The last time we wrote about dinCloud we were detailing how Maryville University used the company’s cloud services to save on capital and ongoing IT expenses. However this time, we are letting you know that you yourself can offer the dinCloud as if it is your very own – if you are an MSP or other techology provider that is.
The company made its white label announcement at the recent Microsoft Hosting Summit. dinCloud’s dinManage service is designed to help MSPs to set up private virtual data centers in the cloud and customize them for clients using the tools management and orchestration features.
White labeling is good and bad for the vendors that provide it. On the plus side, the company gets paid. And because it is in the hands of more customers, there is more feedback that can improve the product and fix defects. But white labeling is not an ideal brand building strategy. If the solution is awesome, no one even knows it’s yours.
If your goal is to build out a partner channel, however, white labeling can be awesome. Having the flexibility to offer someone else’s stuff, but claim it as your own, could have partners beating down your door. And you can still continue to brand the solution when sold directly or through other channels.
“By offering our services as a white label solution, we are able to provide more support to the channel by arming our partners with the tools they need to increase their bottom line and make them more competitive,” said Kevin Schatzle, CEO, dinCloud.
dinCloud’s Value Proposition
dinCloud argues that its tool can make it faster and easier for partners to provision virtual servers and hosted virtual desktops by virtue of dinManage’s automation.
“Partners have immediate and complete control of a customer’s IT environment, including desktops, servers, storage, and network security resources in minutes,” the company said.
451 Research sees service provider value in the company’s approach. “dinCloud is a good example of a number of converging trends in infrastructure and IT services. It provides a service delivery model and a range of infrastructure services that can help IT services providers get to market faster with a comprehensive offering,” added Carl Brooks, research analyst at 451 Research.
dinCloud Storage Goes to School
As we mentioned earlier, dinCloud is in use at Maryville University. But in this case, it is dinBackup that is getting a workout.\ The school had been looking at shelling out $125,000 for a new SAN and stumbled across dinCloud through a local VAR.
The result? A managed backup system that can be seamlessly integrated with the university’s on-premises NetApp gear.
“dinCloud employees were very knowledgeable and took the time to understand our needs. Plus, they were able to easily explain their solution – how they would make the connection to us, how they would copy the data, and how they would handle our data when it got to them - not many companies could do that right off the bat. dinCloud had a simple, straight-forward plan and they were flexible and knowledgeable about the systems and our objectives,” concluded David Brawner, manager of Network Services, Maryville University.
Edited by
Jamie Epstein
