Samsung Canada is targeting the desktop virtualization market with its display business.
According to Jean-Paul Desmarais, the new vice-president of channel sales for Samsung Canada, the subsidiary is putting a heavy emphasis on desktop virtualization as they believe it will be high on the list of priorities for IT managers.
IDC reported that desktop virtualization is emerging and have forecasted a five year compound annual growth rate of 16.9 per cent for the market trend.
Desmarais added that Samsung Canada will be pushing all of this business to the channel. However, the company needs more channel partners to meet the expected demand in the market place. “We don’t have enough. We need more channel partners who are deep with desktop virtualization as well as those who do server virtualization,” Desmarais said. “This will be absolutely critical to our success,” he added.
Samsung’s first priority is to meet with existing channel partners to discuss their desktop virtualization practice and customers. “We need to leverage them first in the market place,” Desmarais said.
The solution Samsung is offering to channel partners utilizes its product portfolio in flat panel monitors. Samsung partnered with Burnaby, B.C.-based Teradici Corp., a vendor of PC over standard IP networks. Teradici product enables the channel to offer customers a way to connect end points such as a monitor to the data centre through a desktop portal device and a host card. The host card or chipset is on a blade server in the data centre and through an Ethernet cable it can send applications and data to the desktop portal device, which looks like a fat external hard drive.
The Samsung/Teradici joint partnership developed a solution where the chipset is embedded on the back of a Samsung 930ND flat panel display, for example, eliminating the need for the desktop portal device.
Desmarais believes this solution makes Samsung different than any other flat-panel monitor maker or large format display manufacturer. “This solution is easy to install. You can locate it anywhere. It looks good and provides options for the channel in desktop virtualization. We are different than any other display maker because we have a thin client or zero client solution. This can also be managed as one asset instead of two,” he said.
This opportunity also provides channel partners with extra services revenue for policy/compliance design and consulting. Plus there is a need in the market place for desktop virtualization with these solutions. Desmarais said that IT departments and CIOs are facing challenges with fewer resources. Desktop virtualization is way to improve performance, while lowering service levels and costs.
Desmarais is new to the job at Samsung Canada. He was a long time executive at HP Canada and his goal is to make Samsung get tighter with the channel and with customers. He said that this goal is a work in progress and that he will approach it one channel partner at a time. Desmarais’ approach to this goal will be from the ground up to generate demand on Samsung’s unique value solutions such as its PC over IP products with Teradici.
Follow Paolo Del Nibletto on Twitter: @PaoloCDN.
