Paragon Software Is Awarded Five Stars in CRN 2012 Partner Program Guide

5-Star Award Follows on the Heels of Daniel Eickhoff’s Acknowledgement in CRN’s 2012 Channel Chief

Paragon Software is excited to share the news that the Paragon Channel Partner Program was awarded the highest rating in Computer Reseller News’ (CRN’s) 2012 Partner Program Guide. Spotlighted on CRN’s Web site, “The 5-Star Partner Program rating recognizes the elite subset of Partner Program Guide vendors that give solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs. The 5-Star Partner Program Guide is assembled by UBM Channel Research using a methodology it developed for assessing information provided in vendors’ PPG applications.” Specifically, CRN editors evaluated submissions based on objective data such as “vendor investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support and communication.”

The guide provides useful information that IT service companies need to evaluate current and prospective IT vendors. Participating vendors were required to submit detailed information about all aspects of their partner programs. According to Rick Whiting’s 2012 Partner Programs Guide: Star Turn report, “UBM Channel Research crunched the numbers and designated some programs as 5-Star Partner Programs.

The 5-Star Partner Program rating recognizes the elite subset of Partner Program Guide vendors that give solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs. The 5-Star rating is bestowed on programs whose overall rating is among the elite segmented by company size: enterprise (annual revenue of more than $1 billion), midsize (revenue between $100 million and $1 billion), small (revenue less than $100 million) and emerging companies (founded in 2006 or later).”

“Paragon has always embraced the indirect sales model,” explains Daniel Eickhoff, Director of Channel Sales for Paragon Software. “From the founding of the company, our sales, marketing and support organizations have been focused exclusively on satisfying the needs of the channel.”

In 2011 strong revenue and profit growth allowed Paragon to make significant investments in strategic demand and lead generation initiatives to fuel the channel, while at the same time expanding its team of first-class channel managers to service Paragon’s growing partner-base. “As a result, our existing partners were able to increase their Paragon revenue by an average of 25 percent, with many of our top partners growing by more than 50 percent,” said Eickhoff.

To learn more about CRN’s evaluation of Paragon’s Channel Partner Program visit Paragon’s listing in CRN. To see CRN’s evaluation of Daniel Eickhoff’s contribution to Paragon’s channel program, visit CRN’s 2012 Channel Chief Listing.

Paragon’s Daniel Eickhoff Recognized as 2012 Channel Chief by CRN

UBM Channel’s CRN named Daniel Eickhoff, director of channel sales at Paragon, as a 2012 Channel Chief. CRN’s list of the most influential and powerful leaders in the IT channel recognizes those executives directly responsible for driving channel sales and growth within their organization, while promoting and defending the importance of the channel throughout the entire technology industry.

Channel Chiefs were chosen by UBM Channel editorial staff on criteria including policy and program innovations made during the past year, the amount of revenue their company generates through partners, their willingness to speak out publicly on behalf of the channel, and the number of years they have dedicated to channel activities.

“The 2012 Channel Chiefs list recognizes vendor executives dedicated to driving channel programs in the IT marketplace,” said Kelley Damore, VP, Editorial Director, UBM Channel.  “Being named a Channel Chief is one of the most prestigious honors in the technology industry. This year’s Channel Chiefs list offers tremendous insight into the who’s who of the channel. Top channel executives consistently ensure that the channel’s voice is heard when strategic decisions are being made and continually nurture mutually profitable relationships. We applaud the 2012 Channel Chiefs for their successful partner programs and strategies.”

Eickhoff focuses on evangelizing the company’s products by recruiting and training VAR partners, implementing best practices for channel success, and enabling partners to be successful with Paragon to grow their business. With over 10 years of channel experience and the ability to translate his partners’ needs and the customers’ requirements into a successful channel program, Eickhoff continues to build a strong reseller community.

“Receiving this award is a great honor, but much of the credit goes to everyone here at Paragon Software as well as our outstanding partners,” said Eickhoff. “Paragon has always embraced the indirect sales model, and over the past three years we restructured our sales, marketing and support organizations entirely around the channel. By the end of last year, we achieved our goal of over 95 percent of our business going through the channel.”

