Silver Peak Launches Deployment Partner Program
Initiative comes as the SD-WAN platform vendor is being bought by HPE
Silver Peak wants to train channel partners to help end customers deploy its software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) platform.
The Lowdown: The company this week is rolling out a certified deployment partner (CDP) program to enable select channel partners to resell and deploy its Unity EdgeConnect platform.
The Details: Silver Peak, based in Santa Clara, California, has a broad lineup of partners in its Partner Edge program that can sell the platform. The goal of the new program is to broaden the capabilities of some partners to enable them to deploy the company’s SD-WAN technology.
The CDP program requires partners to gain new certifications in such areas as sales, technical expertise, and deployment. The certifications include SSP (for sales professionals), STSP (technical sales professionals), SPSP (technical professionals), SPSX (technical experts), SDP (deployment professionals), and SDX (deployment experts).
Partners in the CDP program initially will partner with a Silver Peak deployment engineer to ensure they have the necessary skills to work with end clients on everything from the initial design to deployment plans and post-deployment reviews.
Silver Peak has a list of six initial partners in the program: CDW, Intervision, Invite Networks, Teneo, World Wide Technology (WWT), and Xalient.
The Impact: Demand for SD-WAN continues to grow as enterprises and service providers increasingly shift more of their businesses to the cloud. SD-WAN gives them easier network orchestration, security, and automation as they digitize their businesses and support their widely distributed IT environments and workforces. A report this summer from market research firm Futuriom said that the global market for SD-WAN tools and software will grow from $2 billion this year to $4.6 billion in 2023, an average of 34% a year.
Background: Hewlett Packard Enterprise in July announced it was buying Silver Peak for $925 million to broaden its SD-WAN capabilities and better compete with the likes of Cisco, VMware, Juniper Networks, and Riverbed. Silver Peak will fold into HPE’s Aruba Networks business. The deal is expected to close next quarter.
Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect platform includes the company’s Unity Orchestrator for managing SD-WAN operations and Unity Boost for accelerating application performance.
The Buzz: “Modern enterprises are quickly recognizing that their legacy networks are holding them back from realizing the full transformational promise of the cloud and many are seeking skilled partners to drive their WAN and security transformation initiatives,” said Ken Marks, vice president of North America channel sales for Silver Peak. “This provides an unprecedented opportunity for our partners to bring new levels of business value to customers by attaining the training and certifications required to successfully drive SD-WAN deployments. The CDP program is architected to scale both the number of customers we can serve, as well as the number of partners that we can enable to build high-growth profitable SD-WAN business practices. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
“We’re excited to be part of the Silver Peak CDP program,” said Mike Grisamore, vice president of services delivery at CDW. “We’ve seen a dramatic increase in demand for WAN expertise as customers accelerate cloud and digital transformation initiatives. Having sales, technical, and deployment expertise in-house will enable us bring new levels of value to our joint customers as they embark on WAN transformation initiatives.”
“As a Silver Peak CDP partner, we’re now able to expand our in-house consulting, deployment, and managed services to bring new levels of business value to our customers,” said Jonathan Bruce, senior director of strategic alliances at InterVision. “Advanced SD-WAN edge platforms like the Unity EdgeConnect platform that optimize cloud-based application performance and assure the highest levels of security will empower our customers to run, grow, and transform with the power of cloud.”
“Organizations are increasingly turning to SD-WAN for their digital transformation initiatives, optimization of SaaS and cloud applications, and more efficient IT operations,” said Jeff Wynne, services vice president at WWT. “The rigorous training, testing, and certification requirements of the Silver Peak CDP program expands our in-house teams’ resident SD-WAN acumen, enabling our teams to continue building cloud-first business-driven networks for our customers.”
“As an expert managed service provider, we are continuously seeking new ways to expand our knowledge base and expertise to better serve our customers,” said Lauren Fortune, chief marketing officer at Teneo. “Becoming a Silver Peak CDP partner enables us to further our ability to solve customers’ most challenging networking problems with an advanced SD-WAN edge solution that applies tomorrow’s logic to seamlessly connect users directly and securely to the applications that fuel business innovation.”
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