NetApp To Bring Veeam To Its Channel Partners

Storage vendor NetApp and data protection software vendor Veeam Thursday unveiled a new relationship under which Veeam software will be available via NetApp's price list to its channel partners.

Under the new relationship, Sunnyvale, Calif.-basedNetApp will sell the Veeam Availability Suite as a NetApp SKU (stock keeping unit) exclusively through channel partners, said Carey Stanton, vice president of global business and corporate development for Veeam.

"It will be on NetApp's price list," Santon told CRN. "This lets NetApp's channel partners control the price. Historically, NetApp and Veeam have had a meet-in-the-channel relationship where we had to get our channel teams together for an opportunity. Now NetApp partners will get comped for the complete solution."

[Related: Veeam Extends Data Protection To Microsoft's Azure Stack]

The new relationship was unveiled at the NetApp Insight 2017 conference, being held this week in Las Vegas.

Veeam, based in Baar, Switzerland, has a similar relationship with other major server and storage vendors including Cisco Systems and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Stanton said.

"Veeam is a private company experiencing high growth," he said. "Going forward, we will have more focus on alliance partners. We are 100 percent channel-driven. We are trying to have our alliance partners take Veeam cradle to grave. It's an important process for us."

These types of alliances make sense for Veeam and its server and storage partners, said Rob Emsley, director of alliance product marketing for Veeam.

"The alliance partners don't want to be in the software-only business," Emsley told CRN. "And Veeam, as a software product, requires servers and storage. That comes from our alliance partners."

Each of Veeam's alliance partners brings its unique capabilities to the relationship, Emsley said. "NetApp's Ontap storage operating system is one of our longer-running integration solutions," he said. "NetApp's snapshot and replication technologies fit in very well with our ability to offer true integration to provide the highest availability."

The new relationship was welcome news to Scott Gelb, solutions architect at Enterprise Vision Technologies, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based solution provider that currently partners with NetApp but not Veeam.

Everyone who works with Veeam seems to like it, Gelb told CRN. "It's a no-brainer," he said. "We'll definitely be selling it now through NetApp."

Enterprise Vision Technologies works with other data protection vendors including Mountain View, Calif.-based Veritas and Tinton Falls, N.J.-based Commvault, Gelb said.

"But the simplicity of Veeam is huge," he said. "A lot of customers have it. There never seems to be a big services engagement. Bundling it with NetApp makes it easier for us to take to market. When we make a quote, everything goes under the same support agreement, which makes the contracts easier to execute."

NetApp is expected to have the Veeam Availability Suite in its price list by early next year, Emsley said.