Paragon had another record year in 2011 thanks to signing 104 new VARs, the introduction of many new products, significant investments in strategic demand and lead generation to fuel the channel, and hiring several first-class channel managers to service our growing partner-base. “As a result, our existing partners were able to increase their Paragon revenue by an average of 25 percent, with many of our top partners growing by more than 50 percent,” said Eickhoff.

Selected by CRN’s editorial staff, the 2012 Channel Chiefs list is featured in the February issue of CRN Magazine and will be featured online at www.crn.com.

In 2011, Paragon Software Hard Disc Manager Suite earned PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award for the second year in a row, beating out both Symantec and Acronis.

New Product Spotlight: Align Your Drives on a Virtual Network with Paragon’s new Partition Alignment Tool

As newer 4K Advanced Format hard disk drives become more prevalent in the virtual environment, partition alignment issues continue to increase in frequency (especially, with machines running Microsoft XP and Server 2003) — and are now permeating the virtual environment. The problem of partition misalignment is that it causes slow write times and inefficient disk operations because the physical and the logical sectors are not aligned. The misalignment causes redundant read/write operations, thus putting unnecessary strain on the hardware. The Paragon Alignment Tool (PAT) ESX version follows on our partition alignment software technology in PAT 3.0, launched a few months ago for consumer products.

PAT ESX was developed to facilitate remote partition alignment of virtual systems. PAT ESX requires minimal virtual disk space (only 3 – 4MB per disk) to perform partition alignment with no need for additional space on the system for snapshots or copies of the processed volume. Should an unexpected interruption occur, the alignment operation can be continued without loss of data or need for restoration.

Click on the image to see a video on Paragon's partition alignment software for virtual environments

With the growing trend in resource consolidation through virtualization, we are seeing significant increases in the number of virtual servers and workstations. Due to the transition of the storage standard from 512B to 4K sectors, the appearance of partition misalignment and performance issues in these systems are increasing. Our customers’ need to resolve these issues is what drove the development of PAT ESX!

The partition alignment software provides easy and comprehensive management for virtual disk alignment operations. Installed on an administrator’s machine within the ESX environment, PAT ESX enables remote access to all virtual disks to check their state and perform alignments in an unattended mode. PAT ESX allows an administrator to browse data stores, select target virtual machines, and then connect to virtual disks to determine whether partition alignment is required. PAT then recommends alignment options if needed.

The Partition Alignment Tool Benefits include an increase virtual machine operations’ performance up to 300 percent, External control, management and alignment of dozens of virtual drives located on different virtual servers (no need to install on every virtual machine); and a decrease hardware costs by eliminating the need to have storage dedicated for migration functions.

To learn more about PAT for ESX, see our press release at Paragon Alignment Tool™ 3.0 for ESX® Now Available for Remote Partition Alignment in the Virtual Environment

Case Study Spotlight — Non-Profit HCJB Global Selects Paragon Disaster Recovery Software: Drive Backup Server and Virtual Editions

“We evaluated similar software solutions to cost-effectively backup our systems, but nothing came close to Paragon’s backup and recovery software.”

— Ron With, Network Administrator

HCJB Global is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing health services to disadvantaged people and promoting Christianity through its various media outlets. Like most non-profits, however, they have limited finances. When they needed to invest in disaster recovery software, they consulted with their information technology reseller; however they could offer nothing within their price range that could fulfill their needs. When HCJB Global conducted a search of its own for affordable backup and restore software, they came across Paragon Software Group’s Drive Backup Server and Virtual Editions.

Paragon Drive Backup is feature-rich, image-based backup and backup and  recovery software that protects data, minimizes downtime, and lowers data storage and management costs while ensuring business continuity through instant system recovery. Live server migration technology (P2V, V2P, V2V and P2P) makes conversions easy and allows you to leverage virtual environments for powerful and flexible disaster recovery strategies.

“When we compared Paragon’s Drive Backup software to the other solutions recommended by our consultant, nothing came close for the price — it offered an intuitive interface, auto-scheduler, and ultimately peace of mind,” stated Ron With, network administrator for HCJB Global. Drive Backup provided cost-effective backup and restore software features for HCJB, including virtual backup and restore, automated scheduling, and an intuitive interface.  To read the case study in its entirety, visit Non-Profit HCJB Global Selects Paragon Software’s Drive Backup Server and Virtual Editions to Ensure Business Continuity.