Carahsoft, which is very strong in the federal government space, is bringing Druva onto its GSA schedule.
Dave Packer, Druva’s Vice President, Corporate and Product Marketing
Cloud data protection vendor Druva has extended its recent focus on strategic channel relationships with a new partnership with Reston VA-based solutions provider Carahsoft. Carahsoft has a deep focus on the U.S. public sector market, and this partnership is intended to greatly strengthen Druva’s federal business.
Druva began in 2008 selling direct, with a focus on larger enterprises. As they broadened their market, they also broadened their go-to-market strategy, adding a channel component. While the channel is still well under half their business, it has been an area of strong growth. Druva has been accelerating that growth by entering into significant channel partnerships. This includes significant Large Account Resellers like CDW and SHI, and large system integrators, but it also includes partnerships with companies like ConnectWise, and Fordway in the U.K., which bolstered their MSP presence.
“Doing things on our own isn’t the right approach as we expand our coverage,” said Dave Packer, Druva’s Vice President, Corporate and Product Marketing. “We also expanded to be part of AWS marketplace and G Suite marketplace, because they provide another way for organizations to buy through them as a channel.”
The Carahsoft partnership is another of these strategic relationships.
“This partnership is to facilitate the acquisition by government of our products,” Packer said. “Carahsoft has established relationships in the federal space, and works with other technologies who are part of our ecosystem. This relationship brings us into their solutions stack for the federal government. It’s another way that we continue to expand reach to have access to key subject matter experts, in order to build expertise. We have already done extensive work developing products for regulated environments. All my top cloud customers are in those environments. This continues our progress, to access any government agency need.”
Through the partnership, Carahsoft will serve as Druva’s public sector distribution partner, and will proactively market and sell their flagship solution, Druva inSync, to the public sector marketplace and partner ecosystem. Druva inSync adheres to FIPS and ITAR regulations, and is built on AWS GovCloud which is a FISMA and FedRAMP compliant infrastructure. Carahsoft cited that combination of being FIPS 140 certified and AWS GovCloud-based were key elements in their decision to partner with Druva.
Druva previously had a minimal presence in the federal space.
“The federal business is new to us, even though we have made large investments to be able to meet the government requirements,” Packer said. “We didn’t have a dedicated federal focus team. To really have a presence there. it makes much more sense to do that with Carahsoft. Their expertise helps us into that market much easier. It makes us much more aligned to their way of thinking.”
Packer said that Druva’s cloud focus meshes nicely with the American federal government’s Cloud First initiative, issued in 2010.
“Cloud First states that any agency that’s going out to acquire new technology should first consider cloud, as opposed to on-premise,” he said. “Being on the GSA schedule and meeting requirements on the government check list are also critical.” The Carahsoft partnership puts Druva inSync on Carahsoft’s GSA Schedule, as well as its SEWP Contracts.
“We are continuing to look at novel ways to expand,” Packer said.
