and support, and co-marketing opportunities and sales enablement programs help partners showcase capabilities, ramp sales efforts and build their pipelines, according to the company.

Cyxtera is inheriting lots of partners, including those that represented CenturyLink for colocation, partners from Cryptzone that sold security-related software, and those selling Cyxtera’s Brainspace software and Easy Solutions, Gravel said.

“We don’t want to pay anyone less,” she said. “If anything, we’d like to give incentives so that they embrace all of the solutions. So if you’re selling colocation, we’d like you to consider selling the security solution. And if you don’t know a lot about security, we’ll start with the basics to help you get there.”

Many telecommunication partners that have been selling telecom products and colocation for many years would like to offer security services, but “it’s a different language; there [are] different priorities for customers that are doing this — it’s just all-around …

… different,” Gravel said.

Why should partners pick Cyxtera to learn the ropes?

“Cyxtera can teach the partner the business around security, and then help them with tools and processes to go to market so that they are comfortable with selling,” she said. “That’s the key thing: being comfortable. It’s really, really hard to do. There [are] lots of players and there’s lots of confusion; customers have bought things in security that they don’t need.”

That layering on of solutions is a common customer compliant. “We not only will help them utilize what they have, but also make their lives a lot easier,” said Gravel. One way is by having secure infrastructure; in that regard, Cyxtera has a “leg up” on traditional colocation providers, Gravel said.

“I think we also have a leg up on a typical security software provider because we look at the physical environment as well,” she said. The company can work with its partners to suggest how to protect customers’ facilities as well as the IT infrastructure.

An early partner is communications brokerage Westven.

“In forming a partnership with Cyxtera, Westven will strengthen its ability to deliver both mature and emerging technology services to our clients through the company’s impressive data center footprint,” said Justin Charette, Westven’s president. “We also see Cyxtera’s investment in its modern cybersecurity portfolio being in line with our clients’ needs to reduce their exposure to a highly dynamic threat landscape and will enhance our ability to provide meaningful solutions to secure their most critical assets.”