Barracuda Strengthens Award-Winning Worldwide Partner Program

CAMPBELL, Calif., April 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Barracuda Networks, Inc. (NYSE: CUDA),

Press Release Highlights:

• Enhanced program establishes global consistency with more levels for greater participation, and rewards partner loyalty at each of the new levels – Premier, Preferred, Authorized and Registered.
• Barracuda expands deal registration to include more product models to reward partner-generated opportunities.
• Partners will benefit from increased discounts for certain product families and receive an increased Not For Resale purchase limit to use towards solutions in their own networks and for training.
• New MSP Program available for approved, qualifying partners expands partner services for Barracuda NG Firewall and Barracuda Backup.

Barracuda has enhanced its channel program to provide the necessary structure and tools to allow resellers to successfully sell and support Barracuda solutions for mutual customers. The new program is designed to accelerate profitability for loyal partners, and to attract new, motivated partners.

"Over the years we've added a tremendous amount of innovative technologies to our solution portfolio to provide our channel partners with the best possible options to solve security and storage challenges for customers," said Michael Hughes, SVP Worldwide Sales, Barracuda. "We'll continue to focus on ensuring our partners are equipped with the necessary tools and resources to solve these IT challenges, but also better aligning the program to meet the different needs of resellers at every partner level."

About the New Program

In an effort to reward and better support VARs at all levels of the partner program, Barracuda has added an additional level – Premier, and adjusted the revenue and training requirements at all levels. The restructured program levels are as follows:

• Previous levels included Diamond, Platinum and Certified
• New levels change to Premier, Preferred, Authorized and Registered

Growing and regional partners will be able to more competitively offer Barracuda solutions to local customers through improved deal registration and protection for more product models, with higher discounts.  

"Barracuda offers great solutions and strong partner support, which has helped us establish a strategy for solving midmarket and K-12 IT challenges with solutions that are a great match for our customers. This paid off last year as we expanded our business in those areas," said Steve Katsman, VP and CIO, Micro Technology Group, a Premier Barracuda Partner. "The new partner program provides us with the opportunity to further expand our business with Barracuda – the improved NFR program, revised discount structure, and more flexible deal registration are nice additions."

Managed Services

Under Barracuda's new program, channel partners who qualify and are approved by Barracuda to provide managed services can do so by leveraging Barracuda Backup and Barracuda NG Firewall. This option opens up new revenue generation opportunities for channel partners who offer managed security and storage services to customers.

"As a managed service provider, we work to deploy the best possible solutions on the back end that are capable of complementing our services to ensure our customers' networks remain healthy," said Tim Aguilar, CEO and Owner, Calculated Research & Technology, a Barracuda Partner. "We look forward to working with Barracuda and exploring its MSP options for our customers given the diverse capabilities offered with Barracuda Backup and Barracuda NG Firewall."

Partner evaluation products (Not For Resale), Deal Registration, Discounts and Barracuda University

Partners on each level will have the opportunity to take advantage of improved discounts for evaluation products throughout Barracuda's broad portfolio, extensive product training from Barracuda University and a more flexible deal registration process - details include:

• Increased the purchase limit for Barracuda Networks products and services for partners to use in their own environments, for training and to secure and backup their own businesses.  
• 4x Barracuda solutions can now be registered, and product discounts have increased for approved registrations to further reward partner-generated opportunities.
• Barracuda University is available to assist partners with simple and effective training options to help meet the partner program goals and requirements at each level.

"We've always thought of Barracuda as a security company, but they're no strangers to the storage space. With its Data Protection Plus offering, Barracuda offers robust products in the data storage space to address modern IT challenges," said Daniel Bailey, Director, Altinet, a Barracuda UK Partner. "Barracuda provides a simple solution to customer challenges like data backup and email archiving and offers excellent partner training and sales support."

Upon launching its new partner program, Barracuda partners in good standing will be officially enrolled in the new levels. For more information on Barracuda's Partner Program, please see the resources below:

Resources
Barracuda Partner Portal – https://www.barracuda.com/portal

About Barracuda Networks, Inc. (NYSE: CUDA)

Barracuda provides cloud-connected security and storage solutions that simplify IT. These powerful, easy-to-use, and affordable solutions are trusted by more than 150,000 organizations worldwide and are delivered in appliance, virtual appliance, cloud, and hybrid deployments. Barracuda's customer-centric business model focuses on delivering high-value, subscription-based IT solutions that provide end-to-end network and data security. For additional information, please visit www.barracuda.com.

Barracuda, Barracuda Networks, and the Barracuda Networks logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Barracuda Networks, Inc. in the U.S. or other regions.

Forward-Looking Statements 

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the functionality, performance, and benefits of Barracuda's products and of the new channel program.  You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and that could cause the Company's results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.  Factors that could materially affect the Company's business and financial results include, but are not limited to customer response to the Company's products, as well as those factors set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update the forward-looking information to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date of this press release.

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SOURCE Barracuda Networks, Inc.