The IT pros behind Tech Data’s Technology Solutions Center
While the signs are mixed about whether or not the long-awaited technology
refresh has arrived, there’s no mistaking the technology refresh that swept
through Tech Data’s Technology Solutions Center in recent months.
A team of systems engineers, business development representatives and
product sales champions have been busily working to augment the center’s
existing solutions-demonstration capabilities with the latest in-demand and
emerging technologies, as well as hot vertical market applications. Their
goal: make Tech Data’s Technology Solutions Center—the premier facility
of its kind in the channel—an even more valuable resource for resellers.
Hundreds of resellers visit the solutions center each month to demonstrate
a broad array of IT solutions for their end-user customers, as well as to
train their own sales and technical employees on the latest technologies.
This 6,000-square-foot facility houses more than $7 million worth of
technology products from more than 150 leading hardware and software
producers. Solutions on hand include data center and networking
infrastructure, unified communications, document imaging, video
surveillance, digital signage and more. The center also is home to Tech
Data’s Apple Lab, the Cisco Solutions Center at Tech Data and the
Symantec Solutions Center at Tech Data, as well as the new Healthcare IT
Pavilion and the nearly complete Unified Communications Center.
Keeping the solutions center up to date with the latest and greatest
technology, as well as leading reseller trainings and demonstrations held
in the facility, is the responsibility of Tech Data’s very highly skilled
IT experts. Authority had the opportunity to talk to several members of
the team and to ask about the solutions they support in the center, why
VARs should take advantage of this service, some cool technologies they’ve
deployed and the most innovative ways they’ve seen the facility used.
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John Moegling
Tech Data Senior Systems Engineer – Microsoft
Area of Expertise
I have overall responsibility for all application software
in the solutions center, especially the Microsoft Server
technologies.
Advantages to VARs
I really try to help our resellers grow their incremental product sales. The
solutions center allows us to show our partners what positive impact a
product or technology can make for their customers.
Coolest Technology
I would say the one for me is our unified communications solutions. The
impact of unified communications is very beneficial for the user and
the company, and we can demonstrate that live.
Best-Kept Secret
No other distributor dedicates this much
space to a solutions demo facility of this
scale. That makes the Tech Data solutions
center a valuable, exclusive resource, and we
don’t charge resellers to use it.
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Eric Sakala
Tech Data Senior Systems Engineer – Cisco
Area of Expertise
I support the majority of
our Cisco infrastructure
from a data, security and data center
perspective. I currently demonstrate the
security solutions, including the Cisco ASA
platforms and modules, MARS, WAAS,
WAAS Mobile and the Nexus 1000V.
Coolest Technology
Implementing the Cisco Unified
Computing System (UCS) B-Series
servers, installing VMware, Cisco Nexus
1000V, the Cisco Nexus 5000 switch and
communicating to the EMC storage with
Cisco MDS switches.
Most Innovative Use
We recently had a customer score a big
win with a university by showing them the
Cisco UCS platform in action. It’s still a
relatively new solution, so the center is a
great sales tool for resellers to show it off.
![](images/Experts/Charlie-Will_157.jpg)
Charlie Will
Tech Data Senior Systems Engineer – EMC
Area of Expertise
I support the EMC
unified storage array
located in the Cisco UCS data center. I also
assist with the EMC unified storage arrays
for our VMware solutions.
Advantages to VARs
IT people, as a rule, are a conservative
bunch. In order to sell solutions to this
group, resellers have to be able to sell
comfort with that solution. The solutions
center is a perfect tool to sell comfort. If a
picture is worth a thousand words, a live
solution demo is worth a million.
Coolest Technology
Unified management platforms. The
underlying technology may have changed
very little, at least in servers and storage,
but the management interface to those
technologies is making it much easier to
deploy, provision and manage solutions.
Most Innovative Use
I have done numerous trainings in the
lab to show the benefits of shared storage
and data protection. I had a critical server
go down on the morning of the training.
I ended up switching the theme of that
training to disaster recovery. I received the
best feedback of any of my trainings ever.
Brett Johnson
Tech Data Systems
Engineer – Symantec
Area of Expertise
I support the Symantec
Solution Center at Tech
Data. We typically demo
Symantec’s Backup Exec, Backup Exec
System Recovery, Enterprise Vault and
Endpoint Protection. It gives us a chance to
get hands-on work with these products and
to get in front of our customers to show the
products actually working.
Advantages to VARs
This is the only dedicated Symantec training
room on the East Coast. Our customers can
use this room for any sort of training, such
as technical, demonstration, installation,
licensing or general sales training.
