 Hello, everybody, welcome to Veeam on 2021. You're watching theCUBE's continuous coverage of this year's event. My name is Dave Vellante, and as the saying goes, you can go faster alone, but further together. And that observation is most certainly true in the technology business. And with me to talk about the importance of partners and ecosystem expansion and the leverager, Daniel Fried, who's the Senior Vice President for EMEA and World Wide Channels at Veeam and David Harvey, who's the Vice President of Strategic Global Alliances at Veeam. Gentlemen, welcome to theCUBE. Come on inside. Thank you, Dave. Thanks a lot, thank you. So you're welcome. So Daniel, about 40 partners by my count at Veeam on virtual this year. Wow, it's unfortunate we can't interact with them face to face, but part of the story here, 25% ARR growth and partners, obviously, big contributor there. Give us the update from your perspective. Well, yeah, so first of all, I think it's going to be much more, much more than the 40 partners that are going to attend Veeam on because it's a key event that we've had already for a number of years. And this one this year is going to be as huge as usual, even bigger because it is all remote so everybody can participate. Now going to the results of the company, it is entirely also due to the partners, all types of partners because we are 100% partner base. We are a channel company. So all our businesses go through the partners through which are 2D and customers, all different types of partners. So I do thank very, very much all partners around the world, all types of partners because they all participate to the success of Veeam Software and this fantastic 25% growth indeed. Yes, so David, that's pretty important when you send that message, hey, we're not, I mean, a lot of companies, a lot of tech companies struggle with that. They have a heritage of direct sales and they say, hey, we're super partner friendly and then they do a big reach around. I mean, you kind of clean that up from day zero but maybe talk a little bit about your philosophy around partnering. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's been a core pillar, as you said, David, Veeam from day one and we've been true to that message all the way through and when you look at the rich ecosystem of the pro partner network that Daniel was talking about and you also look at the way that we've embraced alliances not only from the technology integration point of view but also within the go to market position. It's just been a really rich experience for the Veeam field, the alliances and partner field but more importantly for the customers because they get the best of breed from both sides. They get peace of mind on supply chain but fundamentally, and you touched on this point, Dave, a lot of people talk about it in principle, we live it all day every day and I think when you look at the rich experience that you're going to get from Veeam on when you look at the fact that the alliance partners have lent in as the premium sponsors. These are the biggest guys in the industry. It's just a testament to trust and it's a testament to delivering value to the customers. How should we think about the sort of partner makeup and I'm interested in particularly the perspective from EMEA but a number of the partners, the majority of the premier partners for example are US based companies but of course they have very strong presence around the world. And then of course within EMEA, Daniel, you've got a lot of local partners as well. How should we think about that make up the big whales who account for many, many tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars but as well the collective of the larger ecosystem. How should we think about that pyramid? Well, this is a fantastic question. I think that we have to go back into understanding what is the role of partner, role of partner is to reach out to the end customers. And because Veeam is selling to companies which are very small ones, very small SMB customers all the way to the very large complex multinationals, we need partners who have these capabilities to address all those. And of course the number of companies around the world it's hundreds of millions of them. To give you an idea, because of the partners our coverage is more than 100 countries. In other words, we sell to more than 100 countries around the world even in places where our Veeam presence, physical presence is not there. So this is, we need different types of partners depending on what is needed, what the customers are requesting. And this is reason we talk about the pro-partner network but I would like to talk to go even farther and talk about an ecosystem, a business ecosystem using the Veeam solutions and the Veeam technologies with the alliances, with the system integrators, with the VARs, with the reciders and with the service providers with all different types of typologies of partners. And it is not a modernity way of doing businesses. So you've got huge companies but you have a lot of small ones to be capable to not to sell to a mom and dad somewhere in the middle of the desert or somewhere around the world. But we also need to have competencies because customers have requests that become more and more complex because the world is becoming more and more complex from a 90 perspective. So we need to have competencies. And this is what we're trying in this pro-partner network of Veeam software is to bring these competencies up to be capable through the partners to answer all the requests and all the needs of all the customers around the world. So David, it's not just sort of generic. I mean, obviously as a 100% channel partner company, you're looking for volume and distribution. But as Daniel just said, there's competencies. So what are some of the competencies that partners bring to the table? Maybe you have some examples that you can share. Yeah, absolutely. So if you look at a couple of different areas, what I would say is we look at the problems that customers are dealing with in two ways. One, they're dealing with the fact that they want a technology solution to something that they're dealing with today. And secondly, they want somebody to support them with a human workflow evolution that's going on with them today. And GSIs is a good example of that one. When you look at the work we're doing and the success we're having with the large global GSIs, what we're solving in that area is two things. Workplace optimization, huge topic at the moment. And secondly, the data sense of modernization. And what's happening as you go through that evolution is you're dovetailing together the workflows of their business. You're using data as a lifeblood to be able to be successful and relate to their