‘We could see a 40 percent to 50 percent shift of traditional network deployments over to this Meter model in the next 24 to 36 months,’ says SageNet Vice President of Innovation Courtney Radke.
Meter’s new $100 million partner fund, which comes in the midst of the memory shortage and the legacy networking supply chain crisis, amounts to a perfect storm that is set to spark big growth of the disruptive Meter Network-as-a-Service platform, partners told CRN.
Courtney Radke, vice president of innovation for SageNet, a leading digital MSP based in Tulsa, Okla., said the $100 million fund combined with the current memory shortage and supply chain is a “perfect storm” moment for partners bringing the disruptive NaaS platform to customers.
“Based off everything we see in front of us and based off what we are not getting from some or our other partners, it will be a significant shift in our traditional network model to Meter,” said Radke. “We could see a 40 percent to 50 percent shift of traditional network deployments over to this Meter model in the next 24 to 36 months.”
Radke said Meter is providing “steady ground” in the midst of what has been a “season of non-predictability” around availability and pricing of network gear in the midst of the memory shortage and supply chain crisis.
Partners can create a network bill of material for customers with Meter in a day versus a week or more for traditional network offerings, which are facing supply constraints, said Radke. “That builds confidence for us and for the customer that we can get them something quickly, deploy it, support it and manage it at scale,” he said. “It is a perfect storm. It is definitely something that the partner community has noticed that has come at the right time, and I think it is taking the rest of the OEM community by storm as well and everybody is taking notice.”
Ramping Up Production To Beat Legacy Vendors
Meter Vice President of Sales Adam Ulfers, for his part, said Meter has “ramped up production” of its networking gear to meet growing demand even as competitors have slowed down production in the wake of rising memory prices.
“A lot of our competitors are increasing prices every single day; some of them are increasing prices after customers have signed deals,” said Ulfers. “What Meter is doing is we are ramping up our production as others are slowing down or stopping their lines. We want to offer these partners a way that they can bring a solution to their customer that is in desperate need of a network refresh, where today it is becoming less and less economically viable for them because of what is happening in the industry across memory and product price points.”
Radke said the innovative Meter platform and big channel investment comes with traditional legacy networking providers struggling to innovate. “Even before the chip shortage we were seeing our traditional partners struggling to bring new exciting products to market, and the products that were being brought to market weren’t meeting our core customers’ needs,” he said. “We were being asked by our customers, ‘When is this product that has been promised for years going to be here to solve my problems?’ Customers also do not want to shell out significant capital to do a refresh. Meter provides a predictable OpEx model with the way you size it being so simple.”
Meter’s channel investment is a game-changer for partners with funding for sales enablement, training and even buyback for existing customer networking gear, said Radke. “This is big for us,” he said. “We get to go to our customers and tell them, ‘You have a level of credit to buy back hardware. Why not now? You can now have some confidence that the hardware you need is not limited by a chip shortage and you don’t have to put out a significant capital outlay. Why not now? The migration is handled by us as a trusted partner. Why not now?’”
Proving To Partners Meter Is ‘Serious’ About Disrupting The Market
Ultimately, the Meter investment is answering the question: “Is Meter serious about bringing big disruption to the networking market?” said Radke. “It really proves to us and the partner community that they are serious,” he said. “They are leaning in, and we are going to lean back. This is a significant opportunity to really shake up the market.”
Sean LeFebvre, senior vice president of sales and general manager of Laguna Hills, Calif.-based Data Center Warehouse (DCW), a CRN triple Crown winner, said the disruptive NaaS technology combined with the Meter channel commitment is “unmatched” and “unprecedented” in his 25 years in the channel.
Meter is opening up a NaaS market opportunity that is expected to grow from $15 billion in 2024 to $137 billion in 2032 to DCW and other partners, said LeFebvre. “That is a nine-times increase,” he said. “That’s something VARs like us want to get in front of. We want to start pivoting into managed recurring revenue. It’s a predictable revenue stream. It’s perfect timing for VARs like us that want to help our customers get more efficient in the way they are utilizing their budgets and how they are implementing technology. Meter’s technology stack is amazing and as they continue to push forward, it is very, very compelling.”
LeFebvre said the Meter investment comes with partners facing pressure from the supply chain crisis. “The global supply chain constraints are really stressing the channel,” he said. “It is such an unpredictable landscape right now. With the program Meter is providing to partners, you have predictability built into your revenue and profitability stream. That is what we are all about. I’m super excited about this model.”
