Cloud DC signs CSP distribution deal with Citrix

Cloud DC has signed a global CSP distribution agreement with Citrix, which it says will disrupt the distribution market go to market – and puts the Cloud DC Workspace in front of more than 10,000 Citrix partners globally.

The deal sees Cloud DC become a distributor of CSP Citrix licensing.

Steve Robinson, Cloud DC chief executive, says the first priority is to work with Citrix to develop channel programs for Cloud DC's flagship Workspace offering.

While the initial focus will be North America, Robinson promises EMEA and APAC regions will 'follow closely'.

John Carey, Citrix worldwide channel senior director, says Cloud DC has developed the first fully federated architecture allowing partners to have a multi-tenanted workspace environment delivering complete self-administration management for real time adds/moves/changes.

"The Cloud DC Workspace is unique in market that presents as a turnkey solution with low risk investment aimed solely at channel partners," Carey says.

"This represents new and incremental value from a CSP distributor.

Cloud DC has built out the entire Citrix reference architecture stack on public cloud, aimed solely at the channel.

The company says its Cloud DC Workspace virtualises applications and delivers them to end devices of the user's choice.

"It is a white-labelled, bundled infrastructure/management layer, fully automated and highly scalable platform purely developed for the channel as a turnkey solution," Cloud DC says.

Maureen Lindsey, Cloud DC global channels vice president, says the offering can be bundled with partners' managed services and delivered to customers and says the offering is 'getting us pretty great traction with partners around the world'.

"The global Workspace-as-a-service market is set to grow from US$7.4 billion last year to US$18.3 billion by 2022 and Cloud DC is uniquely positioned to take a large slice of that market," Lindsey says.

"We are engaging with both the Citrix channel and other reseller partners globally," she adds.

Cloud DC says it plans to disrupt the go to market for the distribution channel.

"Today's cloud vendors and traditional ICT distributors are disengaging the channel and leaving them disillusioned over margins and end customer ownership," Cloud DC says.

"Cloud DC has seen an opportunity to work closer together to deliver alternative business outcomes for its partners when moving to a cloud driven business model, than that of a traditional distributor/reseller model.