Avnet Technology Solutions announced services designed to assist Sun partners in targeting the virtualization market and creating incremental revenue opportunities. The services will focus on enabling Sun partners to demonstrate how virtualization solves key business challenges and the benefits it provides. Avnet Technology Solutions' services include Avnet OneTech server assessments, seminars, technical and financial support, partner training and enablement, business development, demand generation, continuing education, and solutions partnering and development.

"Virtualization offers tremendous benefits to companies looking to save money and resources around hardware, power and cooling," said Mike Hurst, vice president and general manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, Sun Solutions group. "As the virtualization market continues to grow, it is critical that our partners can explain the business rationale behind their technology decisions. Avnet's services help partners do just that by mapping virtualization solutions to company objectives and creating a formal business case around the investment."

To demonstrate detailed business and technical cases for virtualization, Avnet provides partners with the ability to offer comprehensive assessments of end-users environments through its OneTech Services offerings. Avnet OneTech server assessments include a:

• Technical and architectural review that is geared toward the end-user's IT team, including utilization trends and a baseline for developing new architectural models
• Financial review that gives financial decision-makers the overall cost of replacement and savings strategy, including leasing, licensing, power, storage provisioning and hardware costs
• Business leader presentation for CEOs and CIOs that provides executives with a detailed explanation of the return-on-investment

"Sun servers are ideal platforms for customers looking to virtualize their datacenter," said Lisa Sieker, vice president of marketing, Systems Group, Sun Microsystems. "With Avnet's assessment services and other demand generating activities, our partners will be better positioned to help customers take advantage of Sun's virtualization capabilities."

Lance Hagert, product manager for Collier Computing Company agrees. "The recent enhancements Avnet has made to support its partners in the virtualization market have helped Collier Computing land six new clients in the last five weeks."

In addition to OneTech server assessments, Avnet will provide partners with a host of additional services aimed at raising awareness, generating demand and creating incremental revenue opportunities. These services include lead generating virtualization seminars; partner training and enablement through webinars and sales kits; business development support with technical training and sales enablement; demand generation campaigns; and partnering support to create complete virtualization solutions with complimentary products.

"Avnet understands exactly what partners need to quickly get up-to-speed in a new technology area, such as virtualization," said Rich Williams, vice president of engineering, Advanced Systems Group (ASG). "The new virtualization services are a great example of how Avnet creates innovative offerings that allow us to help our customers, while at the same time growing our business."

Through its OneTech portfolio, Avnet offers comprehensive services offerings to help partners target new opportunities. Services include OneTech Implementation Services, OneTech Consulting Services, OneTech Managed Services, OneTech Integration Services and OneTech Support Services. The services are designed to enable partners to accelerate the growth of their services and solutions businesses by including services in each sale and cultivating more long-term sales opportunities. With OneTech Connect, partners can augment their current capabilities in services without the sizable investment required to develop these resources internally.

Sun partners can further hone their virtualization expertise by leveraging Avnet's VirtualPath Practice, a dedicated portfolio of services, programs, technology, and tools designed to provide partners with the resources needed to succeed in virtualization and consolidation. By providing market-specific training and resources, Avnet makes it easier for partners to build virtualization practices in this market and capitalize on new opportunities to grow their businesses. VirtualPath also includes VirtualPath University, a training program designed to shorten the ramp-up time for partners to develop virtualization practices and help them quickly begin generating demand for their expertise.