‘I think it’s a really smart strategic move by Veeam to integrate the security features and the AI features, bring them together and make them more cohesive,’ an SHI executive tells CRN.
The push at Veeam to bring a unified approach to solving crucial security and AI challenges is poised to create massive growth opportunities with the solution and service providers that are on the front lines in the shift to the AI era, top Veeam executives said Tuesday.
During VeeamON 2026 in New York City, Veeam CEO Anand Eswaran (pictured) and other leaders at the company touted the company’s newly unveiled DataAI Command Platform as the answer to addressing the biggest questions that partners and customers have when it comes to security and governance for AI.
[Related: Channel Has ‘Huge’ Role In Securing AI Agent Revolution: Top Execs]
Without a doubt, “there are a lot of customers out there who are looking at, ‘how do we protect ourselves in this agentic era?’” said Bahare Chanady, regional vice president for presales at SHI International, a major Veeam partner and No. 12 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 for 2025. “I think Veeam is providing the solution for the customers who are looking at their options to secure their environment.”
The DataAI Command Platform brings together an intelligence graph with data security posture management (DSPM) and AI security posture management (AI-SPM)—as well as with capabilities for governance, compliance, privacy and resilience.
Leveraging Veeam’s $1.72 billion acquisition of Securiti last fall, “we are creating a new category that did not exist before—and that category is data and AI trust,” Eswaran said during his keynote Tuesday during VeeamON 2026. “And that, in our opinion, is the missing layer in the AI stack. And it is the essential layer to talk about accelerating safe AI at scale.”
The key, he said, is that Veeam is aiming to “unify multiple domains together at the same time, connected to one data fabric—data and AI security, governance, compliance, privacy and resilience coming together in one platform.”
Crucially, “everything I’ve described here is not a vision. It’s not something which is going to come in a year. It is product truth today,” Eswaran said.
Veeam is entirely focused on working with its channel partners to bring this new approach to data and AI security to the market, executives said.
The Veeam data and AI trust platform is set to provide a huge opportunity for partners to have new conversations with their customers, according to Kevin Rooney, vice president for Americas partner sales at Veeam.
Securiti has now been integrated into Veeam’s existing deal registration program, he said during a session at VeeamON 2026 Tuesday.
“We are a partner-first company. We built this company with all of you. We will continue to do that, and we are fortunate enough to fold Securiti AI into that program,” Rooney said. “We will have significant margin opportunity for you [around] upselling into the enterprise accounts. Securiti AI is a game changer for our existing Veeam partners.”
There is also a substantial and growing SMB opportunity for solution and service providers to work with Veeam, according to Veeam CRO John Jester.
Compared to several years ago, Veeam’s expanded set of offerings has massively increased the total addressable market (TAM) for partners to sell to SMB customers—including through offerings such as Veeam’s fast-growing Data Cloud Vault offering, Jester said Tuesday.
Today, “we’ve almost tripled what we can sell to [an average SMB] customer,” he said.
The bottom line for partners is that Veeam is seeking to provide a means for changing the conversation from backup and recovery to focus on data trust, said Mike Rau, vice president of global partners at Veeam.
“Data trust opens up a much larger business for you with your customers,” Rau said while addressing partners Tuesday.
There’s no question that Veeam is making the necessary moves to position the company for growth in the converging areas of security and AI, as these segments become increasingly critical for customers, according to SHI’s Chanady.
“I think it’s a really smart strategic move by Veeam to integrate the security features and the AI features, bring them together and make them more cohesive,” she told CRN.
The unified platform is able to leverage one of the big advantages that Veeam has had for a long time, which is “the simplicity of the platform,” Chanady said.
Clearly, the market has evolved from what once was traditional backup, with the rise of ransomware and data extortion attacks putting the onus on data protection vendors to provider a deeper set of data security capabilities to partners and customers, she said.
With the expansion of its platform, Veeam is able to say, “‘not only can we restore your data, but we’ve got an ecosystem to keep it protected before it’s even compromised,’” Chanady said. “It’s been a really rapid revolution.”
The widespread adoption of AI—and the need to protect the data leveraged by AI systems—means that such capabilities will only become more pivotal going forward, she said.
“Everything has to start with the data,” Chanady said. “When all is said and done, AI—whether it’s in the form of agents or anything else that may emerge—is all based on the data. That’s the asset itself.”
