Meet the Chiefs: Wendy Cartee, PLUMgrid
This week we get to know Wendy Cartee, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at PLUMgrid, a cloud infrastructure provider.
![Meet the Chiefs: Wendy Cartee, PLUMgrid Meet the Chiefs: Wendy Cartee, PLUMgrid](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt50941af0209495db/65246626b5767042a6476d3e/Handshake_Abstract_Thinkstock_8.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Wendy Cartee is VP of Product Management and Marketing at PLUMgrid, Inc., the leading innovator of secure cloud infrastructure for enterprises building private and public clouds. With over 15 years of product management and marketing experience at prior companies such as Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, and HP Cloud, Wendy has defined solutions for data centers, WAN, Internet, and mobile infrastructure that generated billions in revenue.
An avid technology and customer advocate, Wendy has 8 U.S. patents in networking technologies, all of which are deployed in some of the largest networks. Wendy is listed in the CCIE Hall of Fame as the first 100 CCIEs in the world. She has a BSEE from Cal Poly, MBA from Santa Clara University, and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program from the Graduate School of Business.
Number of channel partners: 30
Age of partner program: 3 years
Percentage of revenue driven through channel: 60%
As companies transform to digital businesses and adopt virtualization, cloud, and DevOps models, we are excited to bring the channel into this new model of value creation for companies of all sizes. Cloud, virtual networking such as SDN and NFV, containers, and security are key technologies enabling the transformation.
The channel is adjusting to the new cloud-based IT models and both training for, and understanding of virtualization technologies in the networking space is very much in need.
PLUMgrid, in addition to many organizations such as OpenStack and The Linux Foundation, offer extensive training and certification programs today, and one change I would implement is to find ways to drive more awareness, training workshops, and certifications for the channel.
Channel chiefs will need to help drive channel transformation as well, not only for more training but also new business models for the channel and how they can help create value added services in the cloud and DevOps-driven enterprises for their customers.
My favorite quote is "A Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with One Step” because transformations can frequently be seen as daunting, but starting with small steps one at a time makes anything possible.
I would offer the advice of starting early on the journey to adopt the key technologies and business models that are reshaping the world today. Just as the Internet was a disruptive transformation that brought opportunities for channel partners, the cloud and virtual networking are similarly changing enterprise IT with many opportunities for the channel to add value and become a trusted business partner of those it serves.
The channel is a critical part of success for any new technology to succeed in the industry. People are often enamored by the latest technologies and companies that provide the technologies, but the channel brings those technologies to the real world and delivers them to end users with the integration capabilities and support services they need.
The channel is a critical part of success for any new technology to succeed in the industry. People are often enamored by the latest technologies and companies that provide the technologies, but the channel brings those technologies to the real world and delivers them to end users with the integration capabilities and support services they need.
What is Meet the Chiefs?
Meet the Chiefs shines the spotlight on the channel’s head honchos and offers an opportunity to learn a little bit about the person's real thoughts on the state of the channel. Click on each photo to learn more about the channel chief you’re viewing.
Want to be included in an upcoming Meet the Chiefs? Send an email to The VAR Guy Editor-in-Chief Kris Blackmon at [email protected] for more information.
About the Author(s)
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