Double-Take to offer low cost virtual desktop through channel

News Will Garside 2010-05-18 14:21

Ian Masters, UK sales director at Double-Take Software believes that desktops are costly and time consuming for the

£70 a seat with no hidden charges will let partners target SMEs priced out of VMware and Citrix goodness.

Although Masters admits that a switch to a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution could cannibalise hardware sales, there is potential for partners to add in some profitable value-adds as well as reducing support costs. “It’s one of those times that rebooting a PC actually will solve 99 percent of any problems as the IT guys know that the machine will start up with a clean image,” he explains

The potential for partners reducing call out costs and time is huge in Masters’ opinion, and tasks such upgrading to Windows 7 or newer operating systems is simplified as images are maintained centrally.

Masters also highlights improved security and easy hot-desking as other important benefits, “The software comes with tools to clone and setup images and a simple 10 user installation can be carried out in a morning with no downtime – in most cases users won’t be able to spot the difference,” he adds.

Double-Take is also encouraging its channel to up sell complementary software, including data backup and replication which can be bolted onto Flex with minor configuration changes.

The vendor is offering a bundled deal with RES Software, a third party add-on that allows users to personalise individual images for £100, with all pricing benefiting from standard partner discounting of around 15 percent to 25 percent depending on accreditation tier and volume.