Veritas: Cloud Take-Up 'Through the Roof'
Veritas EMEA channel leader says there has been huge interest in its Alta cloud service since launching last year.
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Norman joined Veritas as vice president of EMEA channel and alliances in January 2023 after spending 13 years at BMC Software. He replaced Veritas veteran Geoff Greenlaw, who jumped to Pure Storage last summer.
Norman said one of his priorities in the role is improving communication to partners. This is especially relevant when conveying the benefits of Veritas’ cloud offerings, he said.
“Our partners have a new story. We’ve been around for 30 years with heritage backup, cybersecurity, etc. But there’s never been a new story. To have a cloud-related capability, suddenly all those workloads that you’ve moved into the cloud can be backed up in the same way.
“At the moment it’s making sure that everybody knows the story related to Veritas cloud and what we’re doing. Because it’s such a big shift.”
Around 95% of Veritas’ business goes indirect, said Norman, with the company’s growth “all anchored around partners.”
Last week Veritas announced a new MSP program to encourage take up of managed services among partners.
The Veritas Managed Service Provider Program offers MSPs a set of incentives, training and enablement, and pricing models to expand their managed services.
Norman said the program will provide greater strategic alignment with Veritas’ existing MSP partners. It will also offer the opportunity for new partners to deliver ‘outcomes as-a-service’ offerings to a wider group of enterprises.
The program focus on Veritas-powered backup-as-a-service, analytics-as-a-service and data recovery-as-a-service offerings. MSPs are offered subscription and consumption-based pricing options, in addition to commitment-based commercial models.
Qualifying Elite program partners will also be eligible for joint go-to-market initiatives and product roadmap engagements, solutions development workshops and incentives.
“Modernizing the route to market is key for us,” said Norman. “We’ve already got various partners who have traded through a managed service contract. It’s allowed partners to buy some software from us and use it with multiple customers. What we’ve done now is added an MSP element to the Partner Force Program. So that that includes existing MSP partners, but they get additional benefits.”
Additionally, Veritas said it has created a dedicated global team and carving out specific demand development funding for MSPs.
“We’ve been hiring new people to run that and investing in regions as well for people to have dedicated MSP team,” said Norman.
In fact, when it comes to layoffs plaguing the tech industry, Veritas says it is hiring, not firing. When it was acquired by the Carlyle Group in 2015, the company went through an “optimization exercise. ” This saw a lot of cost taken out of the business, leaving Veritas in a good position, said Norman.
Following the launch of Veritas Alta, the vendor has doubled rebates for partners transitioning to cloud. This is creating a healthy pipeline around deal registration for cloud, said Norman.
The exec is also eyeing what the competition are up to in terms of cloud operating models.
“We do all business through our partners,” he said. “The renewal goes through our partners. Some of our competitors who are cloud-focused, they don’t do that. It’s just new business. That’s becoming a little bit of a challenge for their partners.”
However, the challenge for Veritas is finding the right people within their partners to target with their cloud position.
“Even in our traditional partners, the people running the cloud, driving the cloud business, are different. They don’t necessarily know us. They sit in the same partner organization, but they might have been newly recruited or some of those people don’t report CRO, they report to the CFO. We have to make sure that we’re identifying who those people are having the conversations.
“We’re trying to develop that relationship with the partner,” said Norman.
Elsewhere, Veritas plans to run a ‘university’ event in Europe. It will feature “two or three days of education, enablement and workshops,” said Norman. “Partners want, in many cases now, face to face. They want interaction. They want personalization.
“We’re investing in some new platforms as well. So that we can have more content produced at the corporate level that partners can self-serve.”
Overall, Norman said his main priority in the channel leadership role is growing overall revenues for the company.
As part of that, Veritas is “supercharging” growth among its top tier of partners. Veritas’ Platinum partners now have an annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth target. If they hit an agreed ARR target, they receive a rebate.
“A lot of software vendors in the past have been focused on new, new, new, and that’s sometimes been at odds with partners. For them to have an ARR target has been viewed as very, very positive. [We’re also] taking the complexity out because of the way in which they get the rebates; it’s much more simplified.”
Norman said one of the reasons he joined the company is the growth mentality of the company. On that scale, he said “we’re smashing it.”
Overall, Norman said his main priority in the channel leadership role is growing overall revenues for the company.
As part of that, Veritas is “supercharging” growth among its top tier of partners. Veritas’ Platinum partners now have an annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth target. If they hit an agreed ARR target, they receive a rebate.
“A lot of software vendors in the past have been focused on new, new, new, and that’s sometimes been at odds with partners. For them to have an ARR target has been viewed as very, very positive. [We’re also] taking the complexity out because of the way in which they get the rebates; it’s much more simplified.”
Norman said one of the reasons he joined the company is the growth mentality of the company. On that scale, he said “we’re smashing it.”
There’s been huge interest in Veritas cloud services since launching last year, according to the company’s EMEA channel leader.
Last October the company launched Veritas Alta, a data management platform that helps enterprises transition workloads to the cloud. In May the vendor updated its Veritas Partner Force program. It includes enhanced rewards for cloud-based deals and a simplified transaction process as well as training and accreditation programs.
Veritas’ Oliver Norman
“In terms of the number of [partner] certifications, the barn door has been knocked off. Because there’s a new story,” said Veritas’ Oliver Norman.
“Normally you have to drag everybody to get certified. It’s one of the things that nobody ever wants to do. But the number of certifications is through the roof. We’re talking over 200% year-on-year.”
Channel Futures sat down with Norman to find out how the Veritas cloud is looking to pose a serious challenge to its rivals. Click on the slideshow above for more.
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