WANdisco reports 'disappointing' first half results

The Sheffield-based group said: "The disappointing first half performance, linked to delays with general availability with the Microsoft product, led to a smaller volume of consumption deals in the first half.

"As the first Microsoft partner that has a deeply embedded solution, it remains strategic to Microsoft given the uniqueness of our solution."

WANdisco now expects a minimum revenue plus Remaining Performance Obligation (RPO) target of £13.4m for the full year.

David Richards, chief executive and chairman of WANdisco, said: “The first half of 2021 has been a period of both learning and tireless execution, as WANdisco laid the groundwork for significant acceleration in customer wins.

"Two factors impacted our topline financial performance in H1. First, was underestimating the importance and timing of General Availability for our Azure product. As a business-critical operation, potential customers wanted the assurance that General Availability provides. We expect to be able to announce General Availability shortly, fully opening this pipeline opportunity.

"Second, where we had expected an initial wave of smaller volume projects, demand was in fact led by large scale strategic migrations. It has now become clear that a data first approach to this datalake migration movement is the only viable approach for Bluechip organisations, leading to more complex projects with longer execution timelines."

With its product now launched on both Azure and AWS, WANdisco has been focussed on transitioning its business model to a cloud-centric consumption model to align its revenue streams with that of its partners.

Mr Richards said: "This change will lead to greater predictability of revenue in the medium to long term, with revenue phased to align with consumption.

"Complementing our existing relationship with Databricks, we have partnered with Snowflake to accelerate movement of data into their Data Cloud, consolidating WANdisco’s market

position in supporting machine learning.

"Post period end, the first significant contract based on committed consumption of data and customer usage has been closed, which is typical of the scale of our customers’ demand and pipeline opportunities.

"The board remains confident that the combination of our market opportunity, product readiness, and deepening commitments from customers and cloud partners provides a strong platform to deliver growth in the short and medium term.”