Zerto’s Alliances Champion, Peter Kerr, Named Among Channel Partners “Top Gun 51” Channel Leaders
Kerr identified by top channel leaders as an executive in forefront of partner advocacy
Boston, September 10, 2019 – Zerto, an industry leader for IT resilience, is pleased to announce that Peter Kerr, vice president of strategic alliances at Zerto, has been named a “Top Gun 51” by Informa Tech outlets, Channel Partners and Channel Futures, labeling Kerr as one of the premier leaders in the indirect IT and telecom channel. Kerr was named to the list by Informa editors in consultation with a distinguished group of analysts, master agency executives and leading distributors.
Kerr, with 20 years of experience in the IT industry, specializes in working with strategic partners to open and grow new markets and business opportunities for Zerto. Among other accomplishments at Zerto that landed Kerr in the “Top Gun 51,” judges were particularly impressed by a recent program Kerr spearheaded at Zerto where partners who are also Microsoft Certified resellers are paid up to $15,000 to create proofs of concept and customer strategies that bundle Zerto’s IT Resilience Platform with Azure deployments. This program has generated a significant amount of new revenue for the company.
To compile the Top Gun 51 list, launched this year in tandem with the annual MSP 501, Channel Partners and Channel Futures editors invited those who know channel executives best — distributors, master agents and industry analysts — to nominate leaders who exemplify channel advocacy and leadership.
Top Gun 51 nominations were received by analysts Anurag Agrawal, founder & chief global analyst, Techaisle; Diane Krakora, CEO of PartnerPath; and Jay McBain, principal analyst, global channels, Forrester. Master agents Avant Communications, MicroCorp, PlanetOne, TBI, Telarus and WTG weighed in, as did distributors Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Pax8.
The awards program defines a channel leader as possessing integrity, knowledge and confidence, the ability to inspire others, commitment and passion. He or she must be adept at recognizing the increasing diversity of partner types, revenue models and partner and customer journeys.
Those tasked with selecting the Top Gun 51 were asked to consider three criteria for selection:
- Advocates for the channel model with internal leadership. Proof points: Minimal or no house or named accounts. Product or service has “channel friendly” features and meets advertised claims for end user functionality. Few operational roadblocks to success within partner program.
- Is committed to partners’ business success: Proof points: Has increased the percentage of revenue coming through partners during tenure. Can show data to support innovative programs for, for example, use of MDF funds, training and certifications. Provides effective enablement.
- Works to earn trust: Proof points: Considered ethical and honest by partners. Is transparent about direction of company and limitations of product or service. Minimizes risk of engagement.
“It’s a true honor to be named to the Top Gun 51 list,” said Kerr. “Zerto places tremendous value in strategic partnerships, and I’m proud to be part of a team that works so hard to create strong, lasting partner relationships that consistently prove to be fruitful for both parties.”
Kerr will be recognized at the #TopGun51 gala banquet during Channel Partners Evolution, held this year September 9-12 in Washington, D.C.
“Today’s channel leaders must be futurists, accountants, technologists, marketers and evangelists,” says Lorna Garey, editor in chief of Channel Partners and Channel Futures. “We wanted to recognize these executives based on insights from within the community itself. I want to thank all of the master agents, distributors and analysts who helped us assemble a list that includes well-known names along with rising stars across a diverse range of companies.”
The complete 2019 Top Gun 51 list is available at Channel Partners.
About Zerto
Zerto helps customers accelerate IT transformation by reducing the risk and complexity of modernization and cloud adoption. By replacing multiple legacy solutions with a single IT Resilience Platform, Zerto is changing the way disaster recovery, data protection and cloud are managed. With enterprise scale, Zerto’s software platform delivers continuous availability for an always-on customer experience while simplifying workload mobility to protect, recover and move applications freely across hybrid and multi-clouds. Zerto is trusted by over 7,000 customers globally and is powering resiliency offerings for Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, AWS, Sungard AS and more than 350 cloud services providers. Learn more at Zerto.com.
About Informa Tech
Channel Futures, Channel Partners Online, Channel Partners Conference & Expo and Channel Partners Evolution are part of Informa Tech, a market-leading B2B information provider with depth and specialization in the information and communications technology sector. We help drive the future by inspiring the technology community to design, build and run a better digital world through our market-leading research, media, training and event brands. Every year, we welcome 7,400+ subscribers to our research, more than 3.8 million unique visitors a month to our digital communities, 18,200+ students to our training programs and 225,000 delegates to our events.