RHX: Good for Scalix, Good for our Customers and Good for Linux Adoption

Scalix was thrilled when we saw the plans for Red Hat Exchange (RHX) emerge from Raleigh. The Red Hat vision of ‘pre-baked’ solution suites and a single point of contact will drive risk and complexity out of the equation for businesses and make it easier for them to adopt business-critical Linux applications. Even more important to the customer equation is the channel component of RHX. VARs are particularly important to the deployment of Scalix’s email and calendaring products because of the number of applications from the desktop to the data center that all come together to form a customer’s total solution.

Scalix now has over 250 active resellers around the world selling and supporting our industry leading products. Resellers have deployed Scalix products in over 55 different countries around the world and represent our fastest growing sales segment. Yet this is a fraction of the resources that Red Hat can apply to the equation.

It was Red Hat’s vision of extending and embracing its channel programs with RHX subscription products that sold us on Red Hat Exchange. Red Hat-endorsed solution suites being sold by a highly trained and capable VAR channel will be a killer combination for our customers. Scalix VARs as well as existing Red Hat VARs will be equipped to sell RHX.

We have a particular challenge fulfilling the high volume of demand for our solution from small and medium size businesses. Businesses of this size want a robust email and calendaring solution but tend to have limited technical resources to devote to the adoption of new Linux applications. RHX gives those companies a pre-integrated solution suite backed by the resources of both Red Hat and Scalix. Red Hat has stepped up to the plate for all of us and will drive Linux adoption much deeper into organizations.

This marks another milestone in our worldwide channel expansion strategy. We have packaged a new subscription version of our award-winning Small Business Edition email and calendaring solution for sale on Red Hat Exchange. This new subscription product will be available for purchase on RHX this summer.

–Glenn Winokur, Scalix CEO