Veeam, Microsoft bond strong

Virtualisation — and ‘VMware sprawl’ — has helped bolster the longstanding relationship between Veeam and Microsoft with Veeam’s Management Pack now pre-installed on Microsoft Systems Centre 2012 to help customers manage and protect private clouds that include Windows Server Hyper-V and/or VMware.

Charles Clarke, Veeam pre-sales manager, APAC, says “New Zealand has been a fairly early adopter and as companies’ virtualisation footprint grows, we’ve gone past the tipping point. Businesses now have to manage VM sprawl and there’s a desire to be able to see everything in one place, with consolidated reporting.

“People do not necessarily want siloed blinkered tools,” he says.

“This means those deploying [Microsoft] System Centre 2012 are able to bring VMware monitoring inside the auspices of System Centre. Microsoft customers using System Centre can uplift to 2012 and avoid the expense of another monitoring framework. It’s a big win for end users.

Clarke says there’s plenty of opportunity for channel partners, too. “The opportunity for the channel in the implementation and consultation around it, is massive,” Clarke says. “There is certainly opportunity for the channel as resellers, but I see the opportunity [for them] as being much broader. It’s a chance for them to increase their footprint within customers organisations.”

He says the market is still in the ‘education phase’, and resellers will be instrumental in educating the market. “Many customers have sprawling, unmanaged VMware environments and are realising that however they do it, they have to do something. So the opportunity there is massive. We will see our monitoring and management set grow.”