Barracuda’s Michelle Hodges on New Role & Channel Plans

Security vendor Barracuda recently announced it had appointed Michelle Hodges as its senior vice president of global channels and alliances. Hodges shared her early plans and priorities with Channel Insider.

Channel veteran tapped to lead global strategy for security vendor

Hodges has decades of experience in building and scaling successful partner networks worldwide. She has held senior leadership roles overseeing global channel and alliance strategy at GitLab, Gigamon, Riverbed, Apptio, Intel, VMware, SAP, Microsoft, and, most recently, Ivanti.

Now, she’ll take that experience to Barracuda’s global channel approach, according to the company, to enhance and accelerate growth through that ecosystem.

“Michelle’s appointment reflects Barracuda’s deep commitment to empowering our partners with innovative solutions and managed security services that are easy to buy, deploy, and use,” said Geoff Waters, CRO at Barracuda Networks, in a press statement. “Her experience and leadership will be instrumental in advancing the Barracuda Partner Success Program, enhancing our go-to-market execution, and accelerating growth.”

“With every new opportunity, I look at the three P’s of people, product, and partners. Barracuda is an authentic, partner-first organization, investing in channel organizations to help them grow and succeed,” said Hodges. “Everyone who works for Barracuda shares that commitment.”

Hodges went on to emphasize that Barracuda’s focus on partner and customer success excited her as she considered taking the new role.

“From a product perspective, it’s important for me that a software company develops products with the customer in mind: how they’re going to consume it, use it to drive value, and solve their business problems,” Hodges said. “Barracuda creates products that are purpose-built for managed service providers and designed around the current and emerging needs of both partners and their customers.”

As she settles into her role, Hodges is committed to meeting current Barracuda partners at various industry events and meetings with the company’s partner advisory board.

“I’m taking every opportunity I can to meet with, talk to, and – most importantly – listen to our partners,” Hodges said. “As I build these relationships, it’s wonderful to see the level of engagement and trust between Barracuda and its partners.”

Barracuda seeks to expand and accelerate its worldwide channel opportunity

The news of Hodges’ appointment seems to signal a renewed commitment from Barracuda to the success of its partner program and broader approach to the channel.

To Hodges, the most crucial part of her first weeks in the role will be spending time with the partners already working with the security vendor to learn from them what is working and what could be improved.

“Our goal is to consider partner feedback when making strategic decisions that could impact partners. Partner engagement is central to our operating model, and I look forward to diving in,” said Hodges.

Hodges says she and the wider team will take that feedback with them as they iterate new ways for Barracuda to support its MSP partners moving forward.

“I’m focused on working with partners and colleagues worldwide, including in Asia-Pacific, to ensure we consistently deliver exceptional value for partners while helping their customers to strengthen their security posture with solutions that are easy to buy, deploy, and use,” Hodges said. “Innovation, automation, and engagement are critical for successful partner relationships – you will find me focusing much of my energy in those areas in the early days and long term.”

The news comes months after Barracuda launched its partner engineer community and introduced updates to its email security solution.

Back in October, we reported on Barracuda’s phishing report findings. Catch up on how QR phishing has grown as a threat to businesses and individuals.