Veritas channel chiefs stick heads in the multi-cloud

CRN sits down with vendor's channel VPs at its Las Vegas conference to discuss the cloud, challenges for resellers, and if the magnitude of GDPR has sunk in yet

What is the latest activity from Veritas in terms of its channel approach?Barbara Spicek, vice president, global channel sales, Veritas: "One of the fascinating aspects right now is the fast innovation and evolution we are going through. We have been announcing new technologies over the past few months - we have launched seven new products in nine months. This has created massive new opportunities for channel partners. We have signed partnerships with all four major cloud providers in AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google and IBM. That provides an opportunity for our existing channel partners alongside working with the new born-in-the-cloud partners. Compliance and GDPR are major issues right now and many customers are only just realising how fast that is going to come around. So GDPR-readiness solutions are something we are pushing. We also have ready-made partner sales kits, which enables them to go out and promote. We hope all this helps channel partners move from their classic business to new opportunities."

Rick Fairweather, vice president, Americas partner organisation, Veritas: "We have created a set of incentives internally and we have then done the same thing with our partners. We want that alignment between our sales operation and our partners. Eighty-five per cent plus of our business goes through our channel partners. We have created rewards for partners delivering growth in certain product areas. We want to expand the opportunities for partners to deliver services around our multi-cloud products."

Are there any areas in particular where your channel partners are struggling?Spicek: "One future focus area for us is to help partners get into multi-cloud data management. If we look at that area from a partner perspective, we probably have a set number of partners that already have cloud practices they have built out. However, we still have a large number of partners that we need to help to bring onto this path. We will develop our partner programme to help them on that path. This is all a huge opportunity as those channel partners are all looking for differentiation and they want to develop managed services practices."

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Veritas channel chiefs stick heads in the multi-cloud

CRN sits down with vendor's channel VPs at its Las Vegas conference to discuss the cloud, challenges for resellers, and if the magnitude of GDPR has sunk in yet

You mentioned GDPR previously. How prepared are resellers on that front?Spicek: "In the US, there has been a realisation about how big compliance is going to be and that a lot of the customers US partners deal with have international operations. In the European landscape, there is obviously an even bigger realisation. However, our research shows that a very small percentage of customers are ready. This means that our partners see it as an opportunity, but there will be a lot of heavy lifting around education and skill sets to get those customers ready. We are looking at marketing kits which enable our partners to embrace that opportunity."

Fairweather: "All of this is expanding the scope of what we provide data visibility around. One of the big challenges for partners is that they are dealing with customers wrestling different storage architectures, so how do they maintain visibility across that? So wherever the data sits, we need to provide a single pane of glass to offer the visibility they need. While there is a lot of focus on GDPR, I would place GDPR under the umbrella of global compliance."

As the industry has evolved, have you seen the make-up of your channel partners change in recent years?Fairweather: "Many of our partners are transforming. They are developing new capabilities to stay competitive with the market and to keep up with the expectations of customers. At the same time, we are looking ahead at the changes we need to make with our portfolio. We need to be enabling our existing partners alongside identifying new partners. When it comes to new partners, the two primary aspects we are looking for are multi-cloud capabilities and as-a-service capabilities."

Spicek: "In terms of partners changing we have seen it with the big ones in the UK, which have all changed over the years in terms of adapting to the new waves of technology, often with a focus on managed services."

Finally, what are Veritas' future plans in the channel?Spicek: "One of the key highlights for our channel partners is our product approach. That is because we have gone well beyond the classic backup and recovery company. This means we have expanded the opportunity for our channel in compliance, in the cloud and around modernising data protection. We want to reward our partners, take them on a journey and ensure we have the right incentives in place."