Avnet Steps Up Desktop Virtualization Efforts

Virtualization is a growing opportunity for channel partners, and vendors and distributors are becoming more proactive in making it easier for their partners to deliver virtualization solutions to small and mid-sized businesses.

Now, distributor Avnet Technology Solutions, a division of Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT), has become the latest company to provide added virtualization services. The new Avnet virtualization solution combines VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
software with other services and resources that VARs need to develop market expertise and to implement desktop virtualization environments.
"The virtualization market is experiencing explosive growth, and companies are looking for new ways to deploy virtualization to further enhance their environments," said Tim FitzGerald, who leads the VirtualPath practice for Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. FitzGerald added that with its new offering, Avnet is expanding a virtualization initiative involving primarily servers to the desktop environment. He noted that demand for virtualization service has been especially strong in the government and healthcare markets.

Avnet's new solution is based on VMware VDI, which allows companies to consolidate client PCs by running them as virtual desktops from servers in the datacenter. VMware VDI includes VMware Virtual Desktop Manager, which provides simplified management and secure provisioning of virtual desktops and manages user access to the virtual desktops from a wide range of devices such as Windows, Linux and Mac computers, and thin clients.

Partners can use virtual desktop solutions to help their customers improve manageability, increase control and enhance the security of their enterprise desktops. The centralization of desktop management through virtualization also helps companies more effectively leverage their IT resources.
Under Avnet's new desktop virtualization initiative, VARs will gain assistance in assessing customers needs, implementing virtualization solutions, demonstrating virtualization technology and obtaining the necessary training and education.

"The aim is to work with our (channel) partners to deliver a desktop virtualization solution quickly and cost-effectively," FitzGerald explained.

The new Avnet services for partners include Avnet OneTech Desktop Assessments, which provide a detailed report about how desktop resources are allocated in customer desktop environments and Avnet OneTech Implementation Services, which allows the distributor to work with channel partners to implement a virtual desktop infrastructure.
 Another service, Avnet's ITDemoCentral, allows channel partners to remotely
showcase the functionality of a virtual desktop infrastructure to potential customers. 
Avnet also is offering certification training classes for VMWare in early October and education in virtualization through Avnet VirtualPath University.

(Al Senia is managing editor of ITChannelPlanet.com.)