Barracuda Networks has beefed up its channel investments to strengthen partner experience and help drive channel success.

Barracuda Networks’ Maria Martinez

Barracuda Networks hired Maria Martinez as vice president of channels for the Americas, and promoted Karen Ward to vice president of MSP sales for the Americas. Martinez previously was Logitech’s head of channel partners and cloud platform alliances for North America. She has more than 20 years of channel experience.

Ward has been with Barracuda Networks’ MSP business unit for more than six years, focusing on partner success and development.

Barracuda’s Karen Ward

Barracuda Networks is adding new channel roles to build out its partner experience, enablement and channel ecosystem teams. It’s also investing in extended detection and response (XDR) technology to help channel partners strengthen their security practices.

Barracuda Networks Emphasizing Technical Enablement

“We are pleased to share the increasing level of investment in our partner experience and all the ways we’re helping drive partner success and the expansion of our channel ecosystem,” said Jason Beal, Barracuda Networks‘ vice president of worldwide partner ecosystems. “With these new hires, and an added emphasis on technical enablement, we’re giving our partners the tools they need to identify and win more opportunities with prospects and customers. The closer alignment between our reseller and MSP teams is also benefiting our partners.”

Barracuda Networks is also expanding its global presence with regional channel ecosystem and sales directors in Asia Pacific. Earlier this month, Andy Lau joined the company as director of partner ecosystems and alliance for Asia Pacific and Japan, and Makoto Suzuki joined as regional sales director for Japan.

In addition, Paul Crighton joined the company as regional sales director for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Combined, the new leaders in the region bring more than 50 years of cybersecurity, technology and channel experience to their roles.