Rackspace "Academy" Offers Cloud Classes to Partners

A new offering from Rackspace was announced last week; partners of the company are now able to access an online "Academy" to keep them informed of new services, products and solutions provided by the cloud infrastructure provider.

On-demand training on a number of various programs provided by the company will be available on the Rackspace Partner Academy, and partners can browse through a selection of these to choose those which would best benefit their interest and experience.

The Rackspace channel partner training manager, Grant Irons, said: "We started in September and we are adding content as we go."

Some of the programs on the Rackspace partner portal include instructional videos on subjects like tier structure, compensation, the partner portal, deal registration, positioning and selling Rackspace hosting services like managed hosting, open cloud and SharePoint.

Additionally, reseller training for cloud and email control panels is also offered, and the Partner Academy offers 30 lessons over eight courses.

According to Irons, the Academy will be of great advantage to Rackspace's partner program and will give solution providers and integrators information over a variety of topics and disciplines, proving to be of great benefit in the fast-paced cloud market.

Irons stated: "If partners focus on selling cloud services, maybe they will spend a couple of hours with the program on the cloud and an introduction to the partner program. If partners are selling all of our products, they may spend six to eight hours with it."

Member, Silver, Gold and Platinum are the partnership levels offered by Rackspace, and any of these partners can access courses, added Irons.

He said: "In the Academy, we are talking about how to sell and position all our products. The courses are presented in the voice of the partners. They're told how they can talk about products with their customers. It's very partner-centric." (CY) Link