Integra, Square 1 deal brings improved terms

Buying group Integra has inked a deal with Square 1, handing its members access to preferential terms with the distributor, reports ChannelWeb.

Cisco, HP, IBM and Smart distributor Square 1 are offering Integra members improved terms for computer hardware, audio visual equipment and its range of professional services.

Square 1 claims to hold more than £1.8 million (R23.9 million) of new and refurbished stock. It also has a technical services division that provides communications, security, computing and data centre services.

Red Hat has made no secret of the fact that it wants to get more of its sales through indirect channels. This is not just a matter of shifting the burden of sales to resellers, as is the case with most server makers, but is also a means of keeping Red Hat's overall revenues growing so it attains its long-term goal of becoming a $1 billion, profitable software company, writes The Register.

Red Hat is no different from any other IT vendor, so it's beefing up its North American partner channel with the addition of a premier business level to give channel partners more "economic, sales, marketing, and technical benefits".

The software company also added three new specialties that partners can be certified to chase deals under, and these areas reflect the three main areas where Red Hat is doing business: infrastructure software, middleware, and virtualisation.

Dicker Data has increased its data centre play through a partnership with switching vendor, Blade Network Technologies, states ARN.

The distributor will take Blade's Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet RackSwitch product family to the market for the vendor's first local channel foray.

Blade CEO, Virkam Mehta, said Dicker Data was a good fit, with an existing data centre business, a strong reseller network and understanding of the market.