Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 09 | Page 25

Finding the right channel partners who have the right skills and certification is one of the biggest challenges facing the growth of SAP’s PartnerEdge programme. the tools and capabilities they need to grow as Veeam experts,” says Lisa Strydom, Channel Manager Lead, Veeam Software, South Africa. According to Graham Porter, Head of Channels, Middle East at Veeam Software, the aim is to help its partners become self-sufficient in dealing with Veeam software. Channel partners also have in their portfolio, servers, hardware and virtualisation software from VMware and Microsoft. This helps them to build and implement a complete datacentre solution for end customers. Porter feels the biggest barrier to training is time constraints. “From what I have seen from other vendors, the training programmes tend to be quite time consuming and partners cannot afford to take technical consultants away from projects for an extended period of time. A lot of these training programmes also seem to be extremely heavy on content which can lead to information overload.” Security driver According to Ned Baltagi, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa at SANS, demand remains high for SANS training as the region continues to combat and respond to the increasing numbers of cyberattacks on commercial and government institutions. Since businesses are not investing in cybersecurity training, this leaves them open to cyberattacks. Many companies are not yet up to speed with government compliance and the need to strengthen cyber awareness and defend themselves from attack. Only a few are approaching compliance seriously and many are simply reacting to attacks as they occur. For cybersecurity solutions distributor Credence Security, its ratio of staff to the 25