Data backup and recovery vendor Datrium is broadening its global partner network to EMEA, Australia and New Zealand, while also adding a new partner program level to expand its services to channel partners who offer Datrium DRaaS (disaster recovery-as-a-service) capabilities to customers.

Datrium’s Joe Vranicar

The new DRaaS Select partner program level will provide advanced training and certification on DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS so channel partners can assist their customers as they incorporate or expand DR services into their IT operations, Joe Vranicar, the chief revenue officer for Datrium, told Channel Futures.

“Our expanded focus on disaster recovery, including our new tier of partnership, DRaaS Select, will create new services opportunities for partners, accelerate sales cycles and deliver greater margins all while helping customers better reduce the risks of disasters such as ransomware,” said Vranicar. “With Datrium DraaS, our partners can help IT teams to eliminate secondary physical DR sites, while automated continuous compliance checks in DRaaS ensure the disaster recovery plans will work when disaster strikes.”

The new DRaaS Select partnership tier will also give partners the tools they need to help their clients reduce the complexity and cost of DR, while better protecting business data against ransomware and other cyberattacks, said Vranicar.

Expanding the partner program to new parts of the world will provide help to more organizations so they can modernize their data centers and improve their disaster recovery systems using Datrium’s on-demand, cloud-based model, said Vranicar.

“We see a huge opportunity to leverage the power of VMware Cloud on AWS and work with our partners to transform DR from an ineffective, expensive, complex process into a simple-to-use fail-proof SaaS product for DR,” he said.

Partner inclusion in the new Datrium DRaaS Select tier is by invitation only, according to the company. It is limited to an exclusive set of skilled partners in specific geographic regions.

Technologent’s Mike McLaughlin

Mike McLaughlin, the CIO and vice president of professional services for Technologent, a solutions integrator and Datrium channel partner based in Irvine, California, told Channel Futures that the expanded Datrium channel partner program will help his company better serve their customers by allowing them to provide deeper DR services and support. Technologent was invited by Datrium to be one of the selected partners.

“Our customers have had to rethink their IT infrastructures and are maturing their IT strategies to take advantage of cloud — hyperscale cloud in particular,” said McLaughlin. “Customers have asked us how to do this in a cost-effective and efficient manner.”

Many customers are looking to do this by buying cloud services as needed, rather than making large upfront capital investments for hardware and software, he explained.

“Technologent has invested heavily in service automation and data protection,” he said. “When you…

… marry this with the expanded Datrium program, it really ends up jelling well. It lets us provide customers with a quality DR solution that nests well with customer environments without huge integrations. It allows customers to get business benefits out of DR.”

The expanded partner program aligns well with Technologent’s mission and services, he said. “What Datrium’s technology and their partner program really help us to do is flatten that ramp for customers to get DR, which was always complicated. We can shrink the time-to-value for customers and it helps us bring value in a quicker way.”

Technologent is making an investment by getting involved in the expanded partner program, said McLaughlin. “The Datrium program gives us incentive to really go deep here.”