Barracuda looking to snap up 100 UK partners next year

Security vendor aims to reach $1bn revenue in five years

Security vendor Barracuda has its sights set on recruiting 100 channel partners in the UK by the end of 2017, in an effort to double the size of its UK business by 2018.

The vendor has traditionally focused on web and email security, but in the last year it has moved to concentrate on security, storage and public cloud applications. This year it added security and backup applications for Office 365 to its portfolio.

Its new vice president sales for Northern Europe, Paul Lyden - who joined the company in July - said that the changing focus of the business has been caused in the main by customers switching to the public cloud.

"Traditionally, Barracuda has delivered various types of IT to small and medium-sized businesses," he said. "That's what people know us for. The challenge we have now is that the market is changing, because customers are getting more complex, so their security needs are getting more complex. Customers are also moving more to the public cloud. That is driving what we need to do from a channel point of view; we need different partners with different skills, in different markets."

Barracuda currently has around 850 registered partners in the UK, around 50 of which are active partners. Lyden said his goal is to have 150 active partners in the next year.

"I need to turn that 50 active into 150 active, because in the next two years I need to double my business," he explained. "That 100 then fuels my business growth in the next two years. As a corporation, worldwide, within five years we want to be a $1bn company. We have doubled the size of our sales team in the UK. We have hired some dedicated people for public cloud, and that is where the growth in partners will come from."

In its fiscal year 2017 Q2, ending 31 August 2016, the vendor had GAAP net income of $2.4m (£1.9m), compared with a net loss of $2.2m the year prior. Its revenues were £87.9m, up 12 per cent year on year.

Barracuda goes to market through Wick Hill, CMS and Commtech in the UK. All three distributors will be charged with recruiting new partners in the coming year, with a particular focus on security and data protection experts.

"We need partners who are security experts and data-protection experts. With every attack there is going to be a need to make sure you have a backup and recovery process. We also need partners who understand public cloud. We are recruiting partners who are active on Azure and AWS platforms and have a need to deliver security solutions to their customers," Lyden added.

"When you are supplying into the SMB marketplace you can buy everything through a single supplier. It's OK to have a fulfilment channel, because their job is to ship lots and lots of units to lots and lots of customers. As you move up and your customers' needs become more complex, you need a partner who can engage with that partner and better understand their requirements. As we scale up to more enterprise -type customers, so the need for the partner changes."

As a corporation, worldwide, within five years we want to be a $1bn company

Barracuda VAR Inframon's managing director Sean Roberts said that the vendor's increased focus on cloud has helped the VAR to sell a more complete solution to its customers.

"We came across Barracuda because they were pretty quick into the market with providing these cloud based appliances that met our customers' needs. They are set up to be able to work more agile with partners like Inframon. Absolutely noticed increased focus on cloud. They are taking a lot of interest in companies like us because we are right in that sweet spot for them. They have given us a lot of help and assistance, joint go- to-market and joint marketing activities etc." he said.

"We are a Microsoft CSP so what [Barracuda collaborating with Microsoft] has done is in the past the channel was set up so that the people who sold or transacted these types of product were not necessarily the same sets of people who architected and consulted and recommended around those products. The coming together of Barracuda and Microsoft's CSP programme enables us to be able to present an end-solution to our customers which includes all the licensing and all the support, security and hosting services around it."

Jonathan Lassman, managing director of Epaton, a Barracuda VAR, said that while the move to focus more on public cloud is a good decision for the vendor, he believes in order to really appeal to its channel Barracuda needs to change its model to include product refreshes.

"The product that fits really well with the channel is the Office 365 stuff. Their appliance business isn't great for the channel. Moving towards the cloud is a good move for them, but it is a fraction of their other business. They need to think about a refresh programme for their partners. Their sales would go through the roof if they did," he said.

"They need to change the way they sell their product. Giving you free replacements at year four doesn't bode well with a channel sale. The channel likes a refresh programme. Barracuda have never done a refresh; they've never done an end-of-life on their products. I think that until they start embracing an end-of-life programme for older equipment, it is less attractive to a channel sales model."