Unitrends, a provider of data protection software that was recently acquired by Kaseya, today announced it had revamped its channel program to recognize better the partners that contribute the most revenue.
The relaunch of the Unitrends Global Channel and Alliance Program around a two-tier program adds a Gold level to a program made up of over 2,000 partners, says newly appointed Unitrends channel chief Clark Brown, a 20-year channel veteran who has worked for Symantec, Sophos, and Hexis Cyber Solutions.
Also, Unitrends revealed it would extend Gold level benefits to Kaseya partners for an unspecified amount of time. Also, Unitrends announced today that it had created a partner portal, named a channel advisory board and says market development funds (MDF) will be made available to all partners on an as needed basis versus a percentage of revenue generated.
In general, Unitrends is committing to better reward its best partners, while simultaneously reducing friction within the channel.
“It’s all part of making it easier to do business,” says Brown.
Brown says demand for backup and recovery solutions has been on the rise in the wake of a raft of ransomware attacks. The only known effective response to these attacks is to be able to recover a pristine copy of data that cybercriminals have encrypted using malware.
In the wake of the acquisition by Kaseya, there’s now also a lot more focus by Unitrends on further developing relationships with managed service providers (MSPs) to deliver those capabilities. Competition across the data protection category remains fierce as demand increases. Kaseya, for example, already resells of a bevy of data protection offerings alongside Unitrends products and services.
It remains to be seen what impact adding a Gold program will have on making Unitrends a bigger force in the channel. But after employing a flat channel model for years now, it’s clear that gaining and retaining the attention of the top tier of partners focused on data protection has become a much higher priority.
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