Veeam will extend channel options with Kasten

Veeam is pitching its acquisition of Kubernetes specialist Kasten as an opportunity for its channel partners to talk to their customers about data management as a service.

The $150m cash and assets tie-up between the two vendors was announced last week, with Kasten offering Veeam an operation focused on Kubernetes backup and disaster recovery.

The plan is to offer the Kasten K10 platform independently, but to also integrate the technology into Veeam Backup & Replication to offer a comprehensive data management solution that is now extended to cover container workloads.

Kasten will operate as a separate Kubernetes Business Unit within Veeam, with the firm’s founders, Niraj Tolia and Vaibhav Kamra, heading that unit as president/general manager and CTO respectively. All teams – including sales, marketing, research and development (R&D), and customer service – will also stay intact.

From a channel perspective, the main questions were always going to be around what the acquisition would mean for Veeam’s existing channel base and those partners that have been working with Kasten.

Danny Allan, CTO and senior vice-president of products strategy at Veeam Software, said that the move for Kasten was something it had been building up to and it was an area that its channel would have recognised as one of growing interest.

“For a number of years now, Veeam has observed the compelling market opportunity of increased Kubernetes adoption in the enterprise, and how it can benefit organisations across different industries. Veeam and Kasten are both 100% channel-focused businesses, and we share many of the same values and approaches in our go-to-market strategies,” he said.

He also reminded partners that both firms had a history of working together and it was not coming into the deal completely cold.

“By strengthening our relationship with Kasten – having initiated a strategic partnership in May this year – we’re helping our channel partners evolve towards more modern and future-ready architectures. This, in turn, enables them to have the conversation with their customers about the digital transformation measures that will keep them competitive in the challenging modern era of business.

“As a result of this acquisition, Kasten will now be able to take full advantage of Veeam’s thriving global sales channel, which will open up Kasten K10 to a significantly larger number of partners around the world, while Veeam will benefit from integration with Kasten’s Kubernetes data management-as-a-service portfolio,” he added.

Allan said that the vendor would be now working on making sure that it could update and educate its partner base on the potential additional sales that could be stirred by adding Kasten technology into the mix.

“Together, we look forward to supporting our partner and reseller networks with this upgraded joint-service offering, so that they can realise new market opportunities for their customers and combine our industry-leading products with their invaluable after-sales care,” he added.