IndependenceIT DaaS Platform to Maximize Partner Efficiency
IndependenceIT DaaS Platform to Maximize Partner Efficiency by UCStrategies Staff
A new desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solution from IndependenceIT is set for release this week, and will be made available solely through the channel. DaaS management will be accelerated through the new version of the Cloud Workspace Suite, and will ensure that partners can provide virtualized applications and desktops to more SMB or enterprise customers without the need to enlarge the partner’s talent pool.
The executive vice president of corporate development at Allentown, Pennsylvania-based independenceIT, Seth Bostock, “It'll connect to any hypervisor out there, whether the customer is using VMware, Hyper-V, Xen, OpenStack or any other hypervisor on the market. Our automation will tie directly into those APIs and instantly be able to create and build the servers that are required to support the DaaS environment. We also have extensive automation that includes everything from customized reporting to server access, and everything else needed to automate the virtual data center.”
Virtual machines will also be built using the product’s provisioning system, according to Bostock, and this will also install the initial applications for the desktop environment as well as have user credentials issued to the partner in three minutes.
Bostock added: “A lot of automation is focused at the server level, but partners still need to build out the actual desktop environment on that. And historically that's done physically by engineers. We have automated all of that. So from a scalability perspective, what we're seeing with our partners is that they are able to leverage the same number of internal resources that they have today with their engineering staff and their support staff. But, now they are able to handle more customers to drive their margin upwards while at the same time using their talent more efficiently.”
It is also possible for partners to set-up user profiles and different applications, as well as manage security and those applications which have been installed in the environment. A password control protocol is also available, and this ensures that VARs, MSPs and service providers have more flexibility.
In relation to this, Bostock said: “We've created an element that enables an email to be sent to the partner who can click on that notification from their mobile device and send a quick password reset. The partner can also let the end user self-support if they so choose.”
Preconfigured setup for ConnectWise, Autotask and N-Able applications, and support for over 400 other pre-virtualized applications, are also featured.
IndependenceIT's Bostock stated: “We have an immense amount of application experience in terms of virtualization, so those apps range from simple accounting packages to complex SAP and ERP systems, Oracle databases, and a lot more. If there's an application we haven't seen, we have a certification process through which partners can get new applications certified. We have a whole knowledge base that we can use with our partners that tells us how to get different types of applications to work in a virtual environment.”
A partner-only sales model is used by the company, and the entire revenue flows through VARs, managed service providers and solution providers of different types.
The senior product manager at Atlanta, Georgia-based EarthLink, Mike Herrmann, said: “The conversation so often falls to the virtual desktop and desktop as a service. We found that the market really desires a turnkey solution that goes beyond desktop as a service and also has the IT muscle behind it to virtualize the apps, handle the application management and really run the IT plumbing. So if my customer has a limited IT staff, which is true of everybody these days, they can go back to revenue generating activities, as opposed to the back office stuff that just drives them crazy. This enables EarthLink to offer Fortune 500 technologies and IT skills to SMB customers.”
The CTO of Atlantic Tomorrows Office, a New York City-based MSP, Bill McLaughlin, commented on how the new provision ensures that customers are not distracted from his own company’s capabilities.
McLaughlin said: “My customers are still calling into my call center, my NOC and my engineers. So we still control and manage the customer. And we have the ability to provide the same level of support to the customers, and I don't have to give that up by using their product.”
The end of this week will mark the conclusion of beta testing for this new product, and it is in the first week of June that it will be made available generally. There are a number of pricing options based on service, and scale based on volume, on a per user month basis. (CY) Link