With an eye to the fact that many channel partners are employing multiple business models, Barracuda Networks has updated its partner program to recognize how the channel is evolving. The “Barracuda Partner Success Program” will recognize and reward all the ways that partners work with Barracuda including VAR resale, managed services, and buy-through cloud marketplaces.
Barracuda’s product and service portfolio includes solutions to protect email, networks, data, and applications. The company claims 200,000 customers across its entire business. Beal describes Barracuda as “channel loyal” with 20 years of work with the channel.
Barracuda MSP, the company’s dedicated MSP business unit, enables MSPs to offer customers multilayered security and data protection services with the company’s purpose-built MSP management platforms.
“When we looked at our partner community, we have almost an equal amount of partners doing Barracuda MSP as are doing our project or sell-through work,” Beal said. “We have literally over thousands of partners that are hybrid – that are doing both, and hundreds are selling through a cloud marketplace.”
Barracuda acquired XDR provider (eXtended Detection and Response) Skout Cybersecurity in 2021. In 2020, Skout was a Top 250 MSSP that had developed XDR and Security Operations Center (SOC) solutions for MSPs.
The Updated Barracuda Partner Program Launch
The new program will recognize partners who resell Barracuda solutions for all the business they do with Barracuda, regardless of route to market. Partners will be provided with benefits and resources based on their total sales contribution.
Beal said the new partner program’s driving principle was around a shared success model. He said that it’s important for vendors and partners to work together. The updated partner program offers four tiers, and these have been simplified across all the geographies where Barracuda does business. They are Premier, Preferred, Authorized, and Affiliate.
The new program also introduces something that Barracuda is calling a certification for customer success, enabling sales and customer success staff to improve customer loyalty, drive higher customer satisfaction, and increase sales.
The new program will also provide new resources. For instance, resellers will gain access to sales and marketing enablement with resources showcasing how hyperscalers (cloud giants like AWS and Amazon) can provide their customers with joint solutions.
Understanding the Partner Point of View
Beal said Barracuda is promoting a channel philosophy that it calls “partner empathy”
“We put ourselves in partners’ shoes to see the world through their eyes, their go-to-market solutions, their customers, and when you do that, you really appreciate that, hey, they’re the ones out there that are responding to the customers’ different needs. They understand the preferences of the end customers.”
Another concept Beal said was important in the new program is “partner agility.” This comes from Barracuda’s partner advisory board. The advisory board described the vendor management process as chaotic. It’s challenging to be able to offer the right solutions to end customers in a world of partner ecosystems.
“Our duty and responsibility in the new partner program is to allow these partners to be agile and offer these choices to their prospects and customers,” Beal said.
