Dimension Data Rolls Out Global Cloud Partner Program

Dimension Data, the Johannesburg, South Africa-based IT services provider, is rolling out a global cloud partner program that will help telcos, solution providers, government agencies and education institutions deliver services through the cloud.

Dimension Data’s OneCloud Partner Program will give partners a variety of services to help them migrate IT assets to the cloud.

The program draws on the company’s existing cloud services, including its Managed Cloud Platform, as well as marketing and sales support, and its Global Cloud Exchange, which helps solution providers collaborate to deliver public cloud services.

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OneCloud is designed to help partners bring services to the cloud more easily and quickly, said Wes Johnston, Dimension Data’s COO, Americas, in an interview.

Partners designated as Alliance Members can access Dimension Data’s Global Cloud Exchange, a platform on which they can expand their cloud business geographically, across shared infrastructures and technologies. Through the exchange, partners can use other partners’ capacity and cloud services on-demand.

In addition, Dimension Data’s CloudControl cloud management system will offer metering, accounting and billing.

The program will also allow partners in the education, government and financial trading industries to quickly deliver ’community’ clouds that can be shared and customized across participating members.

The program will quicken partners’ time to market to 12-16 weeks with Dimension Data’s MCP and offer partners an enablement process that includes sales, pricing, marketing and support materials.

Partners can build their individual branded cloud offerings based on Dimension Data’s cloud technology.

’This initiative is an extension of our broader service strategy to work with our service providers,’ Johnston said in an interview. ’Our goal is to grow the revenue of the services provided to us in our OneCloud program, but also to extend our business to our partners.’

NEXT: Dimension Data Puts The Pieces Together

he $6 billion systems integrator is owned by Japanese telecommunications firm NTT. A VAR500 company, Dimension Data has moved rapidly in recent months to assemble a variety of pieces to become an enterprise scale cloud services provider.

In June 2011, it purchased OpSource for more than $3 billion, folding OpSource's cloud and managed hosting wares into a new business group called Cloud Solutions Business Unit.

In February 2012, the company created Dimension Data Cloud Services, suite of services designed to create public, private and hybrid computing clouds for businesses.

And last month, it said its Managed Cloud Platform will let enterprises access Microsoft’s business productivity capabilities while it manages the underlying infrastructure and applications.

PUBLISHED JULY 24, 2012