Commvault Adds New MSP Partner Program with Specific Pricing

Commvault just introduced an MSP partner program that the company said gives managed service providers specific pricing and more flexibility. The new program, which went live Wednesday, is an extension of Commvault’s Partner Advantage.

John Tavares, Commvault’s global channel chief, told Channel Futures that the company started building out the program last year. While many of Commvault’s partners deliver its solutions as managed services, the company has made piecemeal arrangements with them. But Commvault has spent the past year creating a program that would give partners predictable pricing, Tavares said.

Tavares emphasized that it is an additive component to Partner Advantage, rather than a completely new program.

“We’re really announcing a framework that sits inside of our current existing program framework that captures MSPs specifically with MSP specific-benefits,” he said.

Besides providing specific subscription rates, the program will let partners achieve tiers based on the recurring revenue they generate. The MSP program will also include MDF, and a partner portal designed for MSPs went live Wednesday.

A large portion of Commvault’s partner-led sales are shifting from customers buying perpetual licenses to subscription-based services, Tavares said. By 2023, Commvault is forecasting that two-thirds of total revenue will come from partners delivering managed services.

Commvault’s John Tavares

“Partners are seeing that fundamental shift,” Tavares said. “Their customers are demanding it and they’re driving it. That voice is a big piece of what led us here to this announcement.”

Among those Commvault partners who have seen greater demand for managed services is Craig Hurley, director product management and strategy for the managed services business at Sirius.

Sirius’ Craig Hurley

“Our clients want to consume everything as a service, everything in an opex model,” Hurley said. “The way they’re now approaching their licensing with a utility-based approach, we don’t have to approach every year in terms of capacity from a capital perspective and then have to address the ongoing maintenance.”

When customers choose backup and disaster recovery as a service, the sales process is faster, according to Hurley. A typical customer may purchase several hundred terabytes of backup capacity, and in some cases petabytes, Hurley said. When that involves leasing or capital loans, it is an extended process.

“Opex definitely does shorten the sales cycle,” he said.

MSP Program Available to Metallic

The MSP program will initially appeal to partners who provide managed services with the flagship Commvault data protection portfolio. But Commvault is also priming partners who also deliver its Metallic SaaS solutions. Later this year, Commvault plans to roll out a Metallic service designed for delivery by MSPs.

“It’s going to bring a much more streamlined operational experience for our partners around automated billing, consumption and all the foundational frameworks that a service provider needs in order to run their business profitably and efficiently,” Tavares said. “We think it is going to really give the ability for our partners to scale just based on what we’ve built into the software, in terms of its ability to really capture velocity.”

Building an Ecosystem for Aggregators

Commvault also launched a program for MSPs that procure through aggregators, online marketplaces that bundle multiple vendors’ products. According to Tavares, aggregators offer economies of scale otherwise inaccessible to MSPs.

“If you’re going after a small business, and they need data protection, plus three or four other managed services that have nothing to do with Commvault, they’ll give a one-stop shop, to a managed service provider, where all everything’s already pre-negotiated and pre-packaged,” Tavares said.

Commvault lists only a handful of aggregators in its partner finder, all of which are tied to specific countries. Among them include various divisions of Arrow, CMS Distribution, Crayon, First Distribution, Pinnacle, Synnex and Westcon. Tavares described its aggregator partners as active extensions of Commvault’s partner network that provide expanded marketing for its portfolio.

“Aggregators centralize all necessary information about a service, like our Intelligent Data Services platform, execute the licensing and contract agreements, and then sell access to licensing for these Commvault Powered services to their MSP partners,” he said. “They help scale Commvault and our business by expanding marketing for our solutions, extending reach, and enhancing the number of customers we can support together.”