Microsoft Adds a 2-Tier Distributor to U.S. CSP Program
The select group of 2-Tier distributors in Microsoft's growing Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) U.S. ecosystem grew by one this month, with the addition of SherWeb to the program.
Launched as a pilot last year and greatly expanded this year, the Microsoft CSP program is a cloud reseller program that sets up partners to directly manage their entire customer lifecycle, including direct billing and support.
Some partners, called 1-Tier partners, can order seats on behalf of customers directly from Microsoft. Most partners, however, will be 2-Tier partners, working through a 2-Tier distributor, rather than directly with Microsoft.
The U.S. 2-Tier distributor list initially consisted of AppRiver, Ingram Micro, Intermedia, Synnex and Tech Data.
This month, Canadian-based SherWeb joined the list of approved U.S. 2-Tier distributors. SherWeb originally was approved as a 2-Tier distributor only in Canada.
Jason Brown, director of product management for SherWeb, said the cloud services provider will deliver a very quick get-to-market experience for any U.S. 2-Tier partners that work with SherWeb.
"SherWeb is a new kind of distributor in the cloud services market," Brown said in a statement. "What differentiates us from the others is our free 24/7 support and migration. The fact that we can offer multiple cloud services to clients in a single move is key to a partner's success in the cloud."
SherWeb has about 4,000 partners serving 25,000 customers worldwide on its Hosted Exchange, Infrastructure as a Service and other solutions.
RCP has compiled a directory of the offerings of U.S. 2-Tier distributors here. We'll update it soon with details from SherWeb.
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 15, 2015