Carbon Black's CEO has said the forthcoming acquisition of his company by virtualisation software giant VMware represents a huge opportunity for channel partners of both companies, providing routes into new and lucrative markets.
Speaking to Channel Pro at VMworld 2019, CEO Patrick Morley said the deal offered an ideal scenario for VMware partners looking to set up an MSSP practice.
"I think this is all goodness for our partners, and for many other [VMware] partners out there that are trying to figure out how to get into security, to leverage security as security becomes more and more mainstream," he said. "Us being part of VMware will give access to those partners to be able to start to bring security to bear for their customers."
"If you look back five years ago, the majority of security partners were security-focused partners. If you fast forward to today, you've got a lot of the major resellers out there that are actually starting up big, big security practices, because security is so important to everyone."
Morley also reiterated the value and importance of Carbon Black's channel programme, pointing out that the company's 500 or so global channel partners are responsible for around 90% of its business.
"In security in particular, the partner community is so important because it's all about trust relationships, and partners can provide local trust relationships with customers far beyond what a vendor can do."
He has also stressed that the company doesn't want to "do any harm" to its partner community by imposing any sudden changes to its programme. While he noted that VMware and Carbon Black's partner programmes will be merged to some degree "eventually", he stressed that any changes would be gradual, and that the two would remain separate for a reasonable period following the acquisition.
"We have no specific plans [to merge the programmes] at this stage," said Paul Fazzone, senior vice president of cloud native apps at VMware. "But you can imagine that there are a lot of efficiencies and synergies we will be able to realise. We will share more details on our specific plans as we get closer to, or actually through, the actual deal close."