A 100 Percent Channel Model
What’s more, LeFebvre said, Meter has proven its channel mettle with a 100 percent channel model. “It’s a 100 percent channel- driven solution,” he said. “They don’t have a hard deck like the big guys who cut the channel out when it comes to enterprise customers. Meter is all in with the channel. It could be a Fortune 100 company, a midmarket company or a small school. It doesn’t matter. They are all in with the channel—100 percent.”
One of the big investments Meter is making with the $100 million investment is a dedicated business development representative for DCW that will evangelize the Meter offering to sales reps and customers. “That provides someone fully invested in driving the conversation daily,” he said. “You need that resource. It’s a unique conversation. It has nuances so you have to have someone capable of articulating those nuances to the customer. The investment of a funded head across the channel with multiple VARs is the way to go.”
LeFebvre compared the disruptive networking model that Meter is bringing to the market to the paradigm shift that VMware created when it brought its virtualization technology to the market at the turn of the century.
“It took some time for the CIOs, CFOs and CTOs to get their arms around virtualization; it is very similar with Meter in terms of how they are bringing an integrated [NaaS] network stack with WAN and LAN integrated in their offering,” he said. “When you have something this revolutionary, you need to have the channel and partners like us that have relationships to put them front and center to get this message across. That is the power of the channel. It doesn’t surprise me they are looking to invest in partners to drive this [NaaS] conversation further.”
Driving Sales Growth With Proofs Of Concept
LeFebvre expects DCW to drive about $10 million to $15 million, or about 20 percent of its networking business, to the Meter NaaS offering over the next 12 months.
To drive that sales growth, DCW is aiming to do 50 to 75 proofs of concept (POCs) for customers this year. The proofs of concept are driving a big win rate, said LeFebvre. “The POCs are the icing on the cake,” he said. “It’s the ability for them to be in a customer’s IT environment without any cost to the customer.”
DCW has won big deals with several traditional customers who were resistant to the NaaS model until they experienced Meter in proof-of-concept scenarios, said LeFebvre. “It was no cost to the customer—we asked them to give it a try and after testing the solution for four months both are moving to a Meter environment in 2027,” he said. “That four months of investment resulted in two full-fledged Meter engagements. We are doing a lot of [customer] heat mapping with Meter to get these proofs of concept in these environments as quickly as possible so we can have more of these successes.”
DCW has found time and time again that Meter is willing to step up with big investments to prove it has a better platform than legacy network providers, said LeFebvre.
DCW recently closed a big Meter deal with a customer that had a security firewall license renewal and was not convinced the Meter firewall would prove to be as secure, said LeFebvre. Meter stepped up to cover the cost of the license renewal running in parallel with the Meter offering.
“That was a $30,000 investment Meter put forward to stand behind their solution and to show the customer that its product was better than the incumbent environment,” said LeFebvre. “Ultimately, the customer went to the full Meter solution. That is a good example of where the Meter $100 million investment is going to go into, helping customers see the value Meter is bringing to them. This is very exciting for partners like us. This is something I have been looking forward to.”
Meter Is Putting Its Money Where Its Mouth Is
Drew Lydecker, co-founder and president of Avant Communications, the Chicago-based technology services distributor, which has built up a multibillion-dollar recurring revenue business with thousands of trusted advisers, said Meter is poised to “disrupt the entire networking world” with its breakthrough NaaS OpEx-based model.
“This is a very disruptive company that is putting their money where their mouth is,” he said. “They are going to create enablement, new strategy and growth targets with this fund. The majority of trusted advisers have never dealt with the true network world of hardware. This is a brand-new vertical for all of us. They have made it simple by putting this into a monthly recurring revenue model like everything else we do. Meter has realized that the monthly recurring revenue channel, the folks doing OpEx, are leading this revolution that Meter is creating. It is one of the most exciting vendors we have seen come along.”
Lydecker said he sees Meter as a “potential billion-dollar partner” for Avant following in the footsteps of trusted adviser favorites like unified communications provider Zoom and colocation data center provider Equinix. “It’s going to be huge,” he said. “This is one of the most disruptive companies in the market. We believe in [Meter founders [CEO] Anil [Varanasi] and [CTO] Sunil [Varanasi] and what they are building. They are hiring some of the best talent in this market. They are building simplicity at scale through the TA [technology adviser] movement. It is now our job to use this $100 million commitment available to qualified partners to scale this even faster and to go after the opportunity in the networking world. Think about how many networking contracts are coming up over the next three years with some of the blue-chip [networking vendors] that have been around forever. We are going to attack that.”
