Barracuda: We are gaining traction among public cloud VARs

Barracuda's UK managing director says he wants to see more AWS, Microsoft and VMware partners adopt its technology

Barracuda Networks says it is gaining traction among VMware, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud resllers and is encouraging them to add its solutions to these cloud-based offerings.

Chris Ross, Barracuda's UK managing director, said that many of the company's storage and security solutions are compatible with public cloud providers and this is opening up more opportunities.

"One of the most exciting developments I see right now is the whole public cloud play," he said. "And one of the things Barracuda is focused on is making sure we have a solid solution stack that can play on Microsoft's Azure platform, Amazon's AWS platform and now on VMware's vCloud Air. This is a really interesting development for us as a company."

He said through this relationship with Microsoft, partners are able to benefit from Barracuda's security offerings with the Azure platform.

"We were one of the first, if not the first solution that was authorised onto the Azure platform, particularly around security solutions. This has enabled Microsoft partners to speed up time of deployment for applications onto Azure and provides solid security solutions.

"What that is doing is helping us to expand our reseller base. It's not a new solution stack, it's our current solutions but on a new platform. And that's enabling us to extend our reach into the market and continue to build out our reseller breadth."

Ross would not disclose specific Barracuda reseller numbers but said that the firm is seeing a "continued penetration into those resellers who are focused in the public cloud".

He added that he is looking to "go after" AWS, Microsoft and VMware partners and get them to add Barracuda to its portfolio.

"It's a great opportunity for those partners to include additional technology and solutions as they are talking about migrating to the public cloud."

Moving on up

In August, Ross told CRN's sister site Channelnomics Europe, he is looking for some of its partners to develop specialisations around security or storage.

Ross said that specialisation from some of its reseller base is key, as the back-up and security vendor moves from the SMB world to the mid-market and beyond.

"While a lot of people know Barracuda from an SMB focus, we are seeing success with larger opportunities, and we think there is room to continue to expand into these larger deployments," he said.

Ross said with these opportunities, Barracuda is looking for partners who can accommodate these kinds of deals.

"We are seeing some interesting deal wins that are probably much more complex deployments than before," he said. "So having the right partners who can architect those solutions and build them into bigger role outs is important for us.

"It's about increasing the skills and value of our SMB [partners] but also then looking to augment that by targeting some key specialist VARs, I guess either in security or storage. That will help to take us to the mid-market and larger customers."

In September Barracuda added CMS Distribution to its UK distribution line-up, after it decided to part company with Avnet in the UK and Netherlands in August.

Ross said that this addition of CMS is part of this strategy in developing these specialised VARs, which have expertise in either storage or security and can help the vendor win opportunities in bigger customers.