Tech Data Establishes New Route To Market For Open Source ISVs And Resellers

CLEARWATER, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tech Data Corporation (NASDAQ:TECD), a leading IT products distributor, today announced Open Tech, a new channel for open source independent software vendors (ISVs) to market and sell their solutions to thousands of resellers nationwide. Tech Data previewed Open Tech last month during its 2009 Vendor Partner Summit, and the company introduced the initiative to nearly 250 small and medium business (SMB) resellers attending the TechSelect Partner Conference in Orlando last week.

“The Open Tech program will provide the kind of support the open source ecosystem needs to grow and thrive in the channel, and we are pleased to be a leader with Tech Data in this effort”

“Open source software continues to gain momentum as a robust, cost-effective solution for businesses of all sizes,” said Tech Data Vice President, Software Product Marketing Stacy Nethercoat. “The challenge users face, however, is the limited availability and awareness of all the innovative open source business applications in the market, like business intelligence, content management and data backup. These solutions make open source more viable for business use. Through Open Tech, Tech Data will enable the ISVs developing these applications and the resellers supporting the IT solutions needs of end users nationwide to partner with one another to capitalize on the growing demand for open source.”

Open Tech builds upon Tech Data’s extensive experience supporting open source leaders like Novell and Red Hat. That experience includes helping these top open source vendors grow their businesses through the channel by recruiting new resellers to deploy their solutions to SMBs, large enterprises, government agencies, educational institutions and healthcare facilities.

“Today, IT is all about cost reduction and performance optimization and Tech Data recognizes that,” said Steve Hale, vice president, global data center channel, Novell. “The SUSE Linux platform, combined with Novell's entire product portfolio, empowers companies to build, manage, secure and measure mission-critical applications with a low cost of ownership. Additionally, software appliances built on Linux, with the SUSE Appliance Program, are helping ISVs enter new markets. Novell is pleased to support Open Tech with a strong portfolio of solutions and dedicated Novell PartnerNet training programs to enable developers and resellers to become more profitable.”

“The Open Tech program will provide the kind of support the open source ecosystem needs to grow and thrive in the channel, and we are pleased to be a leader with Tech Data in this effort,” said Roger Egan, North American Channel Sales, Red Hat. “Through these efforts Tech Data will be able to effectively connect a community of vendors and resellers, offer marketing resources and fuel innovative solutions so that end customers in the mid-markets can take advantage of the value and performance that Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss Enterprise Middleware provide.”

Through Open Tech, Tech Data will:

Recruit New Open Source Vendors – Tech Data is negotiating with several open source ISVs interested in expanding their reseller partner base. Tech Data will recruit open source ISVs developing a wide range of solutions, including business intelligence and database management, data backup and recovery, content management, messaging and unified communications, office productivity, middleware and security.
Recruit And Enable New Open Source Resellers – Tech Data will enable existing open source resellers to expand their practices with new solutions and open source technical training available through TDEducation. The company also will leverage its data mining and channel marketing to identify and recruit new resellers likely to add open source alternatives to their solutions offerings.
Establish The Open Tech Community – With a membership of resellers, open source ISVs, and leading hardware manufacturers, the Open Tech Community will work together to develop strategies to capitalize on emerging demand for open source solutions. The community will interact through physical and virtual events, and the new Open Tech Web portal.
Expand Open Source Licensing Expertise – Tech Data’s software licensing specialists will support the licensing requirements for all Open Tech software partners.
Enhance Open Source Sales And Marketing – Open Tech will provide open source vendors with a comprehensive channel marketing program to recruit and enable targeted resellers. Open Tech also will provide extensive open source product training for Tech Data’s Sales teams.
Develop Custom-Configured Open Source Bundles – Through its East and West Coast integration centers and on behalf of its reseller customers, Tech Data will custom configure systems and servers with open source solutions for quicker deployment to end users.

Resellers and open source ISVs interested in learning more about Open Tech can send an e-mail to opensource@techdata.com.

About Tech Data

Tech Data Corporation (NASDAQ GS: TECD) is one of the world's largest distributors of technology products from leading IT hardware and software producers. Tech Data serves more than 125,000 IT solution providers in over 100 countries. Every day, these value-added resellers depend on Tech Data to cost-effectively support the technology needs of end users, including small and medium businesses (SMB), large enterprises and government agencies. Ranked 102nd on the FORTUNE 500(R), Tech Data generated $24.1 billion in net sales for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2009. To learn more, visit www.techdata.com.