Lindsay Faria: One of CRN’s 100 People You Don’t Know But Should

Earlier this week, Lindsay Faria, who leads MSP Marketing for Barracuda in the Americas, was recognized as one of CRN’s 100 People You Don’t Know But Should for 2025. This annual list shines a light on the committed and talented people working behind the scenes in the IT channel, helping partners succeed.

Every year, the team at CRN picks out people who go above and beyond in areas like partner programs, sales, channel marketing, and support. Lindsay is one of those standouts. To help you get to know her a little better, we sat down for a chat about her journey at Barracuda and the work she does with our channel partners.

Q&A with Lindsay Faria, Sr. Director of MSP Marketing, Americas

How long have you been with Barracuda? How has your role evolved over the years?

I joined Barracuda in 2015 through its acquisition of Intronis, a cloud backup provider for managed service providers. I had started there a year earlier to build the partner marketing function from the ground up.

Since then, my role has changed many times. I’ve built partner enablement programs, grown a team of marketers dedicated to MSP success, launched portfolio adoption and growth initiatives, and led partner-focused content and communications. More recently, I’ve focused on new partner acquisition, growing our footprint via distribution and driving partner engagement and demand for our partners.

The common thread across the last decade (plus!)? Constant change — new products, new threats, new opportunities. That evolution is what keeps this work exciting.

What have been some highlights for you?

One of my early memorable ‘wins’ was being part of the small team that launched our first MSP Partner Advisory Council several years ago. Spending two days with partners, hearing their challenges and ideas firsthand, digging deep into their feedback and then seeing that input shape our programs and solution offering was an incredible experience.

Another highlight was launching Barracuda Managed XDR, first via our MSP route to market and then expanding via an additional channel via our reseller partners. Bringing Managed XDR, which is powered by a 24x7 SOC, to the market has been a game changer for our partners and their customers, and it marked an exciting milestone for me.

Most recently, we launched BarracudaONE, an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that offers partners complete visibility into their cybersecurity deployments via a centralized dashboard, reducing operational complexity and minimizing security gaps. Being able to offer partners and their customers this powerful tool in helping them simplify the burdensome task has been a significant highlight as well.

What do you enjoy most about working with channel partners?

The diversity of our partner community, coupled with the always evolving landscape they operate in.  We work with organizations of every size — from national providers to small, fast-growing MSPs and highly sophisticated security partners. That variety keeps things interesting, but more importantly, it challenges us to meet partners where they are.

Cybersecurity presents an environment where we are all in it together, always learning, always working together to make businesses and their people more secure.

Being able to tailor our support to each stage of a partner’s journey — and to know that we’re directly contributing to the growth of their business — is incredibly rewarding. Many of our partners are business owners or founders, and helping them succeed feels like being part of their extended team. That sense of shared success is what motivates me every day.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from channel partners?

The lesson I’ve seen reinforced time and again is the power of listening — and listening well. Partners don’t just want us to provide solutions; they want to collaborate, share feedback and guide us in how we can best serve them.

Some of our most impactful programs and initiatives have come directly from partner conversations. Taking the time to understand their priorities, challenges and ambitions ensures that what we build isn’t just valuable on paper — it’s truly aligned with what partners need to grow.

What are some goals you have for your team?

This year is all about making it easier to do business with Barracuda. This is something we are driving for today. Recently, we worked towards launching a brand new web asset kit, and we just released that in the last few weeks. It enables partners to access self-service content for their websites or microsites and download the latest product descriptions, videos and imagery to use in their marketing, and it also serves up website optimization tips. 

Next up is a suite of resources that leverage technology to bring scale and efficiency to our joint efforts. I can’t wait to hear the feedback from partners as they begin adopting this new offering.

These are just a couple of the things we are working on. At the end of the day, our goal is simple: to deliver more value, more efficiently, so partners can focus on growing their businesses while feeling confident that Barracuda is invested in their success.