Exclusive: Elastic eyes global partner growth from ANZ base

Elastic's Vice President of Partner Ecosystems, International, Andrew Habgood, is steering the company's next phase of growth by scaling up its partner network across Asia Pacific, EMEA and beyond—with Australia and New Zealand playing a pivotal role.

Recently stepping up from his previous APJ remit to a broader international focus, Habgood said the shift comes at a crucial moment for the company as it moves to harness the best of each market globally.

"What we're trying to do is actually bring together the best of the best, the good ideas," he said. "There is a local market lens that needs to be applied everywhere we go - think globally, act locally."

Based in Sydney, Habgood's journey into tech started by chance when a computer shop owner asked him to help assemble machines. That led to roles at HP and Red Hat, where he ran Asia Pacific partner and sales teams, before joining Elastic two years ago.

"I came in with a very small team, knowingly, but with a purpose and a mission to really build out a partner ecosystem that was going to let us go from where we were two years ago to where we want to be in the next five and ten years," he said.

Elastic, a search-powered technology company, underpins solutions in security, observability, enterprise search and Gen AI. "We are a search platform that has been applied to so many use cases," Habgood said. "It's exciting to be part of."

The company's growth has been partner-led and product-driven, with nearly 6 billion downloads of its core open-source project. "We're not new to AI," he added. "We've been embedding AI into our products and technology for years."

Australia and New Zealand have emerged as key proving grounds for this partner-first strategy. The company recently appointed Tech Data as its distributor for ANZ to help expand its regional reach. "They have offices, roadshows and ways to reach partners that we don't have the manpower to get to," he explained.

Elastic works across several go-to-market models - resellers, system integrators, managed service providers (MSPs), hyperscalers and OEMs. This year, it recognised a standout group of ANZ-based partners at its local awards:

• Recon Technologies Pty Ltd – ANZ Partner of the Year

• NQRY Pty Ltd – Innovation Award

• Amazon Web Services Australia Pty Ltd – Cloud Partner of the Year

• ctrl:cyber – Managed Services Partner of the Year

• Atturra Limited – Reseller of the Year

• Skillfield Pty Ltd – Services Partner of the Year

• Deloitte Limited – Systems Integrator of the Year

Habgood said these partners reflect the maturity and diversity of Elastic's ecosystem in the region. "We're starting to see some local software providers embedding Elastic for selling out of Australia and New Zealand into other markets," he added.

Global partners also play a central role in Elastic's ecosystem, including the likes of Google Cloud, Microsoft, Oracle and Accenture. "We have native integrations with the hyperscalers, as well as strong OEM relationships," Habgood explained.

He said the ANZ region presents unique challenges, including low population density and geographic spread, requiring a more targeted partner approach. "How do you cover that?" he asked. "That's where the uniqueness comes in."

Elastic is addressing these gaps through specialised partners with reach into regional areas and sector-specific expertise. "In Asia Pacific, that is unique," he said. "Every other market is pretty much all metro or all scale. We are that quite hybrid."

The company also recently launched its AI Ecosystem - a global initiative bringing together partners who have demonstrated compatibility and technical integration with Elastic's AI capabilities. "Customers might use Amazon Bedrock or Microsoft AI Studio, but they probably need other parts to make the technology work," he said.

In ANZ, Elastic is identifying select partners to build deep expertise in Gen AI. "We want to get a couple of partners to be super well-equipped to lead the way," Habgood said.

The company is enhancing its partner portal with bite-sized training, sales playbooks, and easier access to Elastic's own enablement tools. "We want our ecosystem to be an extension of us," he said.

Managed services providers are a particular focus, with Elastic offering tools that help them lower costs and increase visibility. "We can make it easier for their analysts to understand what's happening and look at longer data trends," he said. "In observability, we're helping them faster understand root cause in a more meaningful way."

Elastic is also offering its own security orchestration and automation technology through an OEM model to help partners deliver full security capabilities. "We are OEMing Times as a SOAR provider," Habgood said. "A lot of partners have already come to us and are super excited about that."

Looking ahead to 2025, Habgood said his focus will be ensuring Elastic's growing customer interest is matched by a vibrant and skilled partner ecosystem. "We have a huge amount of unsatiated interest that we just have not been able to do by ourselves," he said. "What I want to see is that happening because of a rich and vibrant partner ecosystem."