Former partner sales executive at SolarWinds and longtime channel sales leader Jeff McCullough is now leading North American sales efforts at NetAlly, a brand known for network testing that now has plans for strategic expansion into enterprise sales and across cybersecurity needs. Channel Insider spoke with McCullough about his new role, NetAlly’s future plans, and what fuels his passion for the channel.
McCullough’s first time at channel-only vendor builds on years of experience
McCullough is no stranger to the channel landscape and building channel sales programs. He’s got decades of experience across vendors including SolarWinds and NetApp. His new role at NetAlly stands out in his career, though- the company is the first he’s worked with that is exclusively selling through the channel.
“This is the first 100 percent, channel-only company I’ve ever worked at, and that really excited me,” McCullough said. “When we talk about growth, we’re always talking about growth through partners. It’s great to work at a company, and work with leadership that is fully committed to the channel.”
NetAlly already works with various resale and distribution partners, and now McCullough and the team are focused on showing their value to solutions providers as well.
“Around 30 percent of our partner base now is MSP, and we want to grow that,” McCullough said. “Across our community we see a fair amount of transactional relationships, but we want to help partners grow through a shift towards more strategic opportunities with us.”
NetAlly looks to build deeper brand identity in security through evolving portfolio and enterprise push
NetAlly was established several years ago after it spun-out from NETSCOUT Systems, Inc. The vendor is best known at this point for a variety of wireless and wired network testing tools, but McCullough believes there is much more to the company’s promise than what many may see as simple testing.
“Our core values are simplicity, visibility, and collaboration, and we believe our technology empowers field workers in data centers, in branch locations and beyond to bring concerns and issues to knowledge workers quickly and efficiently.”
The vendor’s Link-Live platform is open-source and easily integrates with partners’ other tools, and according to McCullough, this affords service providers a way to increase visibility across networks and devices, particularly for companies with branch locations and event spaces and data centers with varied points of entry.
“NetAlly has always had strong core products, and customers and partners would say, ‘oh we love that we can scan all devices and networks in our environment, but it would be great to have something tell us where our potential liabilities are,’ and so that’s where Link-Live was created,” McCullough said. “We already have around 20,000 people using the platform, and I think it’s a real focus for us over the next year.”
NetAlly also plans to expand its footprint at the enterprise level and drive further into existing and new channel partner relationships. McCullough says this growth and enterprise expansion will not come at the expense of the SMB space, which NetAlly plans to continue to serve as it does currently.
“The last thing enterprises want is yet another tool or platform, and we know that. But if we can go to them and say, actually, we make many of your existing tools work better, and we can provide even greater insights for you, that’s a really strong value prop for us to deliver.”
Untapped opportunity still drives channel passion
After all this time, and all the changes the channel has seen, McCullough still sees the space as one full of potential and opportunity.
“It’s always been the untapped capacity partners bring to vendors that has excited me,” McCullough said. “There’s an almost unlimited potential in our space, and every day is about execution to get to that potential. Anyone can win in the channel, if you know how to execute and approach it well.”
He is now bringing that passion into bringing the expanded NetAlly portfolio to more channel partners over the next year and into the future.
Security remains a priority for many MSPs and their clients. Read more about other trends, including AI and data management, that will present opportunities in 2025.