Tech Data Integrates CloudCheckr With StreamOne, Brings Management, Optimization To Channel Cloud Business
Tech Data Monday unveiled a partnership with CloudCheckr aimed at making it easier for the distributor's solution providers to gain insight into cost, security and performance management in Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure environments.
The new relationship, under which CloudCheckr's analytics and management offering was integrated with Tech Data's StreamOne cloud platform, was unveiled at the Tech Data Partner Summit, held this week in Scottsdale, Ariz.
While Tech Data has partnered with CloudCheckr for some time, what's new is the integration of CloudCheckr into Tech Data's StreamOne, said Dan Allaby, global vice president of enterprise cloud platforms for the Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor.
Rochester, N.Y.-based CloudCheckr provides enterprise cloud management technology that the company said offers partners and customers full visibility and control of their cloud environments. Customers can use it to manage cloud assets, costs and expenses, resource utilization, and security and compliance, as well as do self-healing automation.
StreamOne is Tech Data's platform for seamlessly connecting all the cloud services used by a partner into a single provisioning, billing and management offering.
StreamOne is available in two versions. StreamOne Cloud Marketplace allows simplified purchasing and management of a variety of subscription services. StreamOne Enterprise Solutions adds capabilities for IaaS and PaaS workloads with billing and management tools. CloudCheckr integrates with StreamOne Enterprise Solutions.
Solution providers looking to help customers better take advantage of the cloud have to address three key customer issues, including optimization of cloud costs, security from potential threats, and performance management, Allaby said.
At the same time, they have to assure customers that their activities on the cloud are compliant with industry standards such as HIPAA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Federal Information Security Management Act requirements, he said.
"We've been working with CloudCheckr for a number of years, and we realized that CloudCheckr is helping our partners and their customers in areas related to security and compliance based on the strengths of the deployments we've seen," he said.
As a result, Tech Data is extending its relationship with a more formal one that integrates CloudCheckr into StreamOne, Allaby said.
Tech Data is offering CloudCheckr in two core packages, Allaby said.
The first is an analytics package that provides cost allocation and spend optimization tools aimed at helping partners understand their customers' cloud spending and how to optimize it, he said.
The second is a management package that adds extra capabilities to the analytics package, including comprehensive security and compliance best practices and security management automation, to improve security and operational efficiency in public clouds, he said.
Stacy Nethercoat, vice president of Tech Data cloud solutions for the Americas, told CRN the packages make CloudCheckr available to a wider Tech Data partner base.
Previously, CloudCheckr required partners to work directly with CloudCheckr to add the capabilities, but that is no longer necessary with the new bundled offerings, Nethercoat said.
"The packaging is based on what partners have asked us for," she said. "Partners have to manage a large variety of different relationships. There's an opportunity here for Tech Data to add value and make it easier for partners."
Procuring and managing cloud services can be a big issue for the kind of large enterprise clients that work with Cloud Shift Strategies, said Brian Peterson, CEO of the Omaha, Neb.-based solution provider and Tech Data channel partner.
CloudCheckr helps solve issues that can pile up at what Peterson called the "procurement gate," which is where enterprise end users find a barrier to quick purchases of needed cloud resources.
Today, if an engineer needs IT resources, he or she has to go to the vendor, get the quote, take it to the procurement group, and get the OK before making the purchase, Peterson told CRN. But if that engineer needs cloud resources for a Saturday morning job, for example, that type of procurement does not work.
"Large enterprises have processes that have been working for 20, 30, 40 years," he said. "But those processes often break down when they move to the cloud."
With CloudCheckr, enterprises get visibility into how cloud resources are purchased and deployed, as well as their costs, Peterson said.
"Enterprises need these cost controls without all the bureaucracy," he said. "Because if they have all the bureaucracy with the cloud, they're back to where they were before."
Tech Data did well integrating CloudCheckr into Stream One, Peterson said. "StreamOne is a fantastic billing platform, and it works in the background," he said. "I like the idea of making CloudCheckr available on the StreamOne billing platform."
The new CloudCheckr bundles are available now for Tech Data's StreamOne platform in North America for AWS and Azure clouds, Allaby said. Availability will be expanded globally starting in the next quarter, he said.