Barracuda is transitioning to reflect the growth in managed services and security for Office 365 and its extensions. Figures show revenues from subscriptions up 20% while appliances fall away. Earnings are up overall as the company returns to profit.
The importance of managed services has been reflected in internal structures with Jason Howells moving from running the UK operation to EMEA head of managed services. He tells IT Europa that while the UK is the main base, it is seeing activity across the region with customers in France and moves in the Netherlands even without any focus. New products announced in the US are coming to EMEA soon, and this will mean further stimulus. The company remains 100% channel focused,
The migration to Office365 took many by surprise, he says, including Barracuda but it is engaged in working with both traditional resellers and the emerging MSP wave. “For MSPs, integration is key and we are monitoring and working with the likes of ConnectWise and Autotask; the idea is to wrap other stuff to automate it and provide a total solution.”
“We are seeing more action in all channels as we build the MSP community,” he says. The team in Europe will be expanded. But the emphasis will be on simplicity of engagement and fixed prices, although the conversations with channels are on sales messaging, marketing and getting security aligned with integrated products. Barracuda is focusing on third-party cloud infrastructure and managed security service providers. Products aim to protect customers migrating to Office 365 and Azure as well as Amazon Web Services, with managed email security and managed next-generation firewall offerings.
It stays focused on that SMB sector and smaller businesses generally, with plans for education and training. “MSP remains a huge opportunity here,” he concludes.