Commvault announced the appointment of industry veteran Graham Brown as Channel Manager for the South Africa/South African Development Community (SADC) region.
With close to three decades of experience in the IT industry, Brown returns to Commvault to take up the role, having previously joined the company in 2019 as an Enterprise Account Manager for the financial services sector.
“Earlier this year, I decided to explore different avenues in the database and application space. Having been involved in data protection and data management for such a long time, and with it being a career passion of mine, this is what led me back to Commvault,” says Brown.
He points out that he is rejoining Commvault at a pivotal time in its history as the hybrid world is evolving rapidly. The combination of artificial intelligence, together with the evolution and disparity of workloads and the adoption of cloud computing, is presenting customers and partners with new challenges.
“Against the backdrop of cyber resiliency, cybersecurity, ransomware and data protection, data management as a discipline and as a function almost becomes that much more difficult to achieve,” says Brown. “Commvault has been one of those organisations that has managed to reinvent itself over and over again as the data management landscape has evolved. Commvault has been able to reposition itself, reinvent, and find new innovative ways of doing data management.”
He notes that significant opportunities still exist for Commvault's channel management strategy in the South African and SADC markets, as there is still a significant amount of potential for growth in the region.
“If you look at us as an emerging market, some of the market drivers present here provide us with so many opportunities to make a difference. Obviously, there is the energy crisis which calls for energy solutions and sustainability in terms of the need to go green,” he says.
“Additionally, there is datafication and artificial intelligence, which are revolutionising what we do on a daily basis. So, it is indeed a very interesting time for the IT sector, and cybersecurity and data protection will likely be tested quite heavily in the South African market.”
Solving complexities
“This,” he says, “coupled with the rise of cloud platforms and as-a-service models, is inclined to offer up many opportunities for Commvault and its channel partners. However, these opportunities are likely to extend beyond the supply of software, Software-as-a-Service, or even hardware technology from Commvault, but also to the skills and services that are complementary to solving these complexities.”
As the newly appointed Channel Manager, Brown says that one of his main goals will be to awaken some of the ‘sleeping giants’ within Commvault’s channel ecosystem.
“There is untapped potential that is waiting to be activated. When there is a mutual alignment and big emphasis on trust in terms of what partners in the region are aiming for, and there is agreement on what defines success for the partnership for both Commvault and for a reseller; only then will the recipe begin to come together.”
© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd. | All Rights Reserved.
printer friendly version