Xtium's cloud-focused software, hosting and virtual BDR services have been attracting some industry attention recently in the form of  a $11.5 million Series A round of funding by OpenView Venture Partners; a new CEO from Red Hat, Inc. (former Red Hat COO Tim Buckley); and news about its new desktop as a service (DaaS) offering in partnership with Desktone, Inc. Now the company is launching a formal partner program and Xtium Co-founder and Managing Director Shawn Carey (pictured) shared the details with MSPmentor. Here's a quick background on the company, along with an overview of Xtium's new partner program.

Carey and two others founded Xtium in 2006 with the idea of starting an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering, before anyone had heard of IaaS. The company launched a managed cloud hosting service in 2007, winning a $6.5 million, five-year agreement to support a NASDAQ-listed insurance company’s IT transformation, growth and acquisitions. Xtium broadened its offerings to three basic products, a hosted recovery solution, a managed cloud hosting offering and a hosted desktop solution.

The company now has expanded to two data centers, one located in Pennsylvania and the other in Nevada. Xtium's model is based around the idea of being redundant, he said. Everything that the company hosts in the Pennsylvania data center has a duplicate copy in the Nevada data center and vice versa. The company has grown to approximately 40 employees total.

On to the partner program

"We are going to see a tremendous growth this year in the partner program," Carey said.

At the moment, Xtium's partner program has less than 20 partners, but Carey expects that number to grow by dedicating the company's focus to strategic partners in strategic cities. Partners can expect Xtium to commit itself to four areas of focus: economic, market approach, people, and resources. Each area has its own advantages for partners.

"We like to talk economics to partners who are used to reselling servers and other commodity items," he said. "We offer a 20 to 25 percent margin on what we sell on a reoccurring basis."

Xtium does not overlap with a partner's product catalog since it does not offer integration services or develop applications and does not sell hardware or software. The company is focusing on businesses that can integrate Xtium's services into their market and can make commitments of $20,000 to $30,000 to this type of business.

"Our sweet spot has been mid-market enterprises," he said. "We are looking to find companies that have lean IT organizations, but depend on the application to drive their business."

Working closely with partners

Carey said that the company takes an aggressive approach to grow partner revenue, working with partners to form an integrated team. Xtium offers partners access to its Cloud IQ lead score methodology, enabling partners to target opportunities within their existing customer bases.

Xtium has dedicated sales reps to get partners on the right track, Carey said. The company also has pre-sales and technical teams to assist partners with finding white space in their accounts. Partners have direct access to Xtium's sales executives with years of cloud hosting and disaster recovery expertise.

Partners also get access to partner-specific telephone numbers and email addresses for immediate access to Xtium's senior account management and technical teams, to answer support and sales questions quickly and efficiently. Partners also have access to Xtium partner portal, which provides marketing materials and product resources for use.

"We want dedicated partners that can commit to a certain revenue number," Carey said.

Becoming a partner

According to the company's website, companies interested in becoming an Xtium partner must first complete a partner interest form. Potential partners will then attend an intro call with Xtium's partner channel manager to learn more about the program and discuss commitment level. Partners will then complete a boot camp training class and work with Xtium to define strategy.