share price, et cetera. But more importantly, you want to make sure that you're bringing into account both those sides. You can't just have a technology solution without an understanding of implementation and you can't have a great concept without a solid solution to back that up. So that's where we dovetail together the top alliances that are out there in the market with the top global systems integrators and both of those combined solutions benefit everybody including the channel but obviously more importantly, the customer. And I think when you look at that the work we're doing with Accenture, with Capgemini, the work we're doing with guys like HPE and VMware and all these large thought leaders, that's what's a really nice dovetail. And as we talked about before because that's been the lifeblood of our organization from day one, it's a very harmonious experience focused on solving the customer pain. So I like that focus on solutions. I'm just thinking about, so okay, workplace optimization. You think about remote work. I mean, everybody's trying to figure out hybrid now. How do I get hybrid right? And of course you guys fit in what's the right data protection model? Modernization, there's app modernization. There's, because of cloud, there's a rethink of how you protect data. Maybe it's additional layers. And then of course, I mean, every time I look in the paper there's another hit of ransomware or some cyber security attacks. You guys fit in there. So there's this solution emphasis which really dovetails nicely into the customer problem. Maybe you could talk a little bit about that in the role that partners play and what role you play. So we play, the role that we pay is obviously and David will complement obviously vibration response because it can be a very large extended answer. The role we play is, I would say twofold. Just try to be, to simplify as much as we can. As much as I can. One of them is to provide a technology to provide solutions. And this is number one. So Veeam is providing solutions to and customers through the partners. But the partners, they have these competencies which allow them to build solutions and services to answer the request and the needs of the customers. So this is the key thing. They generate a value add on top of our technologies on top of our solutions to meet what the customers requests. And you're totally right because, you know, we talk about the marketplace with a couple of things that what is very important is we see more and more customers wanted to go to services. So not for themselves to manage their infrastructures and their back-up centers and their back-ups. They are everything which is linked to the security of the data. But to have it done by potentially some party companies like the system integrators, like the cloud and service providers, like all different types of companies, even some consultants giving advisors, architectures, enablement and all kinds of different services which have been built. I even had some partners that are now developing. We talk about containers more and more and we have, no, I'm sorry to be a little bit technical here, but we have some partners, some VARs, obviously some larger ones which are developing what we call microservices which is for this generation of containers. So they are all developing services to meet the request and the needs of their customers. There is a big focus at end customers. How can together we use? So we provide the technology, they are there by now. Well, I don't think you ever have to apologize in the cube for talking tech. I mean, you think about containers and your acquisition of Castin, the whole notion of microservices. Containers, they used to be ephemeral and stateless and now they're becoming a fundamental application development platform and they need protection. So I think that's an important area. We're going to dig into that in some other conversations in the cube but your point, Daniel, about value add is critical. It used to be, I call it box selling even though the software is in a box but it used to be okay, I'm going to make some margin just reselling. Partners today want to add value. They just don't want to be a pass through because they'll get disintermediated. So that's important. I wonder if you guys could talk about some of the details of your partner programs. There's the pro partner network and I'm very interested in the Veeam Universal License approach that you guys take. What kind of details can you share with us on those two things? Daniel, that's a good one for you. Right, okay. So what you call the Veeam Universal Licensors. So this is part of the technology that we provide and the licensing model that we provide is about recurring licensing model which is totally agnostic. So in other words, it is the same types of licenses that customers can use for whether if they are hybrid and if they go with architecture which goes on the hybrid clouds or any type of architecture or on premise or so they can just move their licenses from one place to another place when they need it. So we give them the full flexibility with this licensing model to adapt to the new needs that they may have. So to avoid that they define an architecture which is totally frozen and then they cannot change it anymore with us, with our technologies, with our licensing model with our real licensing system they have a full flexibility. And this is a key differentiator for a lot of customers and obviously for our own competition. And my understanding is when you guys really started leaning in to the ARR model you actually were pretty innovative in the way you kind of made that transparent or irrelevant really for your partner's sales channels. You guys set up front, we're going to... this is like no change, go sell. We'll figure out the economics on the back end and most organizations in your position don't do that. They try to micromanage the margin up front and it's sort of the... the finance guys running the spreadsheet are sort of determining the relationship as opposed to the relationship working backwards. Is that a correct inference on my part? I sort of got this from talking to some of your big partners and asked them, well isn't that a real challenge when you shift to that model? I said no, Veeam just sort of made it all transparent to us and sort of ate it at the back end or however you did that. I think that this is a very very correct statement that you got from your partners because it is not something which is new and it is not only on this subscription licensing model that we have that... what we always try to do with all partners is to have a consistent approach and a very transparent approach with the steps move step by step to the next level to the next