Rancher Labs, creators of the most widely used Kubernetes management platform, today announced the launch of its Platinum Partner Program in EMEA, its further expansion in North America, and the global rollout of sales enablement tools and technical training programs. The rapid expansion of Rancher’s partner program is indicative of an enormous market opportunity for forward-thinking resellers, where enterprises are increasingly relying upon trusted partners to help embrace and fully realize the potential of Kubernetes.
“As enterprises increasingly embrace cloud-native solutions that include agile, time- and cost-saving Kubernetes strategies, partners have an enormous opportunity to meet these global customer demands,” said Shannon Williams, President of Rancher Labs. “No matter the customer geography, the challenge remains the same, organizations need simplified ways to develop apps faster, integrate their entire cloud-native solution stack, and carry out day one and day two Kubernetes operations simply and quickly.”
Platinum Partner Program Overview and New Features
Originally launched in 2019, Rancher’s Platinum Program is a key pillar of its partner ecosystem, which also includes Consulting, Reseller, and Managed Service Provider partners. The Platinum Partner Program is targeted at resellers who have made a strong commitment to Kubernetes resources and expertise. Partners who attain platinum status gain exclusive access to co-marketing opportunities as well as lead generation and opportunity sharing programs, MDF, and options for co-branded content.
Additional partner resources announced include:
- New Rancher Training Series – Globally, partners can now access a host of new training opportunities through Rancher. This extends pre- and post-sales training, advanced technical training, Kubernetes concepts, use cases, and training that helps partners build better development environments in hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
- Self-Service Partner Portal – The self-service portal is an online repository of information, supporting documents, best practices, and sales enablement tools for partners. It provides a single source of information and content for customers and extends to case studies, cattle cards, datasheets, eBooks, presentations, videos, and whitepapers. Partners can also use the portal to register deals, track pipeline, and get visibility into additional customer opportunities.
EMEA Program Launch
With the launch of the Platinum Program in the thriving EMEA market, Rancher is providing customers in-country access to fully trained Kubernetes experts in their region, allowing them to be more strategic in their approach as well as drive deployment velocity. With today’s launch Rancher Labs announced the charter members of the program including B1 Systems (UK), SVA (Germany), Conoa (Sweden), Puzzle (Switzerland), and Netic (Denmark).
Americas Program Expansion
Since its original introduction in 2019, the Platinum Partner Program has grown rapidly in the Americas. As a result, today’s launch also includes the addition of four new platinum partners in the Americas, namely: Expedient, MIS3, Stark & Wayne, and World Wide Technology.
To support the rapid expansion of the program, the company has hired Peter Dalziel as Rancher’s EMEA Channel Partner Director. Alex Belak, who led the initial Platinum Partner Program launch in July of 2019 will continue to oversee the program in the Americas region in his role as Director, Strategic Alliances.
Partners support Rancher Platinum Partner Program
“At B1 Systems we believe that all companies can save time and money using container technologies. In our experience working with the Rancher platform, it helps customers work successfully with containers, making them secure and easy to deploy and use. No matter the size of the customer’s environment. Both our team and our customers consistently rate their experience working with Rancher’s technology and its people as excellent,” said Ralph Dehner, CEO, at B1 Systems. Based in Germany, B1 Systems’ team of 140 employees provide open source consulting, training, and managed services.
“As cloud-native specialists, BoxBoat is working with Rancher to respond to the growing demand for Kubernetes from large Fortune 1000 and government customers. We became a Platinum Partner last summer and, since then, we’ve been able to increase our sales pipeline, not only in services and subscriptions but also training,” said Tim Hohman, CEO at Platinum Partner BoxBoat.
“As a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP), we at Stark & Wayne are extremely excited to have found a solution that makes life as a Kubernetes operator not simply bearable, but rather enjoyable as well,” said Brian Sequin, COO at Stark & Wayne. “With Rancher, Stark & Wayne has finally found both an operator experience, and a truly collaborative partner relationship. We cannot wait to help our enterprise clients bring container orchestration to fruition successfully,”
Supporting Resources
- Learn more about the Rancher partner ecosystem, here.
- EMEA partners can sign up for sales training, here.
- EMEA partners can sign up for technical training, here.
- North American partners can sign up for sales training, also here.
- North American partners can sign up for technical training, also and here.
- Read Rancher’s ‘How to Build a Kubernetes Strategy’ whitepaper, here.
About Rancher Labs
Rancher Labs delivers open source software that enables organizations to deploy and manage Kubernetes at scale, on any infrastructure across the data center, cloud, branch offices, and the network edge. With 37,000 active users and greater than 100 million downloads, their flagship product, Rancher, is the industry’s most widely adopted Kubernetes management platform. For additional information, visit www.rancher.com and follow @Rancher_Labs on Twitter. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.
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