Gerhard Fourie Channel Lead, Commvault Africa

Gerhard Fourie has been appointed channel lead at Commvault Systems, Inc. in Africa.

He will oversee a drive for growth across the company’s recently expanded region that includes the entire African continent (excluding Egypt) and the Indian Ocean Islands.
 
He joined the software company in June 2016 as channel Manager for South Africa, and says of his new position: “I am excited to concentrate on optimising our distribution landscape and increasing our resource coverage throughout the entire expanded region. This is instrumental in driving sales across Africa through our 100% channel focus.”
 
While overseeing the entire Africa region and the Indian Ocean islands, he will ensure that Commvault creates awareness within the entire region about the power of firm’s data management platform.
 
“Mauritius will be our main focus in the Indian Ocean Islands, due to its levels of economic activity and its position as a business hub for the East Africa region. Madagascar is also a strategically important island for us due to its richness in resources and minerals,” he says.
 
Optimising distribution
In terms of Commvault’s SaaS data protection offering, he says that as an operational data centre solution, Metallic is currently only available in South Africa.
 
“However, customers currently using the South African Azure Data Centres for other requirements, such as Office 365, or running workloads, and who are not opposed to locating their data in South Africa, can procure Metallic.”
 
Some of Fourie’s priorities include aligning Commvault Africa with OEM partners in the region. This is to ensure growth in Africa while supporting its sales team with a skilled partner base.
 
He adds that the entire Africa and Indian Ocean region reporting to regional director Kate Mollett will allow Commvault Africa to drive a more streamlined and focused message to its customers, by ensuring it has a capable and skilled partner ecosystem delivering solutions to its customers in the region. She oversees Commvault’s Africa region with a focus on extending the company’s market share and leveraging Commvault’s expanding portfolio, Metallic offering, into new markets across the continent.
 
Driving awareness
“My priority over the next 6 months is to ensure top of mind awareness when organisations consider the challenges with data management. We bring 25 years of experience to the table and can add significant value to businesses in Africa,” Fourie adds. “My goal is to position Commvault as the leading data management partner of choice. We must empower our customers to achieve the fastest time to value from their data management investment and also to be prepared for future needs.“
 
Mollett says that in South Africa, her firm is well positioned to work with partners and the end user community to assist with compliance to the Protection of Personal Information (PoPI) Act.
 
She explains: “We can help customers understand the nature of their data, particularly if they are stored in disparate silos across their entire environment. By ensuring that they are taking the right steps to protect personal and sensitive information, we are able to help them navigate this complex process.“