Wendy Bahr has joined Rubrik as chief commercial officer. She will be responsible for the company's efforts with managed service providers, integrators, resellers and tech alliances.
Wendy Bahr, who resigned last year as Cisco's global channel leader, has joined cloud data management vendor Rubrik as chief commercial officer.
Bahr oversees Rubrik's relationships with managed service providers, global systems integrators and value-added resellers, as well as hardware and software technology alliance partners. She is also responsible for Rubrik's inside sales and professional services teams.
Bahr said she took two months off after leaving Cisco in November 2018, and then began talking to customers and channel partners to "canvas the landscape." She said, during that process, she became convinced Rubrik offers a compelling value proposition in a market undergoing transformation.
"Rubrik is disrupting the $48 billion data management market," she said, noting the Palo Alto, Calif., vendor's technology addresses the cost and complexity of managing data in data centers and the cloud. She said she believes Rubrik, a 5-year-old company, is in a position to become "the next B2B tech powerhouse."
Rubrik, which generates 100% of its revenue through the channel, rolled out its Velocity Partner Program in February 2019. The program is built on three tiers: Authorized, Select and Elite. The company also launched Rubrik Academy, which provides accreditations for partner sales, presales and post-sales.
Rubrik is disrupting the $48 billion data management market.
Wendy BahrChief commercial officer, Rubrik
Such programs are on track with Bahr's channel philosophy.
"My foundation for the last 12 or so years running the channel was all around enabling our partners," she said.
Another element of Bahr's Cisco channel experience that's poised to influence Rubrik is Cisco's mantra of "land, adopt, expand and renew." As Cisco transitioned from hardware to software and subscription-based revenue, the networking giant encouraged its partners to help customers fully unlock software's full potential over time to increase the probability of renewal.
"They are absolutely starting that journey, as well," Bahr said of Rubrik. She noted the recent launch of Rubrik Go, a subscription purchasing program based on SaaS. Bahr said she will be pursuing the land-adopt-expand-renew approach at Rubrik, working with the company's customer engagement team and channel partners.
Bahr is also looking to elevate partners' storage and backup conversations with customers to a broader discussion around ransomware protection and complex issues, such as General Data Protection Regulation compliance. Helping customers achieve such goals through digital transformation "is where the profit comes from" for channel partners, Bahr said.
