XChange: Symantec Offers New Incentives Around Backup Exec
Don Van Valin, head of Symantec's commercial channel in the Western Region, said during a Tech Symposium Monday that solution providers who get certified in either the company's backup or security products can earn 5 percent more on small and medium-size business deals. Gain certification in both, and the additional margin increases to 8 percent.
Van Valin acknowledged that Symantec's partner program could be overwhelming, due to the breadth of the company's products, which are covered in 11 different specializations. As a result, the company has made simplification of its program an ongoing mission.
[Related: XChange Solution Provider 2012 Coverage ]
"We have a very comprehensive partner program. It can be overwhelming at times," Van Valin said. "However, we have simplified it over the years to be able to provide you areas of specialization where you can fit that into your business model where it makes sense."
Throught the end of September, Symantec is offering 30 percent of additional margin on the front end for selling Backup Exec 2012.
"It's a great opportunity between now and the end of September to make money on a great technology," Van Valin said.
Symantec unveiled Backup Exec 2012 in February. A major feature in the new product, most of which is generally available, is the ability to back up virtualized and physical environments, which is part of the release's V-Ray Edition.
Backup Exec 2012 also includes a small business edition that the company said can be installed and configured in three steps. Symantec has bundled its data and system recovery technology under the same license. For larger businesses, Symantec offers Backup Exec 2012 as on-premise software and as an appliance with 5.5 TB of disk storage.
A Backup Exec.cloud version is available for businesses that want to avoid maintenance and upgrade hassles. New to Backup Exec.cloud is a data recovery option powered by Doyenz, which will be available in the spring.
Doyle Stutzman, president and CEO of Twinsburg, Ohio-based Compass Computer Group, was one of the solution providers listening to Van Valin. Stutzman sells backup, remote monitoring and antivirus as services, as well as hardware from Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Nursing homes and hospitals are a sizable portion of Compass' business.
Stutzman is looking to replace the company's current backup service provider. He likes Symantec's product because it does recovery to hardware that's different from the hardware where the data originated. Vendors often claim to provide so-called bare metal disaster recovery, but their products often fall short.
"You have to be careful because not all bare-metal backups are equal," he said. "Some of them have to go back to the exact same hardware." Stutuzman has had experience with Symantec's product and says it works.
While "enthused" about what he heard from Van Valin, Stutzman said Symantec is just one of many vendors willing to partner with him on online backup, so he's going to shop around.
"They didn't use to have all the competition in cloud backup. There's a lot of companies doing this now," he said. "So their product has to have all the features that these new [services] coming out have."