Gridstore Hires Axcient Veteran Chris Sterbenc to Drive Channel Sales

Chris Sterbenc

The term Grid Computing was popularized around 2005 as Oracle and other big technology companies explained elastic, scalable, on-demand compute services to end-customers, both on and off premises. Gradually, public and private cloud computing became the mainstream terms for that on-demand approach to computing.

Gridstore, meanwhile, claims to be “first to market with an advanced software defined storage platform that scales as a business’s data needs scale, no overprovisioning, no wasted capacity. The Grid solution revolutionizes the way storage is managed, seamlessly integrating into existing environments.”

Sterbenc and Axcient parted ways back in October 2012 or so. Now, Sterbenc will lead Gridstore’s channel and sales charge. The company announced the Gridstore Accelerate Partner Program in November 2012, targeting mid-market channel partners that want storage solutions.  Gridstore claims its business model is 100-percent channel focused, with a “pay-as-you-go sales model” for VARs and their end-customers.

Investors certainly are interested. Gridstore raised $12.5 million in Series A funding in October 2012.

Sterbenc, meanwhile, has previously built a range of channel programs for multiple companies. Before his time at Axcient, he held VP posts at Untangle and Apparent Networks (now AppNeta). He also had sales and marketing positions at Microsoft, NCompass Labs and Rainmaker Systems.

The VAR Guy’s big question: Is Gridstore an on-premises solution? And if so, how did Gridstore design its storage solution for the pay-as-you-go sales model that has caught on with IT service providers and many customers? MSPmentor has some of the answers in this blog.

The VAR Guy and Sterbenc will likely talk in the next few days. Stay tuned for more answers and insights.