3PAR^® (NYSE: PAR), the leading global provider of utility storage, announced today a major expansion of the 3PAR Cloud-Agile Program to accommodate increased interest from hosting service providers experiencing substantial growth in the demand for cloud-based services. Originally launched in July of 2009, the 3PAR Cloud-Agile Program includes members that have built or are building agile and efficient cloud service delivery infrastructures using 3PAR InServ^® Storage Servers. Joining the program at the newly d “Business Partner” level are new US and UK partners as well as the first Cloud-Agile partners in Japan and South Africa. These new partners join existing 3PAR Cloud-Agile participants at the “Global Partner” level: Atta, CSC, DataPipe, Terremark, and Verizon Business.

New US partner is:

• Data Intensity, a leading service provider offering Oracle^® applications and professional services.

New UK-based partners include:

• Cloud computing specialist Carrenza Hosting, which built its cloud-based Utility Computing Services platform on 3cV, a solution that combines highly virtualized 3PAR Utility Storage with HP BladeSystem c-Class server blades and server virtualization software from VMware.
• Cloud-based storage solution provider Star.
• Top-ten UK hosting provider Ultraspeed, which uses 3PAR Utility Storage to support its Diskless platform.

Other new international partners include:

• NS Solutions, which operates a utility computing service called absonne and is the first Cloud-Agile Business Partner in Asia.
• UCS Solutions, a leading service provider for the retail vertical and the first Cloud-Agile Business Partner in South Africa.

“The ecotem for delivering cloud storage services is rapidly expanding. Some storage and tems vors have developed proprietary, private cloud channel offerings that directly compete with cloud service provider partners,” said Brad Nisbet, program manager for IDC Storage andamp Data Management Services. “Other vors, such as 3PAR, have made a strategic decision to focus solely on partnering with cloud service providers. The worldwide expansion of the 3PAR Cloud-Agile program allows a growing set of partners to target key market segments, such as small- and medium-sized enterprise, without creating a potentially competitive environment.”

“2009 showed us that companies of all sizes can benefit from adopting cloud-based services as a more economic and flexible native to traditional IT models,” said Dan Sutherland, CEO at Carrenza. “For us, 3PAR was the obvious provider for storage designed specifically for the cloud, so joining 3PAR Cloud-Agile and aligning our services more closely with 3PAR products is a strategic opportunity for us as well as our customers. Just as the Cloud-Agile name implies, using 3PAR storage has allowed us to make our cloud environment extremely flexible and increased our ability to meet the growing demand for our cloud-based services.”

Cloud-Agile was d to formalize go-to-market programs with 3PAR’s cloud service provider partners. In addition, the program was designed to raise awareness and demand for the cost and agility benefits of cloud computing services and to encourage the development of a robust cloud computing ecotem.

“On-demand business services from Star help UK businesses become more agile by accessing the 3PAR Utility Storage that is a major component of our service delivery platform. This means we can serve more customers more flexibly and with a greater level of responsiveness,” said John Adey, Chief Operating Officer from Star. “Joining 3PAR Cloud-Agile is a powerful way to promote awareness for the cost reduction and agility benefits of on-demand IT and communication services, while also growing our strategic relationship with 3PAR as we continue to scale our cloud-based service offerings.”

“NS Solutions has been delivering cloud computing IT infrastructure services under the name ‘absonne’ (Advanced Business Space ON NEtwork) since 2007,” said Yutaka Miyabe, Senior Executive Director for NS Solutions. “3PAR Utility Storage is the platform for us to deliver cloud services for our customers’ mission-critical tems. We are very excited to join the Cloud-Agile Program to strengthen the strategic partnership with 3PAR.”

Under the terms of the newly expanded 3PAR Cloud-Agile Program, partners at both the Business and Global levels receive a combination of sales enablement and joint marketing to increase selling opportunities and grow awareness of the benefits of cloud computing. In addition, partners receive expert technical training to enhance the quality of the cloud-based services they offer to customers. Under the program, participating providers have the opportunity to promote differentiated virtual private array (VPA) and disaster recovery (DR) offerings under the respective names 3PAR Cloud-Agile: SECURED and 3PAR Cloud-Agile: ASSURED.

“The opportunity to offer our customers value-added services through 3PAR Cloud-Agile is particularly attractive to us,” said Marc Caruso, Vice President, Service Management for Data Intensity. “Security, virtual private array, and disaster recovery offerings are excellent examples of differentiated services that we believe can not only help us expand our business, but which also meet a demand in the market which we’re seeing reflected in the needs of our growing customer base.”

3PAR Cloud-Agile partners maintain that, as 3PAR customers, 3PAR Utility Storage has helped them lessen facilities and infrastructure costs while significantly improving the agility of their infrastructures. In a recent survey of 3PAR’s service provider customers, 91% of IT organizations described their storage environment with 3PAR as more agile than their previous storage environment (Source: TechValidate).

Ultraspeed views 3PAR Utility Storage as a key element of our industry-leading Diskless platform, which allows us to offer our renowned 15-minute hardware replacement SLA, said Jordan Gross, Ultraspeed CEO. 3PAR plays a key role in the delivery of this Diskless platform, and therefore in the managed hosting solutions that we provide to our customers. We are delighted to be participating in the 3PAR Cloud-Agile Program.

3PAR Utility Storage has not only enhanced our service offering, but provided business agility and manageability to fundamentally change the way in which we deliver innovation to our clients,” said Nigel Herson, senior utive at UCS Solutions.

“Since launching 3PAR Cloud-Agile, we have received overwhelming interest in the program,” said David Scott, President and CEO for 3PAR. “The goals of 3PAR Cloud-Agile have always been to promote our strategic go-to-market partnerships, drive the adoption of cloud computing and cloud-based services offered by leading service providers with infrastructures powered by 3PAR Utility Storage, and build a mutually beneficial cloud ecotem. We believe that expanding the program not only increases its value but enhances our ability to drive to these goals.”