Iron Mountain Expands Its Storage-as-a-Service Channel Partner Ranks

By Rick Whiting, CMP Channel

Dec. 11, 2007

Iron Mountain Digital, the technology business unit of the Iron Mountain records management services company, has recruited some 300 VARs, managed services providers and other partners to its channel program for its storage- and software-as-a-service backup and archiving solutions.

The Southborough, Mass., company said this week that it’s counting on its expanded partner roster to expand into new vertical industries and regions outside North America.

Iron Mountain Digital has been steadily expanding into the online information backup and archiving market since its 2004 acquisition of Connected Corp., a developer of backup and recovery systems for PC data, and its 2005 acquisition of LiveVault, a supplier of remote server backup and recovery services for SMBs.

While the partner program has existed for a while — some 25 percent of Iron Mountain Digital’s sales are already made through partners — the company is formalizing its Global Partner Program for VARs, MSPs, technology partners and hosting partners, said Dave Kubick, vice president of worldwide alliances at the business unit. The company is assigning channel managers to solution provider partners and providing them with technical training, professional services support and market development resources.

VARs generally bring their regional or vertical industry knowledge to the Iron Mountain Digital solution while MSPs add the storage-as-a-service capabilities to their portfolio of services, Kubick said.

CenterBeam, a San Jose-based MSP, offers Iron Mountain Digital’s desktop and server backup services to midsize companies, hosting desktop data itself and relying on Iron Mountain Digital’s hosted storage systems for server data. The company had relationships with Connected Corp. and LiveVault prior to the acquisitions and has continued to carry their services, said Karen Hayward, executive vice president. “We’re starting to see the synergy between the two products brought together under the Iron Mountain name,” she said. Iron Mountain provides solid technical resources and “outstanding” training, she added.

The 300 partners in the Iron Mountain Digital program span 40 countries and have brought in 3,000 new customers this year, according to the company. Kubick said channel partners will likely account for 25 percent to 35 percent of Iron Mountain Digital’s sales for the foreseeable future.