Open Source DevOps Vendor Chef Launches Its First Channel Program

…his company. In addition, Chef’s move last year to licensing their enterprise applications continues to be beneficial for its partners, said Nair.

Relevance Lab’s Pradeep Nair

“The support services piece of our business is going to increase exponentially,” said Nair. “And the code is open, which gives us and our customers flexibility to use the software and build around it much more. And customers will get better software because the community is going to add to it.”

The new partner program will make it easier for Relevance Lab to help solve customer problems, he said. “Products alone don’t solve problems. This helps us get a better runway with the customer.”

Nair said his company sought a formalized channel program from Chef in the past, and raised the issue when they would meet at conferences and other gatherings. “We spoke with them about it all the time,” he said. “Red Hat has been the leader in this strategy and Chef is going down the same route. The way Red Hat has approached the open source business has really benefited partners and the partner community like us.”

There will likely be some teething issues with the new program as it gets started, but those issues will be resolved, predicted Nair. “I think that the partner community and Chef really need to work together because customers are going to expect things from this. We have to really formulate how we are going to respond to those customer issues.”