Sam Elbeck of ExaGrid Honored as a 2026 CRN® Channel Chief

(BUSINESS WIRE)--ExaGrid^®, the industry’s only Tiered Backup Storage solution with AI-Powered Retention Time-Lock (RTL) that includes a non-network-facing tier (creating a tiered air gap), delayed deletes and immutability for ransomware recovery, today announced that CRN^®—a brand of The Channel Company—has selected Sam Elbeck, ExaGrid’s Vice President of Americas Sales and Channel Partners, for inclusion on the prestigious 2026 CRN^® Channel Chiefs list. This annual recognition celebrates IT vendor and distribution executives who are shaping channel strategy and driving innovation and partnership across the industry.

“It’s an honor to be named to the Channel Chiefs list again this year,” said Sam Elbeck. “We are committed to the channel and view our partners as an extension of ExaGrid. We collaborate closely on every opportunity to ensure mutual success. Our channel philosophy centers on building long-term relationships grounded in honesty, integrity, and transparency. We strive for ExaGrid to be known as the easiest company to work with by being flexible, responsive, and partner-focused while delivering high margins, strong incentives, and exceptional support. Together, we create a win-win model that drives growth, loyalty, and trust across the channel ecosystem.”

ExaGrid works with resellers and distributors worldwide. The ExaGrid channel programs are designed to be easy for partners, with support from the ExaGrid sales team and without milestone commitments. ExaGrid is known for having a Tiered Backup Storage system that “just works,” is not oversold or undersized, and provides its customers with the best customer support in the industry with an assigned level 2 technical support engineer, ensuring that partners’ customers are well taken care of. ExaGrid provides its reseller partners with a registration program to protect accounts and margins, and SPIF incentives.

The annual CRN Channel Chiefs list spotlights the most influential leaders across the IT channel, celebrating those who champion collaboration, drive innovation and empower their partners and customers to achieve shared success.

“Leaders recognized as CRN Channel Chiefs this year have demonstrated unwavering commitment to their partners and the broader IT channel. Their vision, passion and drive for innovation continue to shape the future of our industry. We are proud to celebrate their achievements and the positive impact they make every day,” said Jennifer Follett, Vice President, U.S. Content, Executive Editor, CRN.

CRN’s 2026 Channel Chiefs list is featured online at www.CRN.com/ChannelChiefs.

About ExaGrid
ExaGrid provides Tiered Backup Storage with a unique disk-cache Landing Zone, long-term retention repository, scale-out architecture, and comprehensive security features. ExaGrid’s Landing Zone provides for the fastest backups, restores, and instant VM recoveries. The Repository Tier offers the lowest cost for long-term retention. ExaGrid’s scale-out architecture includes full appliances and ensures a fixed-length backup window as data grows, eliminating expensive forklift upgrades and planned product obsolescence. ExaGrid offers the only two-tiered backup storage approach with a non-network-facing tier (tiered air gap), delayed deletes, and immutable objects to recover from ransomware attacks.

ExaGrid has physical sales and pre-sales systems engineers in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Benelux, Brazil, Canada, Chile, CIS, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nordics, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and other regions.

Visit us at exagrid.com or connect with us on LinkedIn. See what our customers have to say about their own ExaGrid experiences and learn why they now spend significantly less time on backup storage in our customer success stories. ExaGrid is proud of our +81 NPS score!

ExaGrid is a registered trademark of ExaGrid Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

About The Channel Company
The Channel Company (TCC) is the global leader in channel growth for the world’s top technology brands. We accelerate success across strategic channels for tech vendors, solution providers, and end users with premier media brands, integrated marketing and event services, strategic consulting, and exclusive market and audience insights. TCC is a portfolio company of investment funds managed by EagleTree Capital, a New York City-based private equity firm. For more information, visit thechannelco.com.

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Sam Elbeck of ExaGrid Honored as a 2026 CRN® Channel Chief