Technology Reseller - v23

01732 759725 26 INTERVIEW In the second part of our interview with Jamie Farrelly, VP of EMEA Channels at Veritas Technologies, he explains why he prefers a ‘less is more’ approach to channel development Selling solutions That said, Farrelly did confirm that Veritas will not be shedding partners that are incompatible with this approach. “While we are focusing on partners that have the capability and enterprise to take this holistic message to market, there will always be partners – certainly within our mid-market – and customers that just want to protect their data, and we are here for that as well,” he said. “We will always sell solutions that address a problem, like ransomware. We will still go to market with a protection message around ransomware, but at the same time our focus will be on partners that are able to deliver both that specific message to enterprises and that wider message as well.” Adding value Farrelly said that Veritas Technologies has around 70 Platinum partners in EMEA for which it has been attempting to add value through joint education schemes and other initiatives. “Last year, for example, by modifying our certification process, we achieved a more than 300% increase in certifications with those partners. Our partners are really starting to invest back into Veritas to drive growth across the region in the mid-market and enterprise,” he said. “In the enterprise space, there are probably 10 or 12 partners that drive the majority of our business. They include service providers, system integrators and value-added resellers – players like CC, Fujitsu and SCC that have been really Following the launch of Veritas Technologies’ Enterprise Data Services Platform, a unified set of solutions designed to take the complexity out of data protection (see issue 22), Technology Reseller asked VP of EMEA Channels Jamie Farrelly what impact the new platform would have on the company’s channel strategy. Would Veritas be recruiting more resellers? Would resellers need to change their sales approach? He explained that he prefers a ‘less is more’ approach to channel recruitment and that his main priority is not to recruit more partners but to focus on those that are ‘capable and committed’ to Veritas and its integrated platform and able to communicate the platform’s value in addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by the explosion of data, data fragmentation, the need for data agility, data compliance and data visibility. “Over the last year, we have been working hard to increase our capabilities with partners through education and certification to enable them to take this concept to market and to enhance their profitability. Instead of selling a point product, they will be talking about how to solve big problems. Once you have those types of C-level conversation, price becomes less of a consideration – it’s more about business risk and continuity of data,” he said. “The partner programme right now is really focused on making fewer, bigger bets with partners that are capable and committed, rather than looking to recruit hundreds of partners that potentially will only be interested in selling product.” Less is more Jamie Farrelly VMWare release Since launching its Enterprise Data Services Platform in June, Veritas has announced the Enterprise Data Services Platform for VMware environments running on-premises or in any of the major clouds, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. The unified set of technologies, including NetBackup, Veritas InfoScale and APTARE IT Analytics, enables VMware users to: n Manage the availability of business-critical services at the application layer; n Leverage flexible data protection with granular or at-scale recovery irrespective of where or in what cloud VMware runs; and n Gain analytics and operational insights into VMs and cloud instances, with a single view across on-premises, hybrid and multi-cloud IT environments. www.veritas.com/abstraction successful in transitioning from on- premise solutions to a hybrid, multi-cloud approach.” In this context, Farrelly pointed out that Veritas Technologies benefits from technology alliances with many of the biggest players in the cloud, including AWS, Microsoft (with Azure), Pure Storage and Nutanix. “Strategic technology alliances with these companies help us to execute against our goals and give value in those areas,” he said. Mid-market plans While the enterprise might be the focus for much of Veritas Technologies’ channel development, this does not mean that it has given up on the mid-market. “Companies in the mid-market have many of the same security challenges as enterprises and they need to use technology in the same way an enterprise does,” Farrelly explained. “For example, in the enterprise we drive NetBackUp from a protection perspective and in the mid-market we drive Backup Exec. Functionality is similar, but the latter is deliberately designed for the mid- market. The price point and how we go to the market through MSPs and large access resellers changes our route to market, but the protection is similar.” Farrelly said that the need for scale means that Veritas Technologies tends to address the mid-market through large access resellers like Insight and Comparex, which was recently acquired by SoftwareONE. “Those partners are absolutely key to our strategy, because they give us customer scale with value-add at the same time, which is increasingly important. It’s not just about buying products; it’s about understanding customer problems and solving them,” he said.