Veeam cloud programme outpacing traditional partner programme

Vendor expects its cloud programme to bring in over 25 per cent of its business by 2018

Veeam Software expects its dedicated cloud programme to bring in more than 25 per cent of business by 2018, outpacing sales generated by its traditional partner programme.

The vendor's Cloud and Services Provider (VCSP) programme has seen EMEA rental revenue increase by 78 per cent annually in Q1 this year.

At the moment 15 per cent of Veaam's business goes through the cloud programme, with the remaining 85 per cent going through the traditional partner programme, but channel sales director for the UK and Ireland Mark Johnson expects this to increase in the next two years.

Johnson told CRN that the programme is outpacing Veeam's traditional partner programme.

"The growth rate is phenomenal," Johnson said. "Although the current business is growing at a rapid rate, this is out-accelerating it."

Vice president for EMEA Olivier Robinne added that he expects Veeam's cloud business to grow in the triple digits year on year for at least the next three years.

"This is our vision," Robinne told CRN. "Within the next three, five, 10 years, everything will be cloud."

There are currently just over 5,900 service providers in Veeam's EMEA VCSP network and the vendor expects this to increase following the introduction of disaster recovery plans to the programme.

The programme enhancement has been driven by research that suggests more than 50 per cent of disaster recovery plans will use cloud by 2018.

Johnson explained that as the technology becomes more readily available, it will become an increasingly popular solution, with the costly process of building a second datacentre being the only alternative.

"It's common sense," he said. "It's like having a second car on your drive in case you have a car accident. You don't have a second car on the drive; you take out car insurance."

Having this cloud-based solution as an insurance policy allows end users to have a fail-safe in the event of a disaster, he added.

As a whole, Veeam claims to be well on course to reaching its target of $1bn annual revenue by 2018, with last year's revenue just under $500m.

Its growth since its launch in 2006, and selling its first licence in 2008, is a result of its innovative way of selling its product, Johnson explained.

"We have changed the game in the way that people sell products," he said. "Most organisations charge their customers around the amount of data, so you pay per terabyte of data. We don't license our business like that. We license it by your processing power, by your CPU.

"Organisations can't continue to pour more money into their data as their data grows," he added.