7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Red Hat, Presidio, Microsoft, More
One company hopes to transfer 100% of its direct commercial business over to channel partners.
March 27, 2022
![Making Waves Making Waves](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt98e65ae99539d1f4/6523eba87a0cbd1e3854d48a/Making-Waves.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Shutterstock
Red Hat is transferring its direct commercial business over to channel partners.
And Santiago Madruga, vice president of presales and services for EMEA at Red Hat, made waves this week because he wants partners to be happy. Really happy.
“On commercial, our aspiration is that we do 100% through the partners,” Madruga said. “On enterprise, we will have a degree of flexibility, but our strong preference is to also do business through and with partners in those accounts as well.”
Madruga said Red Hat has been evolving in that direction over the last few years. Now in 2022, the company has adjusted its plans to emphasize this and accelerate on it.
Learn how Red Hat is also looking to replace more traditional go-to-market avenues with a focus instead on partner ecosystems.
In the era of hybrid work, it’s sometimes easy to forget how things were done in the pre-COVID era when business was conducted in board rooms and over long dinners. Dave Dyson is CEO and chief strategist of Chicago-based Eclipse. He made waves this week for his direct assessment of how enterprise partners should still conduct business.
“People buy from people; enterprises buy from people,” Dyson said. “Yes, they’re buying expertise and process, but ultimately they’re buying from people. I don’t believe that’s ever going to change. And I don’t believe that people are making multimillion-dollar decisions over a series of Zoom meetings if they can afford it. Big decisions are made through relationship-building and in-person meetings, which is what this channel excels at.”
Read the article to learn what Mitel’s senior vice president, global channels, had to say about how enterprise partners were coping with disruptions caused by the pandemic.
The Lapsus$ hacking group claims to have leaked the source code for Bing, Cortana and other projects stolen from Microsoft’s internal Azure DevOps server, Bleeping Computer reported. The group posted a screenshot to their Telegram channel indicating the hack.
Lapsus$ is allegedly responsible for obtaining confidential data including the source code that operates Samsung Galaxy smartphones. It also claimed responsibility for the recent Nvidia breach.
Rajiv Pimplaskar is CEO of Dispersive, a network security provider. He made waves this week for clarifying what hackers really want.
“Identity, not apps, not servers, not devices, is the important component in the cybersecurity world.”
Hackers know the value of identify, he said.
Read more about the hack in Edward Gately’s article.
Cisco Systems has stopped all business operations, including sales and services, in Russia and Belarus in response to the ongoing Ukraine invasion. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins made waves this week for issuing a letter stating his company’s plans for the foreseeable future as the invasion continues.
To help those in Ukraine, Cisco is enabling auto-renewals on any software or services for its Ukrainian customers at no charge. In addition, it’s offering one free year of Webex meetings. Moreover, it’s providing free calls to Ukraine.
For more information about Cisco’s decision, read here.
Datto reportedly is considering its strategic options, including a possible sale, after receiving takeover interest from private equity firms.
The MSP technology company became publicly traded in October 2020. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), selling 22 million shares to raise $594 million in its initial public offering (IPO). However, Datto’s stock price has fallen 13% since its IPO. Its shares closed mid March at $23.37, giving the company a market value of $3.8 billion.
Dennis Hahn is senior analyst of data center storage at Omdia. He made waves for his insight into what a sale might look like for Datto.
“A sale would be investors cashing out, I think. Additional investment to reposition into a new market need area might work, if the investment was properly managed,” he said.
To learn more about Datto, including its acquisitions, read here. Then read late-breaking news from Friday about a personnel shake-up at the backup and disaster recovery company.
Presidio has signed a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services, the largest public cloud computing provider. Presidio will put the SCA to work to help more customers adopt AWS cloud services and platforms. The company also will develop new services and products with AWS’ help.
Chris Cagnazzi is senior vice president and general manager of digital business at Presidio. He made waves this week for explaining how the strategic agreement with ASW “fundamentally steps on the gas to accelerate innovation … This agreement is a testament to the strength of our collaboration and the expertise of our team in helping organizations around the world realize the benefits of the cloud.”
Read the article to learn what Ruba Borno, vice president of worldwide channels and alliances at AWS, thinks about teaming up more closely with Presidio.
Microsoft revealed that it is replacing the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) with its new cloud-focused program. By phasing out MPN, partners will have to give up their competencies in various product areas. Instead, with the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program, partners can focus on any or all of six new solution designations.
Nick Parker is Microsoft corporate vice president for global partner solutions. He made waves for showing partners that they can take advantage of new capabilities and differentiation on Microsoft Cloud which “gives partners the ability to transform and disrupt in their markets and with their customers.” This was our most-read story this week.
To learn more about the impact of these changes, read Jeffrey Schwartz’s article.
Microsoft revealed that it is replacing the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) with its new cloud-focused program. By phasing out MPN, partners will have to give up their competencies in various product areas. Instead, with the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program, partners can focus on any or all of six new solution designations.
Nick Parker is Microsoft corporate vice president for global partner solutions. He made waves for showing partners that they can take advantage of new capabilities and differentiation on Microsoft Cloud which “gives partners the ability to transform and disrupt in their markets and with their customers.” This was our most-read story this week.
To learn more about the impact of these changes, read Jeffrey Schwartz’s article.
Our weekly Channel People Making Waves counts down the top stories of the past seven days. We highlight the individuals behind the stories, this week featuring Red Hat, Presidio, Microsoft and more.
When it comes to Microsoft, it’s out with the old and in with the new. The company continued to make waves this week a week after announcing the revamping of its channel program. We reported on the six new solution designations the revised program offers and partner reaction to it.
This week we also heard from an analyst who assesses the news that Datto may be considering its strategic options, including a possible sale. The analyst made waves for his predictions about what a sale might mean for the company. You can check out those predictions in the slideshow above.
Finally, we feature the CEO of another firm that is pulling out all business operations, including sales and services, in Russia and Belarus in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Also, don’t forget to catch last week’s roundup which you can find 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. |
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like