Channel Vet Iventosch Joins ExtraHop: 'Like NetApp In Its Early Days'

Data analytics firm ExtraHop signaled a serious push toward the channel with the addition of longtime channel executive Leonard Iventosch as it new vice president of global channels.

Seattle-based ExtraHop, which develops technology for real-time wire data analytics across all network communications, entered the market in 2009, and has since built its channel to the point where it accounts for about 40 percent of the company's revenue, Iventosch told CRN.

Iventosch returns to the channel after taking some time away from IT following his December 2013 departure from EMC where he had served as vice president of Americas channels. He joined EMC with its acquisition of Isilon. Iventosch in 2008 joined Isilon after a long tenure as the channel chief at storage vendor NetApp. He was also a CRN Channel Chief.

[Related: ExtraHop Takes Application Performance Monitoring To Amazon's Public Cloud]

The fact that ExtraHop is still in its early days in terms of product and channels was a big draw for Iventosch, he said.

"ExtraHop is like NetApp in its early days," he said. "NetApp created a whole new market around the concept of network-attached storage. ExtraHop is creating the concept of IT operations analytics."

ExtraHop also gives Iventosch an opportunity to step away from the storage company wars. "Our company is pretty friendly," he said.

ExtraHop couldn't have made a better choice than Iventosch, said John Murphy, executive vice president at Advanced Systems Group, a Denver-based solution provider and longtime ExtraHop channel partner.

"Leonard understands channel dynamics and what makes sense for VARs to invest in," Murphy told CRN. "Leonard's also a great communicator between partners and vendors. He's very effective."

Murphy said his company had great success with NetApp and Isilon thanks to help from Iventosch. "He is uniquely qualified to build channel programs," he said. "I have a lot of respect for his savviness in building channel programs that work for partners."

ExtraHop works with large national channel partners or any partners that can benefit from storage or network account control to provide insight into networking traffic, Iventosch said.

"Our appliance sits passively on the network where it sees everything," he said. "It sees trouble before it happens. As an analogy, think of losing your glasses and walking into a dark room to search for them. You could go in with five flashlights to look. Or you could turn the lights on. ExtraHop finds the problems, then turns them over to other management solutions."

About 40 percent of ExtraHop's revenue comes from indirect channels, but Iventosch said he hopes to see that rise to 50 percent to 60 percent by year-end. To that end, he is looking to implement programs to help channel partners build professional services offerings around the ExtraHop appliances, he said.

"For partners who depend on professional services, our appliance is programmable," he said. "It's simple, and can be up and running in 15 minutes for some partners. But there's a huge opportunity to do more with it for partners with professional services capabilities."

PUBLISHED JAN. 15, 2015