Data Erasure Specialist Blancco Ramps Up Partner Sales In Data Center And Enterprise Markets

Blancco, a major provider of data erasure solutions, has seen its base of channel partners surge as part of a push to expand into the data center and enterprise markets.

Since launching a push into the channel just over a year ago, Blancco has grown from five partners to about 100, with recent partner additions including prominent solution provider Optiv Security.

[Related: 20 Hot Products And Services Solution Providers Need To Know]

Blancco's solution "has resonated quite well with MSPs," said Christina Walker, global director of channel sales and programs at the company. "It has exponentially taken off."

Blancco provides software that erases data from hardware including servers, storage devices and mobile devices—and provides an audit trail proving the data has been removed. The software can be used not just for erasing devices that are being decommissioned, but also for erasing specific data on certain assets—even if the devices are not reaching end of life.

Blancco, which has major offices in Austin, Texas, and Finland, owns roughly 80 percent to 90 percent of the worldwide market for disk erasure as part of ITAD, or IT asset disposition, Walker said.

Traditional markets for Blancco have included mobile device erasure—such as on behalf of mobile retailers and carriers.

But demand for Blancco’s solution is growing in the data center and enterprise markets in part through increased regulations around data protection and privacy, including European laws such as GDPR, Walker said.

Blancco has been a "natural fit" at Fredericksburg, Va.-based IntelliPeak Solutions for erasure of data for the firm's government clients, said Phil Flores, president and CEO of the MSP.

Blancco meets the critical use case of erasing devices so they can be be repurposed quickly, Flores said. "Customers want to dispose of the data without destroying the asset," he added.

"In my experience, Blancco is the first commercial, enterprise-ready [erasure] solution that is packaged and sold in the way that customers would consume it," Flores said, noting that Blancco's software is sold on a per-erasure basis. "You can buy 4,000 erasures, and after the work is performed, you know that every one of the devices has been wiped."

For the second half of 2018, Blancco's channel sales increased by 48 percent compared with the first half of the year, to $3.1 million.

Channel sales made up 46 percent of Blancco's data center and enterprise revenue during that time period, and the company is looking to increase that percentage in 2019, although isn't providing a specific estimate.

In terms of Blancco's financial incentives for partners, Flores said they are "very positive."

"I can say that Blancco is one of our more attractive partners as far as margin and incentive and profitability," he said.

“What I really appreciate about the technology is that because it's subscription- and license-based, it’s very flexible," Flores said. "So if a customer buys 10,000 erasures, and then later decides they only want 8,000, I can take 2,000 licenses and allocate them to my next opportunity. That's something that is not really available in other software technologies."