Leticia Correa, Channel Marketing Manager at Vertiv LATAM, explains how her company works with channel partners, describes her management philsophy and outlines how Vertiv’s partners deliver solutions to end-users.
What does your position entail?
As the Channel Marketing Manager for Vertiv Latin America, I work intensely to strengthen our brand’s presence in building the region’s digital economy. Vertiv is a leader in critical infrastructure solutions for data centers, and my mission is to spread knowledge about the challenges of our market during this disruptive time: the construction of new data centers or the retrofitting of traditional data centers for the Artificial Intelligence era. The explosion of data driven by AI requires a new kind of critical infrastructure.
The challenge lies in designing, implementing and managing data centers capable of handling the high data processing loads of AI models in a sustainable way. This involves optimizing energy and water consumption in data centers. Vertiv, along with its channel ecosystem, provides hardware, software, and services for companies of all sizes seeking excellence in their new data center models. My role is to strategically work with our channel partners so their leaders can identify business opportunities and deliver state-of-the-art, sustainable critical infrastructure to their clients.
Can you explain how your company works with channel partners?
Our partners are responsible for understanding the customer’s challenge, designing the solution to overcome it, and also offering continuous services for the operation of the client’s data center. This is a critical position that requires highly skilled professionals, prepared to anticipate uptime challenges in data centers, ensuring the continuity of digital business operations.
Our portfolio offers critical infrastructure solutions for data centers, with a focus on power supply (UPS) and cooling systems. Both areas are undergoing significant changes with the rise of Artificial Intelligence. It’s essential for partners to have a portfolio of solutions that support this new model.
The AI-driven data center focuses on two primary operations: ‘training’, where models are built and expanded over time, and ‘inference,’ where existing models are used to derive a response – essentially handling user requests. Vertiv provides solutions for both of these areas.
However, simply having access to our portfolio is not enough. The partner’s expertise is essential for the advancement of data centers towards AI. All partners can leverage the intelligence of technology, business, and management from the Vertiv Partner Program, which offers training, certification, incentives and exclusive benefits.
One of the pillars of the Vertiv Channel Program is precisely to offer a wide and solid range of in-person and online training. Through the Vertiv Partner Program, each partner will find the exact training they are looking for on market trends and Vertiv’s offerings.
One of our key differentiators is The Vertiv Academy LATAM, located in Greater São Paulo, Brazil. The Vertiv Academy Latin America replicates critical digital infrastructure in a data center environment, allowing hands-on training in a safe and controlled testing environment.
Local instructors train partner experts on best practices for managing and servicing critical digital infrastructure, with an emphasis on Vertiv’s power and thermal management solutions. The training offered at The Vertiv Academy Latin America is available in Portuguese, Spanish and English, and is delivered by critical infrastructure experts with an average of more than 10 years of industry experience.
What is your management philosophy?
The growth and profitability of our channels is a key objective for Vertiv. We believe this should be achieved through a strong commitment from our partners – and also from the Vertiv team working in the background – to ensuring the continuity of the client’s digital processes.
Data center operations rely on both Vertiv partners and Vertiv solutions. This presents a huge business opportunity, but one that will only yield benefits for those who continuously invest in training and upskilling.
The complexity of data center operations is such that, in practice, the lines between supplier and client blur, with everyone working side by side to sustain Latin America’s digital economy. Partners who embrace this culture grow alongside Vertiv across the region.
Do you work differently with channel partners in Latin America compared to other regions?
We apply the global policies of the Vertiv Partner Program here.
How do your partners deliver Vertiv solutions to end-users?
Although we have partners focused on one-off sales, we also work with channels that stand out for their knowledge of complex technologies, which require customized projects.
These are consultative sales that build long-term relationships with data center managers using Vertiv solutions. In this context, partners who possess the expertise to work from project design through to offering maintenance and management services, while covering the entire implementation and testing phases of data centers, will have access to unique opportunities.
It is important to highlight that, with the arrival of the AI-era data center, this profile has become more valued than ever before.
There are opportunities for data center projects featuring Vertiv’s liquid cooling solutions. A Direct-to-Chip liquid cooling system is similar to what we are familiar with in a standard rack, except that the rack design includes a manifold to distribute the working fluid to the IT equipment (ITE).
This applies to servers, routers, etc., that are enabled for Direct-to-Chip cooling. In an immersion cooling system, however, the standard rack layout is replaced by horizontal tanks. In this data center format, the ITE is fully immersed in a thermally conductive dielectric fluid (a liquid that is non-electrically conductive).
The superior thermal performance of liquids compared to air ensures that the operational sustainability credentials of the data center increase significantly. This is a critical achievement for AI-era data centers.
How do you ensure channel partners flourish in a highly competitive market?
Vertiv has a robust channel program aimed at empowering our channel ecosystem partners to grow their businesses through knowledge, innovative technologies, sales incentives, and the full support of a specialized team to drive their success.
Our channel program continues to expand across the Latin America region. Vertiv partners benefit from a range of resources to help grow their businesses in technical, commercial and marketing areas. In addition to training and certifications, our partners gain access to benefits such as Co-op, a co-operative marketing fund, which is strategic for demand generation and business leverage.
We also offer sales rebates, along with Vertiv One Rewards, where salespeople earn points for their sales. These points can be exchanged for rewards, and our portal provides rich content with campaigns and various other benefits.
We differentiate ourselves through a Go-to-Market approach via our distributors and integrators with technical, commercial, engineering and financial capabilities. This creates a powerful value network that helps the Vertiv ecosystem meet the growing and complex demands of the data center market.
What are the latest trends you see emerging across the channel?
I have seen an increase in the number of channels operating in specific verticals such as agribusiness, manufacturing, healthcare, etc. These companies are digital, but the digitalization takes various forms.
Some sectors rely heavily on IoT (Internet of Things) solutions, others depend on Operational Technology (OT), while others already experience the integration of all production areas.
In all cases, there is one or more data centers processing the data collected in the field. We work with partners who have developed integrated offerings that start in the background – the Vertiv intelligence-based data center – and extend to the most innovative applications, regardless of the devices used in the field.
Which regions do you see offering the most opportunities for your company?
By the end of this year and into 2025, we will see an increasing number of Machine Learning data centers for AI emerging in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. National legislations protecting countries against energy and water consumption imbalances caused by data centers are pushing our market to reinvent itself.
The result is a generation of data centers that address the climate crisis while still delivering high-level digital services to governments, companies and individuals in our region.
It is important to highlight, however, that AI is just one of the growing fields in the data center segment. IoT, OT and more traditional applications are also advancing, requiring data centers to provide 24/7 digital services. The combination of Vertiv’s intelligence with the services of our partners addresses these various realities.
