By samdizzy

whats-the-difference

A prime example: Take a look at Office 365 vs. an expanding relationship between Avnet Technology Solutions and SherWeb. Avnet is a leading IT distributor that recently launched a cloud services initiative for VARs and MSPs. SherWeb, meanwhile, is a leading cloud services provider (CSP) that offers various collaboration applications — including hosted Exchange, hosted SharePoint and more.

Quick Questions

The obvious questions:

I’ll skip the pricing questions… except to say the following: Avnet-SherWeb allows partners to control end-customer pricing. When it comes to a deep dive on pricing, you should just speak directly with the service provider — whether its Avnet, SherWeb, Microsoft… or another hosted Exchange provider like Intermedia and so forth.

The Finer Details

So what is the Avnet-SherWeb hosted Exchange solution? The companies say the solution offers:

For me, a few things stand out on that list — particularly phone support, end-customer pricing controls and white label capabilities.

Do Your Homework

Check around. Use the list above as a starting point to compare and contrast Office 365, Avnet-SherWeb and other hosted Exchange providers. VARs and MSPs have dozens of options from which to choose — including Avnet rivals like Ingram Micro Cloud, Tech Data TDCloud and Synnex CloudSolv.

For many VARs and MSPs, Office 365 is a solid solution. But I think far too often, channel partners choose their cloud service provider or hosted Exchange provider based on per-seat pricing without taking a much more detailed look at the SLA.

Don’t skip the fine print. There are differences between hosted Exchange providers. You need to pinpoint them before deciding where to shift your customers into somebody’s cloud.