NO ONE WHO SEES YOU driving a Honda will assume you’re rich. They might, however, assume you’re smart.
Same goes for customers of Array Networks, according to Paul Andersen (pictured), the company’s vice president of North American sales. Array’s networking and security solutions may not be the flashiest available, but they offer all the functionality midsize businesses need at a price they can afford.
“You’re getting a very high-quality product that’s simple to use but doesn’t break the bank,” Andersen says.
A pioneer in application delivery controllers that also offers secure access gateways, Array is best known today for its network functions virtualization solution, which provides consolidated access to software-defined load balancing, firewall, and other network resources. Designed to combine the flexibility, scalability, and manageability of virtual infrastructure with the performance of hardware-based products, the platform supports component systems from both Array itself and third-party providers.
Users can deploy the solution on popular hypervisors, dedicated appliances, in the public cloud, or any combination of the three. Fees for any software they run are levied on a pay-as-you-go basis tailored to recurring revenue business models. To align hardware costs with subscription billing cycles as well, Array offers leasing plans on its appliances through a third-party financing provider.
Array’s “A-Team” partner program, meanwhile, is designed to compensate resellers richly. “Instead of having it be a race to the bottom, we structure the way we price things in a way that keeps the margins high,” Andersen says. Indeed, the company pays 35 percent margins by default on registered deals.
The end result for channel pros who serve midsize customers is a quick, profitable path into the burgeoning market for virtualized network and security hardware. “It just allows MSPs to enter into that game of offering a more flexible, more software-centric type solution and building that into their offerings,” Andersen says.
