Veeam Software is banking on its channel partners to reach its turnover target of $1 billion by 2018.
The company has enhanced its EMEA ProPartner Programme, which it says will enable partners to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the needs of the always-on business.
According to data centre solutions provider, the additions to the programme focus on enhancing partners' hosting ability through the restructuring of the Veeam Cloud Provider (VCP) programme. It says the VCP programme grew by 106% worldwide in the last year and is made up of 6 800 partners, of which 3 400 are based in EMEA.
Warren Olivier, regional manager of Veeam Southern Africa, says the company has over 530 partners in Southern Africa. "We don't only manage the South African region, but also work with the channel in sub-Saharan Africa, all the way into East and West Africa.
"We rely on our partners to offer cloud services that use Veeam technologies, technical implementation of our software-as-a-service offering and act in the role as trusted adviser with regards to availability for the modern data centre.
"Veeam is 100% channel-centric, and we see the channel as an extension of our own salesforce. We would not be where we are today without our partners."
Under the new VCP programme, the partner level is now based on the number of customer virtual machines (VMs) protected or managed with Veeam. Platinum, gold and silver levels each require the VCP partner protect or manage a minimum number of VMs, with a paid edition of a Veeam product.
The company has also added a new partner level - Veeam Cloud Connect - which it says will help partners build additional revenue and enter the fast-growing data protection-as-a-service market.
"In the current always-on economy, organisations have to review their data availability strategy," says Gilles Pommier, vice-president of channel and cloud EMEA, Veeam Software. "Businesses are embracing the cloud as a means to increase business agility, yet concern remains over application and data security as well as availability."
The enhanced EMEA ProPartner programme includes improved training and resources, the company notes, adding it now offers online sales and technical courses on its flagship Availability Suite v8 at Veeam University.
"Veeam sees its trusted partners as an extension of its own sales team," adds Pommier.
"Historically we have worked very closely with our ProPartners to equip them with the tools and capabilities they need to grow as Veeam experts. With the latest additions to Veeam's training programme, our partners will be more knowledgeable and prepared than ever to better serve our 135 000 customers worldwide.
"Veeam is on track for a $1 billion turnover by 2018 and we look forward to our partners helping us achieve these goals," Pommier concludes.
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