Imperva and Acronis boost channel support

The start of a fresh month has also marked the moment when some data protection vendors take the wraps off plans to make life easier for partners and widen the customer base that resellers can go after.

Imperva has decided that the time is right to take a channel-first approach to get its security products in front of more mid-market customers.

The firm is introducing a self-service product trial option and then sharing the leads with partners. Imperva is also making subscription payment plans an option for its channel to put in front of customers.

Also, new subscription plans from Imperva simplify a partner’s sales process, eliminates the need for complicated sizing exercises and allows resellers to increase margins by reducing the overall cost of the sale.

There will also be some fresh incentive programmes on offer to tempt resellers to get involved.

“Throughout 2020, Imperva experienced unprecedented growth in acquiring new customers in the mid-market, driven by our channel partners who took the opportunity to replace alternative application security vendors with Imperva,” said Barnaby Wood, senior manager, EMEA channel programmes at Imperva.

“Our partners value our channel-first strategy which eliminates the needless competition and frustration they experience working with alternative vendors that deal direct.”

Wood said the mid-market move demonstrated to the EMEA channel that Imperva was committed to helping them gain growth.

Over at Acronis, the focus is on its launch of the #CyberFit Partner Programme, which adds enhancements around supporting managed service partners looking to increase their cloud-based services.

The firm reported its strongest year for channel partner growth in 2020, with a 30% increase in the number of those active. Some of those have given the vendor feedback about where they would like to see increased support, which led to the roll-out of the latest programme.

“While adoption of cloud-based solutions was steady during the past decade, 2020 accelerated that trend tremendously as the Covid-19 pandemic forced organisations to pivot to remote work environments that rely on cloud solutions,” said Serguei Beloussov, Acronis’ founder and CEO.

“Managed service providers played a major role in making that happen, and we want to help all of our partners take advantage of those opportunities. The new #CyberFit Partner Programme is designed with those MSP and MSSP partners in mind, while also ensuring that traditional partners and resellers who want to become MSPs have the world-class support they need to succeed.”

The firm has also indicated that there is more to come on the channel front with a fresh partner portal being introduced next month, which promises to improve account management and communication further.

“Acronis continues to invest in partner development and growth to our mutual benefit,” said Acronis channel chief Alex Ruslyakov.