Vendor: Resellers must 'embrace the shift' to cloud
VP of marketing for firm suggests the channel must now 'educate themselves and their customers'
Describe your company in five words or fewer.
Cloud-delivered SD-WAN company
Tell us about how your channel program works.
The VeloCloud Registered Partner Program consists of four tiers (Platinum, Gold, Silver and Pay as you Grow). Each tier is based on the annual sales investment a given partner is willing to commit. Varying benefits are available to each tier based on those commitment levels, with Platinum receiving the highest level.
Based on the tier, the following elements are included: a program discount on the VeloCloud solution, partner enablement training through webinars and hands-on labs, access to sales leads, access to the partner portal and market development funds.
What do you think is the most challenging trend in the channel today?
The most challenging trend in the channel today is two-fold: 1) Adapting to a new business model driven by cloud migration and the advent of software-defined technologies and SaaS solutions, and 2) Educating an existing customer base about new transformational solutions, such as SD-WAN.
If you had to give your channel partners one piece of advice, what would it be?
There is a significant shift taking place in the industry towards software-defined, cloud-based technologies, which offer a compelling value proposition and dramatically alter the business and revenue generation model for channel partners. VeloCloud would advise channel partners to embrace the shift taking place and to educate themselves and their customers.
I would also note that partners who adapt to the evolving landscape and take leadership in educating and helping customers with the transition will reap great long term returns.
What are the three most important things partners need from vendors to be successful?
1. Ensuring the proper design, implementation and deployment strategies based on the channel partners' infrastructure and customer base.
2. Go-to-market support in establishing a differentiated strategy and market exposure amplification.
3. A holistic approach to enablement that ensures that all teams are properly trained and certifie, including sales, solution architects, sales engineers, field install, support and cloud operations teams.
What is your favorite conference location?
Las Vegas. It is a convenient location with easy accessibility and capacity, and events held there typically attract a large target audience. Also, there are many things to offer conference attendees outside of the conference site.
What IT trends do you expect to see dying out over the next 18 months to two years?
The shift to cloud-based and cloud-delivered technologies and increasing use of virtual network functions will see hardware intensive, single-function, private-connectivity-dependent devices decline over the next couple of years.
Bio:
Michael Wood is VP of worldwide marketing for VeloCloud, leading the company's market strategy and SD-WAN penetration initiatives.
Prior to joining VeloCloud in 2015, he was the VP of product management and marketing for Akamai Technologies for three years. Before Akamai Technologies, Wood was VP of product management and marketing for Epitome Apps after leaving a 15-year tenure with Cisco that most recently included a position as director of product management and marketing for the integrated services routers, mobility, unified communications and collaboration group.
Wood also holds several advisor positions with investor firms and incubation groups.