Denise Bryant gets UKI channel role at NetApp
Well-known channel figure Denise Bryant takes lead role for indirect business at cloud and data management specialist NetApp
NetApp has turned to a channel veteran to run its indirect business in the UK and Ireland.
The data cloud player has welcomed Denise Bryant as its channel director for UK and Ireland (UKI), reporting into Kristian Kerr, vice-president of NetApp’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) partner organisation.
Her name will be familiar to many in the channel after a career spanning three decades, with time in distribution at Magirus and Arrow and spells at vendors, most recently as distribution director at Mitel.
In her most recent role, she was responsible for driving the two-tier model at Mitel to increase its profitability in the channel.
In her new role at NetApp, Bryant will be tasked with growing and “reinvigorating” the channel and driving things forward with those partners that have committed to the areas that matter to the firm, including cloud and enterprise applications.
She joins the firm at a time when the spotlight is firmly on cloud, with the message coming out of its recent Insight conference underlining how the pandemic had shifted customers’ data into a hosted environment.
The firm used the event last month to talk about how its Data Fabric strategy was in tune with what the market needed right now. Sessions covering cloud storage and services aimed at customers who were looking for virtual workspaces were accompanied by the promotion of the potential of its latest acquisition, Spot Storage, to improve the administration options for those operating in containers.
Bryant will no doubt spend most of the year ahead encouraging partners to embrace that hybrid multicloud approach, and the vendor has indicated it will be supporting the channel in gaining knowledge and skills in that area.
“We are delighted to have Denise step into this key leadership position at NetApp UK,” said Kerr. “Denise embodies NetApp’s partner-first ethos, holding a strong desire to reinforce the value of the channel. Her wealth of experience, from working with resellers to running a VAR, will be invaluable in ensuring NetApp’s partner businesses is industry leading.”
He added that Bryant was coming on board with good progress having already been made by the firm to build its channel base and “unlock the best of cloud with our strong partner ecosystem in the UK and lead the next phase of growth”.
