NetBrain Channel Program Overhauled To Spur 10x Growth: Exclusive

The network automation specialist wants to emphasize the benefits of NetOps and automation in the enterprise and highlight the valuable recurring revenue opportunity for channel partners. NetBrain’s own recurring revenue has climbed by 220 percent in the last three years, the company tells CRN.

Alex Alvarez

Network automation specialist NetBrain Technologies is revealing a nearly completely new version of its channel partner program with the goal of having 10x growth, the company told CRN.

The need for network automation has arguably never been higher as businesses search for ways to do more with less, grapple with talent shortage issues and accommodate hybrid work and distributed end users, said Alex Alvarez, senior vice president of Strategic Partnership and Channel Sales for NetBrain.

To that end, the company has increased its own annual recurring revenue (ARR) by 220 percent over the last three years since the start of the pandemic. Network operations (NetOps) and automation provides a new, valuable revenue stream to partners, Alvarez said.

NetBrain already does the majority of its business through channel partners, but now is the time for the company to significantly expand its channel reach, according to NetBrain’s channel leader.

“We see the ability to grow really fast and scale as directly tied to the success of our partners,” he said. “Our partners get excited about this ability to show their customers how they can operate better -- Many of our customers don’t know what you can do with automation today, so we’re working very hard to get that out there.”

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NetBrain’s fully revamped channel program offers several enhancements compared to its current program, including dedicated partner managers and resources, expanded MDF programs, new sales tools and joint selling assistance, structured training for sales and pre-sales teams, and additional discounts and margin for deal registration and development. The program is available now and existing partners will be migrated to the new program with their account managers, the company said.

Alvarez said that the focus of the new program was to make it “very lucrative” for the partners who are selling NetBrain and building out their networking services practices, while making it simple.

Burlington, Mass.-based NetBrain said that additional program elements tailored specifically to managed service providers will be introduced later this year.

A successful partner program revamp will translate to “10 times” the number of partners who are well-versed and comfortable selling network automation, Alvarez said.

NetBrain’s partners consist of both resellers that have strong networking services businesses, as well as MSPs who are managing their customers’ networking environments on their behalf. Arming network engineers with automation drives productivity and frees up budget, Alvarez said.

“A lot of our customers are having trouble hiring for all the slots they have open, so [this helps] them be more productive with the people they have. It also drives cost savings and today, pretty much all senior IT execs are looking for hard cost savings,” he said.

Injecting more network automation into a businesses’ IT environment also helps defend them against security incidents. The technology can alert IT if there has been “configuration drift” to help companies stay in compliance and prevent outages, Alvarez added.

Network automation and lifecycle comparison has become a standard of solution provider and NetBrain partner Technologent’s practice. “We provide [customers] visibility and analytical data decisions so they can be proactive,” said Danny Carrasco, chief of engineering for Technologent.

Irvine, Calif.-based Technologent’s has worked with the vendor for about five years, but recently integrated NetBrain’s technology into its automation stack. NetBrain was the firm’s platform of choice for discovery, but recently, the vendor began providing an automated diagnostic engine that allows partners to provide self-remediation and faster incident response, Carrasco said.

The new partner program is letting NetBrain enhance their offerings by hearing from partners and end customers directly, Carrasco said. “Their 100 percent channel model is great. There’s been a lot of investment that’s part of this new channel approach,” he added.

NetBrain’s NetOps technology is vendor-agnostic and can run over any networking environment. The technology gives partners a new in with a customer, Alvarez said.

“It lets [partners] go have a conversation with their customers about something that’s interesting to the executives because they’re bringing them something they didn’t know they could do -- most IT people don’t know that you can automate network operations like we do [and] a lot of times, [partners] will be the ones leading the charge by having those conversations.”