AMD Boosts Commercial Systems Channel

Published: April 5, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Last October, chip maker AMD created a marketing and technology program to boost knowledge about and use of Athlon and Opteron processors among commercial systems manufacturers ranging from PC makers on up to enterprise-class servers. This program has been instrumental in the rapid rise of the Opteron in the data center, and AMD is now boosting the channel initiative to get even more people pushing Opteron-based solutions.

According to Michael O'Brien, AMD's director of worldwide commercial channels, AMD has more than 500 partners registered with the Commercial Systems Channel Program, which means sales of Opteron and Athlon machines is not just limited to the top tier server and workstation makers who have embraced AMD's 64-bit processors because of the performance and thermal advantages they offer compared to current Intel Pentium and Xeon designs. Intel is, of course, getting its act together, and will be in a position to better compete when its "Woodcrest" dual-core, 64-bit, low-power Core processors start shipping in the third quarter. So AMD needs to expand its channel as fast as it can and enlighten channel partners as to why the coming "Rev F" Opterons will still have competitive advantages over the Woodcrest chips.

O'Brien says that since last October, some 20,000 sales and technical experts within the workforces of these 500 partners have been exposed to Opteron and Athlon technologies in one form or another, either through Webinars, lunch-and-learn sessions, or visiting solution centers at leading channel partners in North America. O'Brien says further that AMD has placed systems in solution centers in North America, and it is now rushing to get machines into the hands of key solution partners in the United Kingdom, China, India, Japan, and a number of other hot areas around the globe. And, AMD is now making it easier to participate. The company has added a Web portal that allows channel partners to self-register and post their solutions as well as to tap into various resources to help them develop their solutions and make the world aware of them.

O'Brien says that there will be two levels of accounts in the channel program--those that are managed directly by AMD and those that are more or less self-managed with a low amount of touch from AMD. AMD's goal is to eventually reach 500 to 1,000 of managed partners in the channel program, and there is no cap on the total number of partners AMD is chasing overall. "It's a lot more about the quality of the partnering, not the quantity," explains O'Brien. "As is the case with all channel programs, if we remunerate everybody in the program, the value of that remuneration goes incrementally down." Still, the larger number of companies who participate at a lower level in the channel program, the better the odds that as companies grow, they can make enough dough to attain higher status with AMD.