Changes at NetApp Paying Off, Says Channel Leader

Changes to NetApp’s channel strategy are paying off, says Sonya Mathieu, the company’s channel lead for UK & Ireland.

“We really listened to the feedback that we had 18 months ago. We made a lot of changes,” she told Channel Futures.

For NetApp’s channel partners, those changes include a rise in rebates paid out, new distribution agreements and a focus on developing relationships with top-tier partners. The latter has seen notable growth in NetApp’s managed partner business in the first half of this year.

NetApp’s strategy, said Mathieu, is to “double down on the people that are really doubling down with us. We’ve seen significant growth, and which helps us drive relevance within those partners.”

Mathieu said the increase in rebates is focused on NetApp’s secure SAN offering — ASA.

“The incentives are very lucrative,” she said. “That’s one of our core pillars; we want to drive profitable business for our partners. [ASA] is where we want to take market share, and we need our partners to help us do that," she said.

“I’ve had comments from some of our bigger partners: ‘Is this really true? Are you actually going to pay us this for this?’ And yeah, absolutely, I’ve seen the checks," Mathieu added.

She also highlighted “big changes” in NetApp’s distribution relationships this year. The company recently announced a new agreement with Exclusive Networks – it’s first new distributor signing this decade – to help NetApp home in on cybersecurity opportunities.

Related:NetApp Updates Enterprise Storage Lineup, Teams with Red Hat

“What’s really interesting for us is that 60 out of their top 100 [partners] don’t sell NetApp at all. So that is absolute greenfield for us to be able to go out and have these conversations. We can go and educate them on what our capabilities are,” said Mathieu.

NetApp also ramped up its investments in TD Synnex and Arrow this year to help scale its SMB business.

“We’re six months into that, and we’re starting to see that really take off,” said Mathieu.

Out with Storage, In with Intelligent Data Infrastructure

Mathieu was speaking to Channel Futures at NetApp’s flagship UK event, INSIGHT Xtra, in London this week. She noted that in previous years, there were separate sessions for customers and partners, but this year they were combined, as “the power of partnership will see a better uptake.”

The event also highlighted the shift in NetApp messaging from “storage” to “intelligent data infrastructure.”

Mathieu explained that the company has worked to modernize its messaging to better reflect the evolving needs of customers.

“It’s not that 'storage' is a bad word, per se, but I think the intelligence around the data management is really what people are looking for,” she said. “I think people are taking a lot more time to make sure that their data is secure, that it is intelligent, that they’re able to manage it in the way that they can derive value from it.”

Despite reports of hardware sales flatlining, Mathieu pointed out NetApp’s growth in the region for all-flash arrays.

“For the first time ever, we were No. 1 in the UK and Ireland for all-flash array. So the growth trajectory has been incredible over the last four quarters,” she said. “This signifies the success we’ve seen with our partners and with our customers.”

She added: “Partners said to me when I first joined, ‘You guys have an amazing product. It’s wonderful, but your messaging is rubbish compared to the competitors.' So, I’d rather change my messaging than my product.”