Egenera recently announced that they are launching a partner program in EMEA (story below). This could be a game changer if it catches on with the right partners and if it makes it to the US. For most of the past decade Egenera was the innovator that always seemed to be ahead of its time. Sure it had many high profile and successful customers, but most were still trying to figure out who they were. Many had reservations based on the fact that they were not only selling you a management system, but hardware as well (like Cisco UCS does now). Unfortunately the hardware was expensive and a small name it the world of proven server vendors.

That changed when the signed an OEM agreement with Dell. They finally separated the software from the hardware. However traction was still very difficult as it was an entirely new area for both Dell and Egenera and neither could really get the train moving fast enough. Ironically it was not until Cisco brought out UCS that most finally understood the identity of what Egenera was offering. It came at the expense of a giant in the networking area entering as a major competitor. Now there are many advantages for both systems and I will not get into that now.

The major problem with the Cisco UCS system is that it ties people not only to a software package, but a single hardware vendor as well. Not to mention that while Cisco is known in the networking world they are not known as a server vendor. Now while Egenera was able to separate the software from the hardware and enter OEM agreements with server vendors like Dell, it still seemed to be limited. With this announcement of a Partner Program this may be the first step to bringing this type of managed converged network to the masses. Only time will tell!!

The official press release from Egenera…

Egenera Launches Partner Program in EMEA

Enables Broader Access to Independent Converged Infrastructure Solutions;
Initiative Begins with Charter Partner UK-based Metropolitan Networks

Marlborough, MA, July 8, 2010: Egenera Inc. announced today its new channel partner program in EMEA, and the addition of UK-based Metropolitan Networks Ltd. to Egenera’s certified channel VAR and integration partners. Egenera is expanding its sales reach as the company extends broader support of PAN Manager® Software by Egenera®, their converged infrastructure solution.  Egenera is expanding its EMEA program to include VARs and integrators who wish to offer independent converged infrastructure and unified computing solutions.  According to a recent Gartner report, by year-end 2012, 30% of Global 2000 data centers will be equipped with some fabric-based blade architectures.

“Many VARs are asking for an alternative to vendor lock-in with converged infrastructure from Cisco or HP. Egenera uniquely offers a battle-proven alternative that provides resellers with more flexible and attractive financial advantages,” said John Warnants, Egenera vice president, EMEA. “Further, we use standard x86 servers and Ethernet components that every VAR is already familiar with — not proprietary components,” he added.

Joining as its newest Egenera Certified Partner, Metropolitan Networks is based in London and operates across the UK. The company specialisesin infrastructure, network and security solutions for Media, Education, ISP, Medical and Finance markets.

“Egenera has built a formidable reputation as a Converged Infrastructure platform for business- and mission-critical applications, and we are pleased to be able to offer their software to our broader customer base,” said Ashok Thomas, managing director of Metropolitan Networks. “Our customers are looking for simpler ways to guarantee availability and disaster recovery while avoiding the vendor lock-in.  Egenera’s PAN Manager Software meets their IT needs elegantly, while simplifying data centre management through fewer products, better integration and platform choice. We are happy to combine our experience with Egenera’s technology to provide this multi-platform solution to our customers.”

The Egenera solution also appeals to customers with mixed physical and virtual resources, and PAN Manager Software often replaces complex clustering and infrastructure provisioning tools.

About PAN Manager Software by Egenera

With 10 years of rock-solid business-critical performance, PAN Manager Software is deployed at over 1,600 sites globally. The converged infrastructure software combines the benefits of unified computing with integrated high availability and disaster recovery of both physical and virtual servers. The software uses standard servers, I/O virtualization and converged networking to create resource pools that can be rapidly and automatically re-allocated based on business requirements. The result is a simple-to-configure, business-critical infrastructure with massive efficiencies and low-cost operation.

About Metropolitan Networks

Metropolitan Networks applies new thinking and ideas to create simple, valuable and trusted experiences with technology to continuously improve the way our customers live and work.  Our goal is to provide customers with highly available network and security solutions that creates operational efficiency and allows businesses to flourish in their marketplace.  More information is available at http://www.met-networks.com  

*Gartner, Inc. "Emerging Technology Analysis:  Fabric- Based Computing, Server Technologies" by Adrian O’Connell, Andrew Butler et al, December 14, 2009