US security specialist Unitrends has named Zycko as its EMEA distributor.
Unitrends is 100% channel and offers cloud-powered backup and continuity solutions.
Talking to IT Europa, Mike Dalton, senior vice-president of international sales at Unitrends says it has a sweet spot in the mid-market, though it sells its products to everyone from SMB to enterprise, offering both software and physical appliances in what it calls continuity solutions.
He says a key feature which is attractive to partners is its ability to work with both physical and virtual drives, on premise and in the cloud. "Not all vendors can do this," he says.
In particular he points to the attraction of offering SLAs with user-set terms as to time to restore, using either its own hosting sites, whether in the US, the UK or Germany, or using Amazon Web Services.
In this market, word of mouth is a key driver of new business. As part of its recently announced channel programme, Unitrends has said it will reward partners who are active in social media, promoting use of the products and engaging in discussions, he confirms.
David Galton-Fenzi, CEO of Zycko, says: "We aim to choose best in class, and there is a great synergy between our two companies - we both have a focus on networking, cloud continuity and recovery, and we share a common approach to the market." Since Zycko has AWS cerfication, it can offer this model of backup to its partners. The only certification required by Unitrends is for those partners wanting to sell its Boomerang virtual machine mover.
Unitrends announced in March 2016 that it grew its cloud business 250% year-on-year, says David Galton-Fenzi. "They are looking to replicate that success in the wider EMEA marketplace. At Zycko, we are uniquely placed to help Unitrends achieve that goal, though access to our established pan-EMEA channel network, and experienced sales, marketing and technical teams."
Paul Eccleston, head of Rigby Private Equity, owner of Zycko and distributor Wick Hill says: "The appointment of Zycko by Unitrends is a significant step forward for our expansion plans. Customers are asking for simplification in this market and we have seen this in other product areas such as apps performance management and networking. It also demonstrates that there is a strong need for a pan-EMEA distributor that can work with companies wanting to expand and grow internationally."
He adds that RPE is supporting the expansion of support teams at Zycko, building up its cloud capabilities.
It is also clear that the backup market is spreading beyond traditional channels and partners and that these companies are gearing up to address the backup and compliance for the wall of data expected to be generated by industrial scale data generation and capture.