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Cohesity pitches Veritas buy as channel positive

Deal will give combined channel base opportunity to sell more cloud, security and AI products

Simon Quicke
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Published: 09 Feb 2024 12:15

Cohesity has assured channel partners its move for Veritas Data Protection will be a positive development.

The security player announced the deal earlier this week, and has outlined the benefits the tie-up presents for both partners and customers.

Cohesity pointed to one of the main pluses for the channel coming from its ability to deliver more R&D investments and product development on the cloud, security and artificial intelligence (AI) fronts.

The firm talked of the strong ecosystem of partners that would come with a tie-up, and how it had a channel that met customer cloud and security needs in the form of specialists, VARs, system integrators and hardware OEMS.

For customers, there were reassurances there would be no change in support for existing offerings, and that the combination would result in innovative technology coming in the future.

“Both companies have high Net Promoter Scores and share a steadfast, long-term commitment to customers,” said Sanjay Poonen, president and CEO of Cohesity. “Existing products will continue to be supported for many years while leveraging joint best-of-breed technologies to provide the most innovative roadmap for a future that delights customers.

“We are deeply committed to both Cohesity and Veritas customers, partners and employees as we accelerate customer-driven innovation as one company,” he added. “This combination will be a win-win for our collective 10,000 customers and 3,000 partners, and I can’t wait to work with the Veritas team to bring our vision to life.”

Common vision

Greg Hughes, CEO of Veritas, also pitched the deal as a great positive. “Veritas and Cohesity share a common vision of empowering businesses to protect their critical data assets in the face of evolving cyber threats and complex hybrid cloud environments,” he said. 

Poonen will lead the combined organisation as CEO and president, with Hughes serving as a board member and strategic advisor after the close of the transaction.

The firm has also indicated a commitment to keeping to the strategy and roadmap around Cohesity and Veritas products.

“This deal will combine Cohesity’s speed and innovation with Veritas’s global presence and installed base,” said Poonen. “We will lead the next era of AI-powered data security and management by bringing together the best of both product portfolios – Cohesity’s scale-out architecture, ideally suited for modern workloads and strong generative AI and security capabilities, and Veritas’s broad workload support and significant global footprint, particularly in the Global 500 and large public sector agencies.”

Combined value

The deal will create a combined entity valued at $7bn, and is expected to close at the end of the year.

Moments of industry M&A often spark anxiety across partner and customer bases, and competitors have been quick to vocalise some of the questions the channel community might have about the deal.

Alan Atkinson, chief partner officer at Commvault, was sceptical about the benefits of the Cohesity move for the channel.

“A complete integration between Cohesity and Veritas might look good on paper, but the deal introduces a level of complexity and ambiguity for cloud, channel and GSI partners that cannot be overlooked, from a lack of cohesion between platforms to overlapping product portfolios to clashing customer success cultures,” he said.

“Cyber attacks are becoming bolder and more frequent, and partners need assurance that their customers will be able to recover quickly when hit,” said Atkinson. “There is too much at stake these days for partners to be caught in the middle of a lengthy and unstable integration.”

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