Data & information management solution providers CommVault have appointed the former marketing manager of Microsoft Australia to strengthen their channel relationships in the Asia-Pacific region.

Following 20 years in various positions at Microsoft, Harvey Sanchez says he is excited about working with CommVault in the role of director of channel alliances & cloud.

"After 20 years I wanted to do something different,” Sanchez says, "and be involved with an organisation that reminded me of Microsoft in the early days.”

Sanchez says the Commvault opportunity offered just that.

"They’re a company with best of breed technology that’s going through a real growth spurt, they have a really strong culture, and they’re still small enough that I felt I could make a difference, and not be just another cog in the wheel.”

The appointment isn’t the end, though, with the company preparing to announce a series of new initiatives to its channel partner program in the next few weeks.

"We are a 100% channel organisation, we don’t sell anything direct, so we’re looking at empowering our partners in a much more effective way.”

Sanchez says the new program will see a focus on top-tier ‘platinum’ partners, such as Ingram Micro in New Zealand, as well as developing ‘incubation’ partners in niche sectors like healthcare and government and strengthening alliances with OEM partners such as Hitachi Data Systems.

"The most important thing for our partners is that they see us as having not only the focus but also the commitment to see things through, and this is about putting the right processes in place to show that.

"We want to make sure our partners have the resources available to them, that we’re getting them educated about the products and about the data management and protection industry, which is growing tremendously.”

That growth has been particularly pronounced locally, where staff numbers have doubled under the guidance of NZ manager Simon Probert, Sanchez says.

"Simon has a really good team in New Zealand, he’s one of the biggest stars in CommVault in terms of how he’s leveraged the channel to get exposure.”

Sanchez will be in New Zealand next week for Microsoft’s Tech.Ed conference.