strategies to the next ways of doing business with them So the key thing to have a network of partners which works which really develops and generates a good value add it is the trust and I think I don't want to be too arrogant but I think and David can give his feedback I think that we've succeeded year after year and after year to build that trust with the partners which means that with the transparency they just move along with the moves that we do but our moves also come from there So in other words depending on what the end customers request we help the partners to meet the request of the end customers So we help them develop more businesses David let me ask you something So if you had a hundred dollars to spend of resource and you had to spend it on going deeper sort of the existing partners or expanding the number of partners and maybe even the quality of partners So thinking about where IT is headed Veen's rolling that How do you allocate your time and your resources? Great question and I think a simple answer from me you go deeper with what you have and the reason for that is it's expensive and it's about building trust as Daniel said and it's about making sure that the customer isn't caught up in the middle of it and I think that's the really important part related to this as well You said at the start of the conversation Dave with regards to the complexity The reality is there's multiple decisions going on right now How do I adjust my infrastructure based on the needs of today? How do I look at the blend on hybrid cloud? What's going where, etc? How do I evolve into containers, etc, etc, etc and I think when you go down that line and you're presented with these titans of industry that we're looking at here with some of our premium alliances, etc it takes a long time to make sure that you integrate It takes a long time to make sure you go to market and pain-based statements are clear It takes a long time to go through the trenches to learn together so that the customer is the one that has choice doesn't have to investigate the way that Vee wants to do it or our alliance wants to do it or our partner wants to do it It's about looking at the best solution for their pain and I think from that point of view you can only do that with continual commitment I mean we add to our program in all aspects but you'll see consistency you'll see releases from day one of the company when we launch the product with alliances as an example that consistency and investment is peace of mind it's trust but more importantly it's innovative because you get to invest for multiple years moving forwards so that ideally we can continue our philosophy of being just ahead of what the customer needs while listening to them and working with the other parts of the IT infrastructure because as you said from the start again this is an ecosystem, this is not a singular component and I think that's where it's really key to have a philosophy which we have here in Veeam which is double down with your friends, make sure you make it work look to evolve as the market evolves with some extension but you never forget where you came from I like that answer because it was kind of a loaded question because when I talk to a lot of companies behind the scenes one of their big frustrations is there's a push to get more and more and more but in reality when they look at the productivity it's like a snake swallowing a basketball they've got a few partners that are really productive and they're spending all this time doing Barney press releases and I love you, you love me nothing ever happens out of it so when you approach a strategic partnership why Veeam? pitch me on why I should spend my time with Veeam versus one of the many other competitors that are out there 100% and that's the great thing what is, we're proven from a history point of view and there's nothing better than when you're talking to a strategic partner than to be able to say you've put your money where your mouth is that money is key, we invest heavily and it is expensive, it's an expensive scenario I mean our alliance's organisation is over 100 people it's a big investment position because you've got to make sure that you've got the ability to balance out what both sides are looking for and sometimes you do things that maybe aren't 100% in your best interest but that's important to your partner and your alliance and vice versa and so from that point of view you've got history, improvement position you've got investment potential and capital to be able to build together to move forward and thirdly it's about the proven execution and that's not just your philosophy where I started this is about the ability to turn concept into tangible frankly benefit which comes down to economics for both sides and those three things together to me are the way that we've been so successful in not only growing and maintaining our position but also attracting new ones as we look to see the evolution of the IT market Daniel you may have a different view No, no, no, no, I just would like to No, no, no, I totally agree I just would like to complement it by two things two things are very much marketing related we are number two now worldwide as IDC mentioned so in other words that means that customers like our technologies are solutions so partners are looking for making businesses with somebody who is trusted also within customers and number two we have a big marketing machine and that helps very, very, very much the business to look through the partners all the way to the end customers we always involve the partners, always systemically I saw some of that IDC data you guys are number two worldwide but am I correct that you're the number one pure play independent or am I missing something there? Yeah, number one, yeah I always ask that because a lot of times other people it's like cloud washing I could throw a bunch of stuff in my cloud numbers and say I'm number one in cloud but when you talk about Veeam all your revenue comes from backup data protection that's the pure play we love the pure plays because they're easier to understand even though you guys are a private company you're more transparent than most private companies so it's helpful as an analyst to really kind of gauge the progress okay guys, hey, we got to leave it there thanks so much for coming on to talking about the all important partner ecosystem you guys have done a great job there congratulations and I hear it from your partners and obviously the numbers prove it out so great job right, thanks for your time today alright, you're very welcome and thank you for watching everybody this is Dave Vellante for theCUBE's continuous coverage of Veeam on 2021 the virtual edition keep it right there for more great content