7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Datto, New Relic, Kyndryl, More
Our No.1 story was a video segment highlighting IBM.
July 1, 2022
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Datto’s stock has officially stopped trading and the company is no longer listed on any public market. On June 23, Kaseya announced that it completed its acquisition of Datto for $6.2 billion. Not everyone from Datto will be joining the Kaseya team, however. Tim Weller, Datto’s CEO, made waves for his exit.
“Tim has done a great job stewarding Datto — he’s a true pro,” said Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola. “He will continue advising me and the company and help me make sure we continue to deliver.”
Learn more here from Allison Francis’ reporting about the acquisition.
IronNet is the latest cybersecurity company to confirm layoffs, cutting 55 workers, or 17% of its workforce.
For the first quarter of its fiscal year 2023, IronNet reported a net loss of $33.2 million, compared to a $15.5 million net loss in the same quarter last year. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) was $30.1 million; that compares to $25.6 million for the year-ago quarter.
Joseph Depa III is IronNet‘s public relations/social media manager. He made waves for being candid about the layoffs.
“The workforce reduction is part of a broader plan to streamline our operations for higher efficiency, to reduce overall expenses and preserve cash, and to set IronNet up for rationalized growth going forward,” he said. “Our strategy remains the same, to transform cybersecurity through collective defense. In fact, we’ve seen momentum around the concept of collective defense in the past several quarters, with President Biden and his cyber experts even referring to it as the path forward.”
Read more here about the reasons behind the layoffs.
New Relic, which specializes in data observability, has a new channel initiative.
Channel head Riya Shanmugam says New Relic partners are using observability to help their clients adopt cloud, modernize apps and create digital customer experiences.
With that in mind, “The New Relic Partner Stack brings new opportunities for our partners to put observability in the hands of every engineer, every day, at every stage of the software life cycle,” said Shanmugam, who made waves for her enthusiasm. “We are delighted to see partners leaning in and advancing through program tiers for increased commercial, marketing, and go-to-market benefits, opening up additional revenue opportunities and investment from New Relic.”
To read more news about other cloud programs within the channel, go here for Kelly Teal’s weekly roundup.
Nitel is buying Hypercore Networks in an acquisition that strengthens Nitel’s international ambitions and brings together two like-minded channel organizations. Nitel and Hypercore have signed an agreement that will bring Hypercore under the Nitel brand.
Nitel CEO Margi Shaw said the acquisition reflects the aggressive expansion Nitel has embarked on following its private equity investment from Cinven. The carrier is expanding its network-as-a-service and cybersecurity offerings as well as its international capabilities.
Shaw made waves because she says she knows what she wants for Nitel.
“Our goal is to grow the business aggressively to expand our service footprint and product lines,” Shaw told Channel Futures.
To learn more about the differences and similarities between Nitel and Hypercore, click here.
Broadcom, which last month agreed to acquire VMware for $61 billion, will preserve and enhance VMware’s ecosystem.
Some partners fear that Broadcom will run VMware the same way it operates other software companies it acquired. Specifically, after acquiring CA and Symantec in 2018 and 2019 respectively, Broadcom narrowed the companies’ go-to-market focus.
Harish Grama, global cloud practice leader at Kyndryl, told Channel Futures that he understands the fears among partners and customers. Such concerns are to be expected when a player with an ecosystem the size of VMware is acquired, Grama said. He made waves for calming down the channel community about the acquisition.
“The worry always is, ‘Will the strategy be derailed; will they be underinvested and milked for money, etc?’” Grama said. “None of those seem to be true because of the strategic importance, the size of the business and the premium that they are paying.”
Read more from Jeffrey Schwartz’s reporting.
As Broadcom prepares to buy VMware, VMware channel head Sandy Hogan is exiting.
Hogan made waves for deciding to leave at a monumental time.
“We can confirm that Sandy Hogan has made a personal career decision to leave the company to pursue a new career opportunity, effective July 6,” a spokesperson told Channel Futures. “We thank Sandy for her passion and commitment and wish her well.”
Ricky Cooper will take over as lead for VMware’s Worldwide Partner and Commercial Organization, at least for a while. Right now, Cooper serves as vice president for global and transformational partners.
Hogan led the VMware channel as senior vice president of worldwide commercial and partner sales for a little more than two years. That’s about the average time a so-called channel chief lasts, and Hogan’s departure coincides with the pending VMware takeover by Broadcom. However, VMware says her exit does not come as a direct result of the $61 billion deal.
“This is a personal career decision not related to Broadcom,” the spokesperson said.
Learn more about Hogan’s legacy at VMware.
It’s not often that a video makes our No. 1 spot, but this week David Stokes made waves for his interview with Channel Futures. Stokes is general manager for IBM’s partner ecosystem in EMEA. In the video from Channel Partners Europe, Stokes discusses the channel’s great value to his company, including the three biggest opportunities for partners today; plus, he delves into the various partner types IBM works with and how they can all make money with Big Blue.
Watch the video here.
It’s not often that a video makes our No. 1 spot, but this week David Stokes made waves for his interview with Channel Futures. Stokes is general manager for IBM’s partner ecosystem in EMEA. In the video from Channel Partners Europe, Stokes discusses the channel’s great value to his company, including the three biggest opportunities for partners today; plus, he delves into the various partner types IBM works with and how they can all make money with Big Blue.
Watch the video here.
Channel people at Datto, New Relic and Kyndryl are just a few of the individuals making waves in the industry this week. Channel Futures’ Channel People Making Waves highlights those who have made an impact over the last seven days.
Sandy Hogan surely influenced the channel during her tenure at VMware. She’s departing soon as channel chief for what VMware cites as a personal career decision. She did not leave as a direct result of Broadcom’s takeover of VMware. The story of her departure was our No. 2 most-viewed article of the week.
Joseph Depa III, public relations/social media manager at IronNet, made this week’s list for giving a thorough explanation of the company’s rationale for recent layoffs. IronNet is among a growing list of tech companies we’re covering that have had to let workers go to “streamline operations” and to “preserve cash,” among other reasons.
Lastly, Datto CEO Tim Weller won’t be joining the team at Kaseya, post the completion of Kaseya’s $6.2 billion dollar acquisition of Datto. Weller will continue to advise Kaseya executives.
Click on the above slideshow to find out more about the individuals we reported on this week.
And if you didn’t catch the previous roundup, you can find it here.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Claudia Adrien or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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