Riverbed taking 'unique and disruptive' approach with partners, claims UK channel boss

The business has its sights set on the estimated $19bn observability market as part of its channel strategy

clock • 3 min read
Riverbed taking 'unique and disruptive' approach with partners, claims UK channel boss

Riverbed claims it is taking a "unique and disruptive approach" to its UK channel strategy, as it believes that other observability offerings in the market are not up to scratch.

Riverbed' head of alliances and channel sales for the UK and Ireland has said unified observability solutions are in "high demand" in the region.

Kirsten MacGregor outlined that it is working with partners to take a disruptive approach, with the company investing in partners to ensure "they're protected in those opportunities and that they're making enough margin".

Riverbed's products consist of software and hardware focused on unified observability, network visibility and end user experience management.

MacGregor said the investments made through R&D have "really allowed us to become strategic to a larger pool of partners".

"We need to remain relevant, which is why we keep updating our partner programme to ensure that the partners working with us are benefiting from that," she told CRN.

"I can confidently say that together with our partners we're taking a unique and disruptive charge at unified observability."

Riverbed announced in May the availability of the Beta programme for its cloud native, SaaS-delivered AlluvioTM Unified Observability solution, which it claims transforms data and alerts that lack context into "actionable insights to empower all IT skill levels to solve problems quickly".

MacGregor said the vision for it in the UKI is to capture "full fidelity" data, claiming that other market offerings available to customers can be improved upon.

She said: "The idea of unified observability is to solve one of the industry's most daunting problems which is providing seamless digital experience that are high performing and secure in this hybrid world of highly distributed users and applications.

"What we had seen in the market was offerings that either sampled data, which obviously leaves IT blind to potential issues or opportunities for proactive improvement. Or we were seeing offerings around this newly coined full stack observability solutions, which fails to capture all relevant user network and application telemetry to effectively troubleshoot.

"The vision of Alluvio Unified Observability is to capture full fidelity data. That's what's key: full fidelity data on every transaction across the digital ecosystem whether that's networks, applications or end user experience and then applying artificial intelligence to provide those actionable insights and intelligent automation."

The business has its sights set on the observability market, worth an estimated $19bn, in the UKI as part of its channel strategy.

With over 90 per cent of transactions being completed through the channel, MacGregor highlighted it is "an extension of the Riverbed team" and is "integral" to its success.

She said: "We're seeing growth and high demand for our Unified Observability and acceleration solutions. So, by partnering with us, the channel is able to capitalise on that growth as well and then become more profitable.

"We're always striving for ways in which we can mutually ensure beneficial programmes and business strategies with our partners."

Alex Thurber, customers, field operations and channel strategy executive leader, said Riverbed is also looking to expand its different offeringsin the channel with it being its "primary route to market".

He said: "We've had the classic resale two-tier one-tier resale model and we've had little bits and pieces with global system integrators and MSPs.

"What we're doing now is really formalising that and expanding the different ways that channel partners can work with us. As we look at moving into this new technology and expanding our customer base, depending on the customer, they need more or less support from us and more and more or less support from the channel.

"We wanted to make sure that we're there providing those opportunities."

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