Silver Peak sniffing out new UK partners as part of its SD-WAN expansion plan
New EMEA channel sales director says refreshed partner programme irons out some of the kinks in previous model
Silver Peak is seeking 15 to 20 new UK partners in the next 12 months, according to Mike Kontowtt, director of channel sales for EMEA.
The hunt is part of its efforts to secure a bigger share of the growing software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) market.
Speaking to CRN on the launch of the vendor's refreshed partner programme, Kontowtt admitted that there was some confusion among partners with its previous model regarding tier names and revenue requirements.
"One of the simple changes we've undertaken is a standard naming process," he explained.
"The previous programme used names that caused a bit of confusion, so we've now gone with the standard Silver, Gold and Platinum levels.
"We've also made the accreditation requirements and the revenue levels that we are expecting for Gold and Platinum levels clearer for partners, in order for them to reach those tiers."
Kontowtt added that Gold- and Platinum-level partners will see rebates of up to 12 per cent based on new customer sales, with further benefits to be added in the near future.
The EMEA channel sales director has been in his role for 13 weeks and said that the region is a focus for the vendor as it seeks to accelerate its growth after a $90m (£69m) investment from private equity firm TCV in June.
Earlier this year, IDC predicted the SD-WAN market to reach $8bn by 2021, fuelled by enterprise deployment of cloud, big data and analytics and mobility.
Silver Peak claims to sell completely through the channel, and Kontowtt said that partners are key to the company's growth in the red-hot SD-WAN space.
"We see the channel as a key factor in enabling [us] to drive that growth as quickly as possible and to capture as much of the SD-WAN opportunity as we can," he said.
"We are investing in the channel; I've joined to lead the EMEA team and we are looking to recruit for sales roles - a lot of the investment is going into that area."