Barracuda enjoys MSP growth

Barracuda Networks is reporting strong growth in its managed services business in EMEA and APAC with the firm looking to keep that momentum going through the next few years.

Some of the growth has come from a global expansion, with an extension into New Zealand and Australia, but the vendor has also been helped by the ongoing move across the channel towards the managed services model.

According to recent research from Markets & Markets the MSP market is expected to grow by around 10% each year between now and 2023.

Barracuda has grown its partner base to 4,300 and seen the number of partners using its technology increase by 35% year-on-year to September. The firm has noticed particularly strong demand for email protection solutions, indicating that the message has got across to users about the need to protect against those threats.

“Over the past four years we’ve built our international Barracuda MSP team to match our success and partner growth in these new regions, growing our MSP annualised recurring revenue base over 250% year on year,” said Brian Babineau, SVP & GM, Barracuda MSP.

“As we continue to expand across the globe, we’re committed to investing in the infrastructure to support and empower these new partners,” he added.

Barracuda has been building out a platform for MSPs with it leaning on the remote monitoring management tools it gained from the acquisition earlier this year of Managed Workplace. Plus it also had the backup monitoring, which it developed after the  2015 acquisition of Intronis Backup.

The first major update of that platform was announced in September with the firm making the commitment to keep adding the functionality that would be appreciated by MSPs.

In the UK the firm has been actively courting that channel community and is viewing its growth as evidence that despite some challenging conditions in the market the move towards managed services is continuing.

“Given the current climate, with economic uncertainty looming large in the form of political shifts across the region, it’s easy to see how MSPs might be playing it safe when it comes to growth,” added Jason Howells, director, International MSP, Barracuda Networks.

“It’s therefore a huge testament to our partnership model and the specialist team we’ve put in place that we’re seeing such impressive growth. We’re proud to be supporting MSPs across the region, and enabling them to create, deliver and demonstrate services to their clients,” he added.