WTG Opens Global Cloud, Networking Services To Channel Via NTT Partnership

Telecom master agent and connectivity services distributor World Telecom Group (WTG) is expanding its cloud horizons, starting with an expanded partnership with NTT America, a subsidiary of global telecom behemoth NTT Communications.

Vince Bradley, CEO of Malibu, Calif.-based WTG, said the blockbuster deal opens the door for WTG partners to expand globally into geographic markets that up until now have been unavailable to most of them, such as Asia and South America.

"We are opening the globe for solution providers to be able to do business in virtually every populated area of the globe," said Bradley. "NTT is giving solution providers that footprint that they don't have today. Our [solution providers] are very excited to see such a big player make a splash in the channel with its products and services."

[Related: Here's Who Made Gartner's 2015 Cloud IaaS Magic Quadrant]

WTG and NTT have been in a limited partnership for several years. Through this partnership, WTG solution providers could sell NTT's basic bandwidth and hosting services. NTT America added master agent WTG to its Global Solutions Channel Partner Program earlier this week. The new deal opens up a slew of sought-after NTT global products and services that WTG solution provider and VAR partners can sell to their end customers, Bradley said.

The full suite of services includes cloud computing, disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), hosting, co-location, Ethernet, private line, MPLS (multiprotocol label switching), security and software-defined networking (SDN).

Perhaps the most coveted service for solution providers right now is WAN services, especially MPLS, Bradley said. "It's probably the most popular product in the industry, and it was not available before -- we could only sell bandwidth. Solution providers have been waiting for years to be able to sell NTT's MPLS products."

According to one WTG VAR partner who requested anonymity, the partnership means more access to exceptional capabilities for end customers. "The SDN and DRaaS capabilities will greatly appeal to our enterprise clients in particular," the VAR said.

Via the partnership, NTT America will provide WTG solution providers with dedicated pre- and post-sales and engineering support, and competitive, residual-based compensation, according to NTT. The company also will offer training for channel partners to help boost their understanding of topics such as networking and public, private and hybrid cloud, said Kevin Goodman, director of channel strategy and marketing for New York-based NTT America.

Because many WTG solution providers and VAR partners focus on enterprise customers, a relationship with NTT will be attractive for those partners who may have shied away from attempting a global cloud strategy, Bradley said. Having a global network has been a difficult undertaking for many partners, he said. "VARs don't want to go international with their cloud strategy unless they really have to, or are already there, because there are a lot of challenges, between various laws and lack of regulations in some areas," he said.

But enterprise customers are increasingly looking to the cloud to help connect their businesses across continents, Bradley said, and solution providers are starting to consider doing business in other geographic areas to better serve their end customers.

The combination of services and global networking from WTG and NTT will help cloud customers stay on-network for better results, the WTG VAR said. "The vast global MPLS network from the international giant will help us keep our customers on-net as opposed to having to go through NNIs [network-to-network interfaces] all over the world," he said.

And when points of failure are reduced for the end customer, failure is also reduced for the channel, too, NTT's Goodman said. "[Partners] will have less headaches managing their customers," he said.

"NTT is a big part of the cloud strategy because they are one of the largest carriers in the world -- it's a whole new frontier for solution providers," Bradley added.

WTG has a large partner network -- 3,000 and growing. WTG's Cloudology training offering for solution providers and VARs will add value to NTT's partner program, Bradley said.

"In addition to WTG's Cloudology that NTT has already taken part in with us, we will look forward to some custom training directly from NTT in regards to the specific features the network will now provide to us," the WTG VAR said.

While the augmented partnership is still new, WTG partners have taken notice, Bradley said. "There's been a lot of interest and tons of quotes being done. We are going to have a very nice end of the year here with NTT," he said.