Arcserve and StorageCraft tie-up set to benefit channel partners
More technology to sell and a larger range of customers to pitch to should mean the firm’s merger will be a positive one for its channel partners
The tie-up between Arcserve and StorageCraft should benefit both vendors’ channel partners as they get access to a wider portfolio and a shot at supporting a larger customer base.
The firms revealed they were merging last month, in a move that would create a supplier with a broad portfolio of data protection products.
Arcserve is known for its unified data protection product, and StorageCraft has its flagship ShadowProtect SPX 7 data protection software and solutions, which provide backup and disaster recovery as a service. The vendor also comes with an established channel and a healthy number of relationships with MSPs.
The vendor’s existing channels have already been alerted to the opportunities the merger will create, and Mick Bradley, vice-president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Arcserve, said it had benefited from planning to get to this stage.
“We’ve been working on it for a while and it’s a marriage made in heaven,” he said. “The businesses are very solid but there is very little overlap between the technologies and the markets and the channel. The StorageCraft channel is very MSP focused in the small and medium business markets and we are very traditional VAR and distributor focused in the mid markets and enterprise. It’s a harmonious coming together of two companies.”
“We’ve obviously got more partners with the merger, but there’s very little overlap,” said Bradley. “From a channel point of view, they now have a far wider portfolio from a single vendor that spans small customer requirement up to an enterprise customer, whether you want on-premise, whether you need cloud services, or whether you want continuous availability for CDP technology.
“You can now purchase all of that under a single support framework from a single vendor, which gives our channel a wider conversation to have,” he said. “It gives them a bigger product set to sell and it gives them a far higher margin earning capability.”
Data management strategies
The tie-up also comes at a time when customers have been forced, as a result of the pandemic, to take a hard look at their data management strategies. Many have found their backup and DR wanting, and have also had to react to remote working and the extension of the data perimeter.
Bradley said that security had increased in importance but so had the need to ensure data protection standards were being maintained and customers had been reaching out for technologies and services that could help.
“Our channel partners have been trying to work their way through that with their customers and still provide value,” he said. “The sort of things we’re doing give our channel partners the tools – not just the technology – but the commercial tools and the vehicles for them to still have meaningful conversations.”
Specifically on the security front, the vendor has come up with a money-back guarantee for those customers hit by a ransomware attack after they have followed the vendor’s best practices.
Bradley said it had put a lot of thought into the offer and wanted to help its partners stand out in a crowded market with an offer that rivals were not making.
“We’ve had a lot of our customers hit by cyber criminals and threatened with ransomware, so every one of them had their data back,” he said.
