Almost every IT business needs digital infrastructure for itself or its clients, whether servers, storage or network equipment. No e-service is even conceivable without technology. Today several companies offer it in the form of cloud, but few in physical form. Even though they could.
Liis Tammekivi, head of the partner segment at GDC. Photo: Andres Oolberg.
The Greenergy Data Centers (GDC) partner programme gives IT service providers the opportunity to add equipment hosting in the Baltics' largest and most modern data center to their product portfolio. For the partner it means a new service with a healthy margin, more lasting business relationships thanks to managing the client's IT infrastructure, and the chance to benefit from cooperation with the data center's other customers.
Liis Tammekivi, head of the partner segment at GDC, explains how to grow a business with it.
Why do IT companies need this partner programme?
Looking at the world more broadly, many businesses prefer the large public cloud providers such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. The more businesses choose that path, the fewer clients IT companies smaller than the global players have to sell hardware, software, maintenance and similar services to. The solution is to offer clients a so-called private cloud in a data center as an alternative. In other words, equipment hosting is offered alongside hardware sales, for example.
That is exactly what our partner programme makes possible. Many IT companies have lacked this solution until now.
Does only the IT company win, or the end client too?
Both, in fact. For the end client it means a highly predictable cost base, clear knowledge of reliability and security, and of the green footprint too. Of course, owning servers, storage and communications equipment is not the optimal choice for everyone. Often, though, it is an alternative worth weighing. Depending on the nature of the business, the total cost of a private versus a public cloud can differ several-fold. From the end client's perspective it is important to find what suits them best.
What else does a partner gain from the programme beyond securing its business?
I would look at it from the angle that the partner can offer a more complete service portfolio and meet the client's different needs, from hardware and hosting to software and consulting.
In addition, new services can be created and developed together with other companies located in the data center, if desired. If a partner cannot or does not want to offer a client a so-called complete solution on its own, it can put one together with the help of another company. For the end client that makes life easier, because they get everything their business needs from one provider on one invoice.
Second, equipment hosting can be sold at a competitive margin thanks to the added value it creates.
Third, the partner's administrative burden shrinks when its clients are hosted in the same place as its cooperation partners. The specialists of the data center's operations center can also be put to work as an extension of your own hands, carrying out the necessary tasks as assigned: reconnecting, restarting or replacing equipment, for example.
It is also notable that hosting a client's equipment is not merely a one-off income but a fixed and growing monthly revenue. From the company's perspective that means greater stability.
The data center surely receives a fair number of enquiries to buy services or products that may not fit your business. Do you share those with partners too?
Dozens of different enquiries reach us every year. It is true that many of them do not match our business model. They do match our partners', however. In that case we point the potential client to the company or companies in the programme, which can make an offer.
The partner programme has been named "Sild" (Bridge). Why that choice?
There is indeed a story behind it. At the moment many IT companies have built a bridge to their clients through hardware and software sales, maintenance or consulting. With our programme a new layer, equipment hosting, can be added to that bridge. So the bridge becomes stronger and more lasting.
If the partner programme has sparked someone's interest, what should they do?
The simplest thing is to take a look at the partner programme page and get in touch. We will go through our value proposition together and discuss how you could grow your business in the Baltics' largest and most modern data center.