Companies know that the need for data is getting exponential and running a business can’t be done manually anymore. This has become more clear with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to have companies providing online services and products to digitalize themselves is a huge need, and they must do it quickly to compete in an ever-increasing digitalized world.

Daniel Fried (pictured, left), general manager and senior vice president of EMEA and worldwide channels at Veeam Software Corp., and David Harvey (pictured, right), vice president of strategic alliances at Veeam, spoke with Stu Miniman, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the VeeamOn event. They discussed the way their customers are digitalizing and the way Veeam and its partners fit into this digital transformation. (* Disclosure below.)

[Editor’s note: The following has been condensed for clarity.]

What’s new in the last year?

Fried: There is a big, big, big trend now in the market with customers requesting more and more services rather than … technologies and products on-premise. So we see that happening everywhere around the world. It is accelerating now again with the situation that we see worldwide because of this is bad situation [with COVID-19], where virtual is a big move that we can see from customers and the partners.

In the last year, we saw a real maturation in what we did talk about in hybrid cloud and multicloud. Could you bring us inside a little bit — especially some of the cloud pieces and maybe how Veeam differentiates from some of the competition out there?

Harvey: As customers continue to have their philosophical view related to on-premise cloud and off-premise cloud, what we’re showing is — whether it’s through the hardware partners, whether it’s through the application partners, or through the cloud partners — we’re enabling you to decide your workflows. And I think that’s the bit that’s a little bit different than some of the others that are out there. Taking that heritage that we’ve got in the virtual world and that mentality that certain IT departments have, it enables us to really synergize with those different partners as they go through their evolution.

This move and a maturation of what happened in the cloud is a significant impact on the channel. I’d love to hear … as to how your partners are now adjusting to that. How they’re now ready to help customers through these transitions?

Fried: So the big, big move that we’re seeing in the market is how everyone is moving more and more to … providing cloud services, whether it’s multicloud, hybrid cloud. We have all different types of scenarios, and this is a very interesting thing is — us helping them, educating them on how to use our technology to be able to very quickly provide services and capabilities to their end customers.

So we have big, big investments in this enablement in what we call sales acceleration admin software, because it’s all about businesses and helping our partners to get there and to move them as fast as possible. Again, there is … a big request from the end customers, and a lot of the partners understand that and have to move very quickly to this new world of services. And we are there to help and support, because we strategically know that this is a way, not only for Veeam, but for the entire market.

What you’re seeing and hearing [about digital transformation]?

Fried: When partners are providing services or providing online services, cloud services, or even providing products, they have to digitalize also themselves. And they are doing that at very high speed. I’m mentioning that because I’m extremely pleased with the ecosystems of partners that we have, because they understand it’s very good how the market is evolving. And it’s not only about the customers, but it’s also about themselves. That they are evolving extremely fast and digitalization of all the processors or the way they work with their end customers, it’s definitely one of the key elements, which is going to be extremely good for the future.

Driving the ecosystem, building the ecosystems, organizing the ecosystem — there’s absolutely key for the success of everyone, including Veeam.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the VeeamOn event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VeeamOn. Neither Veeam Software Corp., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE