Ingram Micro's new $6 million data centre in Sydney could be the first of several purpose-built demonstration facilities that it plans to build for its partners nationwide.
Dubbed the Partner Technology Centre (PTC), the facility was officially launched in September and has already been used by 20 of Ingram's partner organisations.
It's located at Ingram's office in Rosebery, where it is attached to a presentation room with a window providing views of the equipment.
Managed by Ingram's Enterprise Technology Group (ETG), the scalable, 50KW PTC aims to emulate a real-world datacentre and has enough power to simulate running a 4000-seat enterprise.
It is available at no charge to reseller partners for vendor presentations or to demonstrate vendor-neutral or cross-platform solutions.
The facility is serviced by a team of 15 solutions architects who have vendor and industry certifications and can design, plan and manage customer-centric solutions for SMBs and the data centre.
"We have a number of presentations we can do," solutions architect Andrew Firth tells CRN.
"We've got [equipment from] 14 vendors who operate in the enterprise space. We chose them because they are the best of breed and they interoperate with each other."
The PTC contains six racks of gear comprising APC power and management devices, EMC and Iomega storage units, IBM server and storage technology, and HP server and storage technology. It also contains hardware by Brocade, HP ProCurve, Cisco, Avocent and Fortinet, and runs software by Microsoft, Symantec and VMware.
In accordance with current best practices and climate concerns, Ingram's data centre can also be used to demonstrate carbon management and Green IT policies. It features climate control and cable management to keep cooling requirements low, while the use of APC's InRow Cooling solution allowed the facility to be built and cooled with no raised-floors.
Firth says resellers may use the facility to present to potential customers on subjects such as IT service improvement through flexible provisioning and application mobility, cost reduction through server and storage consolidation, and risk management through backup and recovery technologies.
It may also be used as a reseller training centre, with Ingram Micro account managers, business development managers and business managers able to book the facility through a dedicated Microsoft Outlook calendar.
"It is a demo and basic proof-of-concept facility for resellers and their end-users," he notes. "The PTC is not to be used to run up customer test and development environments, or direct vendor performance metric testing."
According to David Lenz, general manager of Ingram's ETG, the PTC builds on the concept of existing demonstration facilities that each showcased different vendor products for customer education.
Ingram says resellers using the vendor-specific demonstration facilities achieved a 90 percent close rate with customers. But there was increasing demand for integrated end-to-end solutions rather than standalone products.
"We decided we needed a heterogeneous environment to demonstrate vendor interoperability, and designed the datacentre as we would have for an end user," Lenz says.
"This is all about adding value to our reseller community," he says. "We've deliberately mixed it up to show how solutions can interoperate. In most cases, we can pretty much demonstrate anything; if it's a reasonable request, we're happy to get the products and make it happen.
"From start to finish, it [setting up the datacentre] has probably taken seven months," Lenz says. "Most
of the cost to us was the time it took to get the facility up and running.
"In terms of equipment, the PTC represents an investment of over $6 million in hardware and software licensing that was given to us by 13 of our largest vendors."
Jason Shim of Bootstrap Computer Solutions has nothing but praise for the facility, which he says contributed significantly to a recent sale.
Bootstrap is a Sydney-based systems integrator and managed services provider that provides project services, managed services, maintenance, and operational help desk services to businesses in the medical and dental market, as well as to some medium-sized organisations with a national presence.
The company has 12 staff and 15 years experience in the market. It learned of Ingram's PTC just over a year ago, Shim says.
"It's a great idea, where technology can be seen, felt and touched by both our techs and the client's decision makers," says Shim, who is Bootstrap's general manager.
"It's useful because sometimes it's hard to describe abstract IT concepts to the client and as they say, a picture tells a thousand words."
With the assistance of Ingram Micro's HP solutions architect, Bootstrap used the PTC to demonstrate datacentre technology to its client, Bremick Fasteners, which imports and manufactures fasteners for the building industries in Australia and New Zealand.
Bootstrap and Bremick had already discussed the basic architecture of a solution and come to an informal agreement before using the PTC. But it was only when the client was able to witness the solution's ease of use during a PTC demonstration that they decided to make the purchase, Shim says.
"The client was able to see the products in real time, and they were able to conceptualise how these products were going to work in the solution provided for them," he tells CRN. "It gave the IT manager the confidence to present and get the budget acceptance from the [Bremick] stakeholders."
For its partners outside Sydney, Ingram provides access to the PTC via solutions architects based around the country who can access the facility via a dedicated VPN connection. Video conferencing capabilities will be added "in coming months", Lenz says.
Brisbane-based systems integrator and managed services provider Corpnet reports its consultations with the PTC solutions architects have helped close a number of opportunities.
Corpnet's sales manager Lisa Stokes first learned of the PTC during a trip to Sydney last year when she visited Ingram to talk about its new VCE [Virtual Computing Environment] offerings.
"I was very impressed to see not only the VCE coalition vendors, but other major vendors represented
in one centre," she recalls.
"However, the area of most surprise to us was not the technology but the investment Ingram have made in experienced solutions architects to provide high level advice and assistance in the wide range of enterprise technologies," she says.
The remote-access capabilities of the PTC have also been useful to Sydney-based solutions provider Metropolitan Computers and Supplies, which uses the facility to power remote, on-site demonstrations for its enterprise customers.
According to Christopher McCrohon (commonly known as "Chris Mac"), the PTC has already contributed to three of Metro Computers's six-figure, enterprise sales.
Before the PTC was launched, McCrohon had been using an HP facility for customer demonstrations. But "the problem [with HP's datacentre] is that you don't get quite as hands on," he says.
McCrohon, who is Metro Computers' solutions architect and sales manager, first heard of Ingram's PTC last February. In mid-August, as the facility was nearing launch, he initiated sales with textile rental company Alsco with a PTC demonstration in mind.
His efforts resulted in the sale of an HP blade server and EVA4400 storage system. "[Without the PTC], I would have gone to HP, but it would have been a lot more work because then we couldn't use it on-site," he tells CRN.
"I think what Ingram has done has been very good for Sydney," McCrohon says. "If we can actually get in there and play with the stuff, then our clients can see how easy the solution is. That's what's best about the PTC."
Ingram believes the PTC is the only cross-vendor distributor facility available to Australian resellers.
Ingram plans to constantly update the facility's hardware and software offerings with new products of greatest interest to its channel partners.
There are plans to open a PTC in Melbourne this year and eventually one in Brisbane.
The Reseller
Corpnet
Sales manager: Lisa Stokes
Founded: 2001
Staff: 70
Services: Managed services, project services, consulting
Target market: Enterprise, mid-market and emerging businesses
Office: Brisbane, Melbourne
The Reseller
Metropolitan Computers
Solutions architect: Chris Mac
Founded: 1997
Staff: 5
Services: Comprehensive solutions provider, HP reseller
Target market: SMEs and enterprises
Office: Homebush, Sydney
The reseller
Bootstrap Computer Solutions
General manager: Jason Shim
Founded: 2000
Staff: 12
Services: Project services, managed services, regular maintenance and operational help desk
Target market: Medical and dental industries, SMBs
Office: Broadway, Sydney
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