US-based data protection and disaster recovery software vendor, Neverfail, has set up a local office in Sydney and hired Kieran O'Shaughnessy as its Asia-Pacific channel sales director.

The company's regional growth plans include recruiting more resellers and staff.

Prior to joining Neverfail, O'Shaughnessy was the national sales manager for Sage.

"We're looking to build a number of key channel relationships to cement our position in the Australian market," O'Shaughnessy said. "As we grow the business, we'll add more resources in Sydney or Asia."

Neverfail has already signed up its first three partners including Si Partners, Mercury Solutions Centre and Axient. O'Shaughnessy said Neverfail's key focus was on mobility particularly around the Blackberry device, Microsoft infrastructure and virtualisation. He is looking to recruit more partners to cover those core markets.

"We are looking at virtualisation very seriously because we can protect both physical and virtualised servers," he said.

Neverfail partners will have access to its global partner program comprising three levels including Referral, Certified and Elite. To qualify for the certified status, partners must have a number of certified sales and technical staff. The Elite level will include a small set of partners based on a proven track record of performance and commitment.

O'Shaughnessy said a key aspect of the program was that it provides partners with deal registration and protection.

"It's important that we're able to protect partner's efforts and they're able to get the return on opportunities they're investing in," he said.