Veeam Hires Gigamon, Kaspersky Vet to Lead Channel Partners
Crandall helped Gigamon reach record channel contribution growth.
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Channel Futures: Why did you want to take this channel leader role with Veeam?
Veeam’s Larissa Crandall: Data is the most important asset that businesses own, which also makes it vital to protect against ransomware attacks and unplanned outages. I’m excited to work alongside our sales, marketing, R&D and engineering teams to build strategies that are mutually beneficial to our Veeam partners and alliances, while also ensuring the highest level of data protection and recovery for our joint customers.
My decision to take on this role is quite simple. I’ve long admired the strong Veeam brand and their commitment to the channel. I’m thrilled to now be part of its team and am confident the alignment and collaboration we create will lead to even greater success as Veeam continues to accelerate its enterprise presence.
CF: What’s your take on Veeam’s channel strategy and partner program? Any changes needed?
LC: During this year’s VeeamON conference, Veeam outlined its channel strategy and partner program for the near future, reporting that 53% of its global business now comes from enterprises, lending itself to a rich range of 35,000 total partners in its channel ecosystem. This growth is an impressive leap from its humble beginnings as a data protection provider for SMBs.
Part of the current strategy involves growth to reach MSPs, hyperscalers and GSIs to support more businesses. At the same time, no partners will be left behind as they grow to support different data workloads. I agree with CEO Anand Eswaran’s decision to keep an open mind to acquisitions to open the doors to more adjacent data protection markets.
CF: Is Veeam’s channel strategy geared toward helping partners deal with economic uncertainty?
LC: Economic uncertainty often lends itself to companies pausing on risky maneuvers, but this can also become a blockade to future development and success. Veeam’s channel strategy is opportunistic and attuned to the volatile circumstances of a looming recession and accelerated digital transformation. For companies doing well and looking to expand, exploring new markets and innovative possibilities is a way to keep building traction and setting itself up for success in the future – and Veeam is on the right path with its approach.
The channel is evolving fast. It’s important to know you can’t do it alone, so now more than ever it’s critical to spend time developing strategy around the channel ecosystem. I will be focusing on our strategic alliance partnerships and developing better-together solutions for our partners and customers. Another focus area is to spend time with our partners growing the enterprise market.
CF: How will your previous experience with Gigamon, Kaspersky and more come into play in this new role?
LC: I have nearly 30 years of cumulative experience in the channel space, working for cloud, security and networking vendors. I kicked off my career with nearly 15 years at Connection, a leading IT solutions provider for businesses, governments, educational institutions and consumers, where I held various positions during my tenure, including director of sales, senior sales manager, educational senior sales manager and inside sales manager. I played a pivotal role in Connections’ continued success as a household name with a large and loyal customer base and award-winning services.
In the early 2000s, I shifted over to By Appointment Only, which provides visibility and access to active sales cycles for its clientele. As senior sales manager and later director of sales, I led the inside sales team to effectively drive new business with strategic accounts and fostering stronger relationships with existing clients. In previous leading sales roles, I drove the overall sales, distribution, marketing and channel teams in the Americas. Most recently in my role as vice president of global channel and alliances at Gigamon, I spent four years leading the organization through notable channel contribution growth, and led its partner-first strategy and the development of its partner program. I also helped launch the creation of the Gigamon Playbook, built and executed creative demand-generation, training and enablement programs, as well as the development of GTM solutions to accelerate revenue.
My active role in developing and implementing strategy and training across major accounts within the security, networking, data and cloud space has helped me become a seasoned professional in the channel space, with a deep and foundational knowledge of the opportunities and challenges existing and incoming that could redefine the tech channel landscape in the future. I am excited to use my expertise to help spearhead that movement with Veeam at the helm.
CF: What’s at the top of your to-do list?
LC: Meeting with the Veeam partners. I’m excited to dive right in, and better understand the opportunities and concerns lying ahead so we can start planning for the coming year well-versed on partner interests and how to optimize them.
CF: What are Veeam partners’ biggest challenges and how will you address those?
LC: Partners are facing economic and market challenges across the globe, working to differentiate themselves among their competition and ensuring they are laser-focused on the right solutions that will address critical customer challenges. We intend to help support them throughout as Veeam always has by working on creating new opportunities together.
CF: What are Veeam partners’ biggest challenges and how will you address those?
LC: Partners are facing economic and market challenges across the globe, working to differentiate themselves among their competition and ensuring they are laser-focused on the right solutions that will address critical customer challenges. We intend to help support them throughout as Veeam always has by working on creating new opportunities together.
Veeam channel partners have a new global leader. The company brought on Larissa Crandall, previously with Gigamon, as vice president of global channel and alliances.
Veeam’s Larissa Crandall
Crandall will guide the data protection provider’s investments in its global partner and alliance ecosystem. That’s to ensure customers’ data is protected across multiple environments, whether cloud, virtual, physical, SaaS or Kubernetes.
Crandall joins Veeam after four years at Gigamon. There, she led the global channel and alliances organization to record growth in channel contributions, the company said. She also developed its partner program and was an integral part of its partner-first strategy.
Prior to Gigamon, Crandall held top channel leadership roles with Scalr, Kaspersky, Unitrends, Itrica and more.
Crandall has spent her entire career in the channel working for security, networking and cloud vendors.
John Jester is Veeam’s CRO.
“With more than 35,000 partners and alliances, our 100% partner-driven global ecosystem is critical to the success of every aspect of our company,” he said. “Larissa’s appointment underlines the importance we place in our partners. She has a proven passion, vision and a track record of leading programs and extended teams to heightened success based on collaboration, alignment and mutual strategy. Veeam continues to evolve. But our partner-focused approach to build, market, sell and integrate Veeam solutions and Veeam-powered services remains one of our highest priorities.”
See our slideshow above for a Q&A with Crandall on what Veeam channel partners can expect in the months ahead.
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