Most Innovative Use
We conducted a joint training with
VMware. Partners were trained on how
Symantec software integrates and works
directly with VMware.
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Stacey Budd
Tech Data Associate
Systems Engineer – CA
Area of Expertise
I support the backup
of the solutions center
primarily with CA
ARCserve Backup. I demo CA ARCserve
Backup, CA ARCserve Replication, CA
ARCserve High Availability and CA
ARCserve D2D solutions to resellers and
their customers. I enjoy demonstrating the
key features of these products and often get
to interact with IT staffs, addressing their
concerns and showing how CA solutions
will meet their needs.
Advantages to VARs
Showing a product to an end user in a
live environment increases the chances of
closing deals and will often help uncover
additional opportunities.
Coolest Technology
ARCserve High Availability. This product
allows for automatic failover of Windows,
Linux and Unix servers and applications.
It is amazingly simple to set up and can be
used to guarantee up time and continuous
availability for most critical systems.
Best-Kept Secret
Many of our resellers aren’t aware that they
are able to bring their customers on site to
see live product demonstrations. That can
be such a great way to close a deal.
Michelle Wangler
Tech Data Associate
System Engineer –
Liebert
Area of Expertise
Power and cooling—
more specifically the
Liebert Nfinity 20kVA UPS and Liebert
CRV—which is our data center AC
solution. This product was put in the data
center when we glassed it in. We needed to
cool that room because it houses four of the
hottest-running racks in the center.
Advantages to VARs
If you have a data center that doesn’t have
the proper cooling and power solution, you
are over taxing your rack systems. They are
more than likely running too hot, which
burns out components by overheating, and
you end up replacing them prematurely.
Here, customers instantly feel what a
properly cooled data center is like.
Coolest Technology
The Liebert CRV, of course! The unit has
performed very well, and the monitoring
sensors on the racks helped us locate and
address hot spots. Also, the fact that we
can adjust the baffles on the front of the
CRV has made it very easy to change the
direction of the airflow for a customized
configuration.
Most Innovative Use
I have many Liebert VARs who have
been in with their customers to show off
the Liebert Nfinity 20kVA UPS and the
Liebert CRV. They bring them in so they
can see what the product looks like, how it
sounds and how it will improve their data
center.
Paolo Amato
Tech Data Senior
Product Sales Champion
– Physical Security
Specialized Business
Unit
Area of Expertise
I support the physical security solutions
and demonstrate a full working model
of a security installation. The complete
installation includes surveillance cameras,
recording software, a PoE switch, server,
storage and monitors.
Advantages to VARs
I always ask resellers why they would
spend money on all the expensive
equipment needed to demonstrate a
working surveillance model when we’ve
done it for them.
Coolest Technology
The coolest part is the HD PTZ (Pan Tilt
Zoom) cameras and the look on customers’
faces when they see the video quality.
Best-Kept Secret
That we have the ability to demo almost
any camera we carry and can help build a
solution to work in any environment.
Alex Lugo
Tech Data Business
Development
Representative – Apple
Specialized Business
Unit
Area of Expertise
The Apple Lab, however, I stay up to date
on all the Apple ecosystem vendors and
products that Tech Data also distributes.
Advantages to VARs
We show them how to integrate Macs into
a Windows Server environment.
Coolest Technology
It’s Apple. Everything we have is cool! We
even have an iPhone app developed by our
video surveillance vendor videoNEXT that
enables you to remotely monitor, playback
and even control PTZ cameras.
Best-Kept Secret
More and more users are integrating
Macs into their networks. Our lab
provides the opportunity to work with
Macs and integrate them into a Windows
environment. In fact, we are working on
binding the Xserve open directory to a
Windows active directory server. This type
of binding allows for Mac management
through Windows active directory.
Bob Watson
Tech Data Business
Development
Representative –
Healthcare Specialized
Business Unit
Area of Expertise
I assisted in creating the Healthcare IT
Pavilion, and I’m responsible for adding
new solutions, hosting tours and trainings.
Advantages to VARs
This is a great resource for our healthcare
IT resellers. They can come in and touch
the different products in a real-world
environment, so when they’re out on sales
calls at doctors’ offices they will have a good
knowledge of the products and services that
doctors will need.
Coolest Technology
Some of the EHR solutions we have are
very interesting. These solutions are brand
new to the channel, and resellers can visit
the Healthcare IT Pavilion to learn what
it takes to sell, deploy and support these
products.
Most Innovative Use
The grand opening of the Healthcare IT
Pavilion was with our sales teams. We
invited all the sales representatives down
to engage vendors and to see the new
products in action. That helped educate our
own team to better support VARs who are
interested in going after the IT demand in
healthcare.
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