Big Changes Mean New Opportunities for NetApp Channel Partners

… the company as more than just a storage provider but to be that cloud enabler.

It’s been an evolution. You look at the people coming on board — [for example], Cesar coming from Microsoft. There’s a software and a solution piece that’s in there, that’s used to working with partners. Fantastic NetApp fit. Mike Berry comes from a software-oriented background. Our new SVP of global operations, again coming from a software-oriented background. So they understand that transition and they’ve all been at organizations that have transitioned from an on-premises to a services-oriented outcome.

CF: Let’s talk about NetApp channel partners and what’s changed.

JE: The evolution of our partner ecosystem over the last couple of years has been interesting; particularly, how it relates to our cloud business. Two years ago, even last year, you still heard from partners, “I don’t know how to make money in the cloud.” Frankly, I hear that a lot less these days.

I think that everybody has figured out that the way to make money in the cloud is around services. And also, helping their customers with their journey to the cloud. A lot of our partners have built out extensive cloud migration services, cloud consulting services — and higher ROI initiatives that we’ve driven for the last year are Cloud Designed Workshops. This is something that we’ve led with our own services, where we’d go into an end customer and help them architect their ideal storage solution.

We started to work with our partners to pass along that expertise so we can scale those workshops out. We’ve seen a lot of success. Some partners are more advanced than we are. They wrap applications and performance assessments around that as well.

CF: How many NetApp channel partners are growing the services piece of their business? 

CL: From a high level, we have a fair number of partners that are building our managed services but it’s a smaller percentage who are building out the deep knowledge. It’s not cheap. Whether you’re driving into a cloud consultancy, or AI or DevOps, as a partner you have to look how you invest in your organization.

That’s why we’ve taken the view that we’re not going to drop over the fence and off you run. We’re having engagements with partners to help them build out services. We’re investing in resources with them. And, even in the AI space, there is partnering. We’re helping partners come together, whether that’s investing mutually or having the organizations invest and bring the skill sets together.

The biggest reality check, for me, is when you look at IoT. There’s not any one partner that can solve every IoT need on their own, nor do I think they need to. The notion of partners partnering has become much more real.

CF: Let’s talk about some of the updates to your partner program. 

CL: We’ve morphed and evolved our program over the last three years taking into account the mix of solutions – AI, cloud, traditional storage. We’ve taken a very position on incentives. Bring in a net new customer. And, if you’re a partner with a strong record of net new accounts, you’re going to earn 10%. Plus, at the end of the year, if you’ve grown year on year over the set amount, you’re going to earn $100,000 on top of that.

If you take out a competitor, and the list is endless since we’ve broadened our horizons, we’ll pay you up to …