Veeam partner certifications soar
Veeam partner training and certification has seen significant uptake since the program's overhaul in early 2020, according to the vendor; more channel news from the week.
Veeam reported it has met its partner certification objective for 2020, having relaunched its training and certification program at the beginning of this year.
The backup and data management platform vendor last year revamped its courseware, tests and training material for its sales and technical certification tracks. Veeam partner participation has surged since the changes went live in January, the company reported.
"We have seen certifications go off the charts," said Kevin Rooney, vice president of Americas channel sales at Veeam.
The company reached its Americas partner certification goal for the whole of 2020 by the first week of April, he noted. The number of partners certified through the beginning of April also exceeded the total number of partners completing certification in 2019.
The revised certification program stresses customers' business challenges that Veeam and its partners can solve. Sales training and certification previously focused heavily on memorizing product features, Rooney said.
The increase in certifications reflects "how relevant the content is in the certification process for our partners," Rooney said.
Digital marketing for partners
Other Veeam partner program changes made in 2020 include the launch of the Veeam Marketing Center, which Rooney said helps partners execute digital campaigns and marketing activities. Veeam previously delivered some digital marketing content under its concierge services, but Veeam Marketing Center offers more resources around digital campaigns and virtual sales kits.
Kevin Rooney
The digital marketing services are "more strategic than they ever have been," given the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of live events, Rooney added.
Partners can access Veeam Marketing Center resources on a self-service basis, or they can work with Veeam representatives assigned to support partners as they adopt digital marketing practices.
Support for professional services partners
The Veeam Accredited Service Partner (VASP) program also has additions for 2020. The VASP program certifies partners to offer professional services to customers deploying Veeam. The revised 2020 program provides direct-line access to a Veeam technical team to "help them with any challenges they might be facing with a professional services engagement," Rooney said.
In another change, Veeam's professional services personnel will participate in "ride-alongs" with partners as they work with customers, Rooney said. Veeam doesn't provide its own professional services, relying on partners to take the lead in delivering such services, he added.
The VASP program also includes an online portal, which Veeam services partners can use to communicate and collaborate with each other.
Meanwhile, Veeam has recast its annual VeeamOn conference as a virtual event, which will take place June 17 to 18. The event is free of charge.
MSPs seek to diversify portfolios
Managed service providers aiming to diversify their portfolios are finding growth in security and backup services.
New reports on the MSP market from Barracuda MSP and Kaseya reveal service providers are looking to expand their offerings. "The Evolving Landscape of the MSP Business Report 2020" from Barracuda MSP, found 91% of the nearly 300 global partners surveyed plan to increase "the breadth and depth of their services capacity in the next 12 months."
In the "2020 MSP Benchmark Survey Report" from Kaseya, about 90% of the 1,300 MSP owners and technicians polled considered the expansion of services to be important. The report suggested a correlation between high revenue growth and expanded service lines, a relationship previous surveys have noted. MSPs reporting monthly recurring revenue growth in excess of 20% had added about four to five new services to their portfolios over the past two years, according to Kaseya's findings.
Kaseya's survey pointed to security and backup as two growth areas for diversifying MSPs. Of the respondents, 73% reported an increase in revenue over the past year through providing security services. In addition, 59% of MSPs citied backup and disaster recovery as a source of increasing revenue.
In Barracuda MSP's survey, 79% of MSPs cited customers' security concerns as a good opportunity, especially given the rise of remote workers. And 72% said a lack of in-house security skills among customers had opened revenue opportunities.
The Barracuda MSP report also revealed a sizeable increase in the percentage of service providers focusing on backup, business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) offerings. In this year's survey, 95% of MSPs reported providing those services, while 58% identified backup, BC and DR as top services in 2019.
Secureworks unveils partner program
Cybersecurity services vendor Secureworks released a new global partner program that targets resellers and referral partners.
The program offers deal registration; sales, marketing and training resources via a new partner portal; and clear rules of engagement, according to the company. While the program doesn't use a tiering structure or requirements, Secureworks said it will provide incremental benefits based on partner competencies and performance levels. Benefits include base rebates, new business discounts and marketing development funds. Secureworks is a subsidiary of Dell Technologies.
"The Secureworks global partner program is designed with simplicity and flexibility in mind for our channel community," said Maureen Perrelli, chief channel officer at Secureworks.
The company said Secureworks' threat detection and response, managed detection and response, and incident response services are available to partners through the program, though availability may vary by region.
Other news
- Kaseya rolled out a raft of updates to its MSP software products, including its remote monitoring and management product, Kaseya VSA; Unitrends; IT Glue; RapidFire; and Spanning. The company also said it will develop its IT management platform for MSPs, IT Complete, around two pillars, ProfitFuel and BudgetFuel, which focus on reducing software costs, increasing efficiency of technicians, and enabling essential IT services for the small business segment.
- Microsoft has acquired Softomotive, a robotic process automation vendor. The move brings together Softomotive's desktop automation approach with Microsoft's Power Automate offering. Softomotive's partners include KPMG.
- Armor, a cybersecurity software vendor based in Dallas, updated its partner initiative, unveiling an MSP program. The MSP initiative is housed within Armor's Global Partner Program. The company said it has built multi-tenant management capabilities into its Armor Anywhere platform.
- Deep Sentinel, a provider of surveillance security services that use AI, is targeting security integrators, MSPs and AV dealers with a new partner program.
- The ASCII Group, a North American association of MSPs, managed security service providers (MSSPs) and solution providers, updated its member community platform, ASCII-Link. The platform now provides a member directory, customized profiles, subgroups and other personalization capabilities, ASCII said.
- SlashNext, an anti-phishing and incident response software vendor, introduced a partner program. The program is designed for MSSPs, OEMs, managed detection and response providers, VARs, carriers, and technology partners. SlashNext appointed Barry Ruditsky as senior vice president of business develop to lead the program. Ruditsky joined SlashNext from BlueJeans, where he was senior vice president of global channels.
- Siemplify, a security orchestration, automation and response vendor, redesigned its partner program for resellers and distributors. Benefits of the new 20/20 Partner Program include margin assurance.
- Laplink Software, a PC migration vendor, introduced the "Move Now, Pay Later" partner stimulus program for IT services firms. Until June 30, 2020, partners can buy LapLink's PCmover Business Technician licenses through deferred billing program, which defers monthly usage invoices until December 2020, the company said.
- IT services provider 1901 Group, based in Reston, Va., said it has been accepted into the AWS MSP Partner Program.
- CoreView, a SaaS management platform vendor, entered a partnership with Cloud Essentials, a Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Partner based in the U.K. and South Africa.
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