Westcon opens first Virtual Lab for resellers 4 March, 2010 By Mark Cox

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The laboratory, hosted adjacent to Westcon's facility in Montreal, Canada, but which is accessible by resellers and their customers from anywhere that has a high-speed Internet connection, is specifically designed to test F5's Application Delivery Networking (ADN) solutions in real-time. Access to the demo lab is complimentary for all Westcon customers.

"We have had labs in a variety of places over the years, where we have done virtual demos for resellers in the past on a one-off basis, but here with this we have created a formal process," said Anthony Daley, executive vice president, the Americas, Westcon Group.

"We have found in a lot of cases it is difficult for our partner base to create the ability to fully demonstrate the strengths of some products," Daley said. "By creating this virtual lab, we will help resellers be able to close opportunities, F5 is the first product, but we plan to add more, and are in discussions with different vendors. We would like to build out a variety of solutions into this portfolio."

"Westcon is taking a leadership role among distributors focused on cloud-based, hosted services," said Dean Darwin, vice president worldwide channel sales for F5. "By leveraging Westcon's new virtual demo lab, resellers can demonstrate how F5 products like BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager create efficiencies and increase productivity in customers' Data Center environments, and help optimize application like Microsoft SharePoint. This is a tremendous resource that organizations can take advantage of now--regardless of their physical location."

"Companies that are buying IT want to see more of the utilization of the product, that it can meet their requirements, that they see the product perform," Daley said. "But many today don't have as much liquid capital. That's a driver here. This greatly cuts costs." "Demos are key in shortening sales cycle, and virtual labs are increasingly seen by vendors as a key part of the sales cycle," Daley said, Virtual demos come earlier in the sales cycle and hope to shorten it, and reduces the cost of both the manufacturer and the business partner in doing demos."

Now through March 31st, Westcon is offering a promotion in which resellers who conduct qualified demo sessions in the virtual demo lab can earn up to $500.