data center

Yes, Artisan did hit that magic 250 number on MSP partners in December and is now above 300 MSPs. Originally planned as a bare metal-type of IaaS offering, Artisan changed things around a bit about 18 months ago. Bauer says MSPs weren’t sure what to do with Artisan’s infrastructure which is pure VMware and NetApp SAN with no GUI, just direct access into the infrastructure. So Artisan established an ecosystem of strategic partners such as ISVs — for instance, cloud software backup provider Asigra – to make the IaaS offer relevant to the MSP and CSP community.

Bauer says “We facilitate vendor introductions to the MSP” an arrangement that benefits both Artisan and the vendors. At the same time Bauer says Artisan is vendor agnostic.

Artisan has two data centers in Kansas — one in Kansas City and one in Wichita. Both of these are SAAS70 Type II/SSAE16 (updated to include the SSAE 16 detail) making them appropriate for all the businesses that need to be in compliance with HIPPA, PCI and other standards. Artisan is opening a third facility soon, this one in Austin, Texas that will be a TIA Tier 4 facility.

One of Artisan Infrastructure’s new ISV offerings will come in the form of  OwnCloud, a DropBox alternative that MSPs and CSPs can white label with their own brand. (Updated: Artisan says that this is a third party ISV offering hosted on Artisan Infrastructure).

The company is planning a webinar on June 26 on the new offering. More information is available here.  Additionally Artisan will be launching their new SaaS ecosystem, which will allow the channel to simply resell SaaS based solutions running on Artisan Infrastructure.