Scality channel boss looking to grow via distribution

Storage infrastructure player Scality is looking to distribution to widen its reach and grow its channel base with its established anti-ransomware offering.

The firm embarked on a strategy to move beyond its core enterprise market base a couple of years ago to deliver products that would appeal to smaller customers.

A big part of the strategy has been around the technology, and the vendor recently cut the ribbon on a “channel friendly” hardware appliance in the US, with plans to make it available in other regions from January next year.

The next phase of channel development is to bolster the two-tier model and start signing distribution partners on both sides of the Atlantic

Eric LeBlanc, vice-president of worldwide channel sales and general manager of ARTESCA at Scality, said it had made progress to get to those customers with its channel partners, pitching the backup technology as a robust anti-ransomware solution.

“We implemented our go-to-market strategy...18 months ago. We put in place a new partner accreditation programme to recruit Rivas and to make sure that we are the top of our network to really to really push our fiscal [growth] and get more momentum on the market.”

LeBlanc added that it would deliver significant growth this year as the strategy delivered and that the firm aims to keep that going into 2024: “The goal for next year is to accelerate that trend. It’s all about ransomware everywhere. The issue is becoming more and more critical every day, so this is really the focus.”

The firm has worked closely with HPE and its ecosystem, but has taken steps to establish its own channel base, turning to distribution to widen its reach.

“We decided to go to market with distribution, and we have started recruiting,” LeBlanc added. “We are going to sign with a distributor in the US and will do the same in Europe with another one.”

LeBlanc said Scality continued to be successful with HPE and is looking to keep the momentum going with the company, but recognised the “need to accelerate” and “to grow outside” while continuing to pour efforts into working with the vendor.

“We expect our business with HPE to significant growth next year, especially on our desktop,” he added.

LeBlanc stated that there was a significant opportunity for resellers pitching ransomware protection products, not only because it would appeal to customer demand, but because it would give another string to their competitive bows.

“It’s a great opportunity for resellers to sell this solution,” he said. “We plan to multiply again our business by three or four next year.”

He added that the priorities for 2024 would be recruiting and enabling more partners to take on the products and services, as well as to educate customers around the responses that can be taken to ransomware.