Veeam signs new distie in Australia

Virtualisation specialist Veeam Software has signed Avnet as a distributor in Australia in a move it hopes will greatly expand its A/NZ reseller base and grow its share of the enterprise market.

Avnet joins Ingram Micro, Connector Systems and NewLease as Veeam's fourth distribution partner in Australia.

Avnet resellers will get a 'one-stop shop' for Veeam’s virtual infrastructure management, storage and security solutions, with Avnet supplying additional training, solution bundles and commercial incentives.

Don Williams, Veeam's regional director for APAC, described the decision as "the next logical step" for the vendor.

"We've been looking at areas where we can continue to grow our business and reach partners that we're potentially not touching today, so adding another distributor made perfect sense," Williams told CRN. 

Williams said Veeam chose Avnet for its industry pedigree, focus on virtualisation and existing relationship with VMware, which will allow for cross-vendor synergies.

"We had meetings and discussions with a lot of distribution organisations around Australia, but at the end of the day [Avnet] was the best fit for us," Williams said.

In addition to expanding Veeam's reseller base, Williams said the agreement would help to drive deeper penetration and engagement with existing partners.

"While there are many more partners we can bring on board, I feel there's a lot we can do with the partner network we have today," Williams said.   

"We see [Avnet] as a great opportunity to continue to leverage those partners that have already taken the step to sign up with Veeam. So there's going to be a lot of enablement and training with some of these partners in our existing ecosystem that we haven't touched to date."

Veeam currently has some 800 registered partners in Australia.

Williams said Avnet would also help the vendor to extend its reach among enterprise customers in Australia and New Zealand.

"We're starting to see more and more interest from larger enterprises in Veeam, and that's one area where Avnet has really strong relationships with some of the key partners and enterprise accounts," he said.

Channel-fuelled growth

Veeam is coming off a successful financial year in Australia, a highlight of which was a 52 percent jump in Q3 revenue.

"From day one, we've been focused on one of the hottest areas of technology right now, which is virtualisation," Williams said. 

"Being 100 percent channel-driven, we've been able to leverage the power and strength of a very strong channel in Australia, which has been a major contributor to our success."

Williams declined to share the company's overall growth profit margins, but said it had invested heavily in marketing, additional staff and resources in the past financial year.