Global data centre company, Equinix, Inc. has appointed Oren Yehudai to lead its EMEA Channel Partner Programme.

Yehudai joins from Palo Alto Networks where he led EMEA inside channel sales and was credited with reportedly driving growth for the cybersecurity firm through channel sales and partnerships. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Yehudai held senior channel roles for tech companies including NetApp and ClickSoftware.

Based in Equinix’s European headquarters in Amsterdam, Yehudai will lead a team of more than 20 dedicated channel people and be responsible for channel operations across the region.

The programme allows partners to both resell and refer Equinix services, and is intended to help enterprise customers obtain the IT services and expertise they need from the channel community they are accustomed to working with, the release stated.

Since its inception, the global Channel Partner Programme has reportedly achieved year-on-year growth of 27% and has signed up more than 300 partners in EMEA since 2015.

Equinix has strategic partnerships with cloud service providers that include AWS, Cisco, Google Cloud Platform, IBM SoftLayer, Microsoft Azure and NetApp.

Members of the Equinix Channel Partner Program include Carpathia, Datalink, Datapipe, Dimension Data, F5, Oracle and Unitas Global.

Commenting on the appointment, Eugene Bergen Henegouwen, Senior Vice President, Sales, Equinix EMEA said: “With over 13 years of experience in sales, business development, consulting and project management, Oren is well placed to lead our EMEA Channel Partner Programme. Equinix has seen significant growth in the region within the past few years and we are delighted Oren has joined us to help build upon this success, driving channel sales and delivering new partnerships.”

On his appointment, Oren Yehudai, Senior Channel Sales Director, Equinix EMEA said: “I am thrilled to be joining Equinix to further develop and grow the Channel Partner Programme across EMEA. Building a successful channel business will increasingly be dependent on being part of the right ecosystems, with industry players needing to work with partners that can connect them with a broad range of vendors, service providers and cloud companies. My hope is that in a few years, Equinix is recognised by the partner community as the place to achieve this.”