Oracle Veteran Joins Datto as CTO

Datto has a new man on campus. The IT solutions provider announced that Robert Petrocelli has joined its executive management team as chief technology officer (CTO).

Datto’s Robert Petrocelli

Petrocelli joins Datto from Oracle, where he served as a senior software architect and directed a geographically distributed team. He brings more than 30 years of technology experience, which includes the founding of two successful businesses in the data storage and information management space. As CTO, Petrocelli’s primary focus will be communicating Datto’s technology vision (which includes 20 newly released products and enhancements) and aligning strategy with its business goals to ensure the company continues to meet the evolving needs of the MSP market.

“I am very fortunate and excited to join Datto right now,” said Petrocelli. “Datto is in a unique position in terms of its technology, and I look forward to bringing a scaling perspective to how to navigate its cloud infrastructure. We have already started laying the groundwork for continued growth alongside our MSP partners.”

Datto plays primarily in the SMB space, currently serving more than 500,000 small and medium-sized businesses in more than 130 countries through partnerships with more than 15,000 MSPs. Datto offers business continuity and disaster recovery, networking, business management, and file backup and sync solutions to empower small and medium-sized businesses to compete and thrive in vertical markets all over the world. Petrocelli will oversee and accelerate Datto’s ongoing product development.

Valiant Technology’s Georg Dauterman

“Bob’s reputation precedes him a thought leader in the storage and software, and the combination is a great fit for the future of the Datto line,” said Georg Dauterman, founder and president of Datto partner Valiant Technology. “Datto is constantly researching how to better their products and services to increase the profitability of the MSP customer. As services become more and more critical to company revenues, the industry (and Datto) must adapt to the new technology, new types of solutions and most importantly, the new type of customer.”

Dauterman added that Petrocelli will need to continue to expand upon the deep levels of innovation that define Datto — innovation that deepens the integration of all Datto’s tools to allow MSPs to deliver better outcomes and experiences for their clients.

Petrocelli says that one of his main goals will be to provide grounding for all of Datto’s stakeholders by being thoughtful and putting his energy into things that matter.

“We help our partners to be better stewards of their customers information by making business continuity easy,” said Petrocelli. “However, MSPs are at more risk than ever before, and their success also makes them a potential target for negative attention from numerous threat actors. As we work to extend and improve our product portfolio, we will continue to work hard to make it easier for MSPs to protect themselves from these existential threats.”

Of course, with progress comes new challenges, particularly concerning Datto technology. The company is growing at a rapid pace and, along with Petrocelli, has hired strong talent to drive its global go-to-market strategy and execution for all Datto solutions. Among his many ambitions, Petrocelli cites his number one priority as continuing invest in scaling Datto’s hybrid-cloud infrastructure so that the company can reach new levels of reliability and durability in their core.