What Happened:
Cohesity completed its merger with Veritas NetBackup in December 2024, acquiring the enterprise backup solution while spinning off Veritas's mid-market product into a separate company called Arctera. The combined organization now manages approximately $1.5 billion in revenue with North America representing $500-600 million.
The company operated separate partner programs until August 2025, allowing partners to continue using familiar processes for either Cohesity or Veritas solutions. A unified program launched August 1, combining elements from both legacy programs, followed by a complete redesign planned for spring 2026.
Cohesity is transitioning to a 100% channel model, converting previously direct accounts (including major financial services and transportation companies) to partner-led relationships. The move eliminates route-to-market confusion that channel leaders at other companies often navigate with strategic direct exceptions.
These insights were discussed during a conversation on the Partnerships Unraveled podcast by Channext.
Our Take:
Cohesity’s Veritas deal shows how much of channel strategy lives below the surface of the merger announcement. The company is trying to reconcile two cultures, two partner programs and two routes to market while keeping the largest global integrators on side. Running “red” and “green” programs in parallel through August gave partners a soft landing, but Cohesity is being unusually explicit that the August integration was only version one, with a deeper redesign already penciled in for 2026.
The more aggressive move is the commitment to be truly 100% channel. Many vendors describe themselves as “channel first” while quietly holding onto a handful of direct strategic accounts. Cohesity is going the other way, migrating marquee direct customers through partners and accepting the short-term hit that comes with giving up that extra margin. For partners, that removes a persistent source of anxiety: the fear that a vendor might go around them on the biggest deals. For Cohesity, it becomes a differentiator in a market where multiple vendors can claim credible technology, but far fewer can credibly say every deal, including the largest, goes through the channel.
Underneath those structural moves, Mark Conley, Vice President of Cohesity’s Channel Sales, offers “four truths” offer a useful diagnostic for anyone running a partner program. When a relationship stalls, the problem usually traces back to one of four areas:
The solution has fallen behind
The economics no longer excite either sellers or the partner P&L
The sales process has accumulated too much friction
Trust has eroded because of turnover, poor communication or perceived channel conflict.
Cohesity’s emphasis on simplifying approvals and registrations, and on moving legacy direct business into the channel, is effectively an attempt to shore up the “profit,” “simplicity” and “trust” legs of that stool at the same time.
Overall, the direction is clear: fewer gray areas on routes to market, more structure around feedback and iteration, and a channel leader who sees storytelling as part of the job description.
Listen to the full interview here.