Veeam Anoints New Channel Chief, Says Search For New Sales Lead To End Soon

Veeam, the Baar, Switzerland-based developer of leading data protection technology for virtualized environments and a longtime VMware partner, is elevating one of its executives to the role of channel chief as a way to better focus on channel partners.

Veeam this week said Chris Moore, senior director of North American channels for Veeam, is taking over channel responsibilities as the company continues to develop its channels.

Moore told CRN that, while he has been working with channel partners since joining Veeam from Hewlett-Packard in July of 2011, the role of channel chief has been held by the company's vice president of North American sales. That sales role has been vacant since the December departure of Bill Botti, although a Veeam spokesperson said the company expects to fill that position soon.

[Related: VMware Limits Some Storage Vendors' Presence At VMware PEX]

"Last year, we started thinking that we're so channel-centric, why not make the channel chief position official," he said. "We decided to let the vice president of sales focus on sales, and let the channel chief focus on the channel."

Dave Butler, president of Enterprise Computing Solutions, a Mission Viejo, Calif.-based solution provider and Veeam partner, said he has known Moore since his days at HP to be a "straight-up" guy.

"If my memory is correct, when we worked with Chris, he followed through on his commitments," Butler said.

The move to anoint an official channel chief appears to signal an even greater channel emphasis on the part of Veeam, Butler said.

"This is the right sort of thing a company can do to work closer with the channel," he said. "The channel is already selling the rest of the pieces of the storage business. It makes sense for Veeam to be focused on the channel."

Veeam already has a reputation for protecting its solution providers' business, and has one of the industry's best lead generation programs, Butler said.

"And the product pretty much sells itself," he said. "It's a bolt-on product to VMware. No matter what other backup solutions customers use with VMware, Veeam fits in."

Moore said Veeam in March is planning to unveil expansions to its channel program, including increased investments in field resources and marketing around partners who really understand the vendor.

Those investments will includes improved lead distribution capabilities along with new programs to help new partners close their first Veeam deals, he said.

These enhancements will be a follow-on to January's launch of the Veeam Certified Engineer (VMCE) program which Moore said provides partners with training, certification, tools, and reference architectures to help them build out their services capabilities.

Veeam was one of a couple of storage vendors who were asked by VMware to not be a sponsor of this month's VMware Partner Exchange conference.