7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at 8x8, AWS, Intelisys, Rackspace, More
$16.5 billion is a big number. That's how much someone paid for Citrix.
October 7, 2022
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Forty percent of agents will sell hardware and 35% of VARs will sell cloud in the next 12 months, according to data from ScanSource and Intelisys.
Executives at the hybrid distributor minced no words when it came to their desire for partners to sell hardware plus software and cloud-based offerings.
John DeLozier, president of Intelisys and ScanSource’s modern communications unit, made waves regarding hybrid offerings.
“We want you to understand the true hybrid distribution model. Because if you sold security to your customer and you have no contact center, somebody else is going to sell it. Somebody is asking that question right now,” he said.
Read more here from executives who attended Scansource/Intelisys Channel Connect.
AWS is looking to expand its Amazon WorkSpaces desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) portfolio with a new managed infrastructure-only cloud VDI offering. The company previewed Amazon WorkSpaces Core recently during its AWS End-User Computing Innovation Day.
Muneer Mirza, general manager of AWS’ end-user computing business, made waves when he described Amazon WorkSpaces Core. Mirza explained that organizations could extend their existing VDI management consoles to expand their workspaces with Amazon WorkSpaces.
“You get that benefit of continuity of what you’ve been doing on-prem with the cloud-based economics and security and productivity that comes with it,” Mirza said.
Get more from Jeff Schwartz’s reporting and learn about AWS’ recent partnership with Zoom.
Kaseya has completed the integration of its acquisition of account receivables automation company ConnectBooster. ConnectBooster is the latest addition to Kaseya’s signature platform, IT Complete. The platform is a suite of solutions designed to solve vendor fatigue, lack of technician efficiency, limited software utilization and budget. The technology homes in on boosting accuracy and cash flow, and strikes down mundane accounting tasks.
But don’t take our word for it. Levon Parker is CEO of Ascension IT and he made waves for his enthusiasm for the product.
“We have benefited from ConnectBooster’s ability to save us time and money, and we are thrilled that it is being integrated into Kaseya’s complete platform of software solutions,” Parker said. “… based on our experience with Kaseya previous acquisitions, we fully expect ConnectBooster to bring more innovations to market as a result of increased investment from Kaseya. The combination of Kaseya and ConnectBooster could be really transformational for my business.”
Read more about ConnectBooster here.
Kevin Jones is out as Rackspace CEO. And that mere fact made waves in the industry.
Amar Maletira, who served as president and chief financial officer since November 2020, now is head of the company.
Jones held the Rackspace CEO role for almost four years. As of Sept. 26, he is working as an operating advisor with Apollo Global Management, which bought Rackspace in 2016 for $4.3 billion and took the company public once again in 2020. Given Rackspace’s ups and downs over the past year under Jones’ leadership, the powers that be apparently determined it was time for a change.
Learn more here about Rackspace’s new CEO.
Six months after Akamai — a content delivery network provider — snapped up indie cloud company Linode, growth is in the cards.
That’s important for the channel to know because when Akamai bought Linode, it faced skepticism. Akamai has made its name as a content delivery network provider that now also does security and edge computing. It goes after big organizations. For 19 years, Linode positioned itself as an alternative to the hyperscalers — Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform — for developers and smaller managed service providers. Those go-to-market strategies are very different.
Akamai’s Shawn Michels, vice president of product management, compute and apps, made waves when he acknowledged that disconnect.
“[S]ome customers, analysts and industry experts questioned what the acquisition would mean for the future of Linode,” he wrote. “We shared that our intent was to do more — more locations, more functionality, more scale and capacity, and more of the same with regards to Linode’s renowned ease of use, developer experience, customer support and transparent pricing.”
Get more here from Kelly Teal’s cloud news roundup.
Citrix is now part of the newly formed Cloud Software Group, a portfolio of six privately held software businesses. Private equity firms Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital completed their $16.5 billion acquisition of Citrix.
The deal brings the 33-year-old software company together with BI and application and data integration provider Tibco.
In a stunning move in July, Vista and Evergreen tapped Tom Krause to lead the combined software group as CEO. Krause was president of Broadcom Software and an architect of its pending $61 billion acquisition of VMware. Before Vista and Evergreen showed up, Krause made waves and was slated to lead the new VMware portfolio of companies.
The move has created leadership questions for VMware, though it solved one for the newly combined company.
“The platform we have built will expand and deepen our relationships with our valued customers and partners, drive the future of mission-critical cloud software solutions and create long-term value for all our stakeholders,” Krause said.
Learn more about the deal from Jeff Schwartz’s reporting.
UCaaS provider 8×8 laid off nearly 10% of its workforce this week.
Meghan Keough is senior vice president of product and corporate marketing at the company and made waves when she said reduction in headcount was part of driving “greater operational efficiency.”
To get employee reaction to the layoff, read the article here.
UCaaS provider 8×8 laid off nearly 10% of its workforce this week.
Meghan Keough is senior vice president of product and corporate marketing at the company and made waves when she said reduction in headcount was part of driving “greater operational efficiency.”
To get employee reaction to the layoff, read the article here.
Channel people at 8×8, AWS, Intelisys, Rackspace and more are among the individuals making waves this week. Channel Futures’ Channel People Making Waves showcases those who have made an impact over the last seven days. (See our slideshow above.)
There’s a new CEO at Rackspace. But before getting a glimpse at who he is, Channel Futures’ Kelly Teal examines why the previous CEO may have left the company. Hint: The current CEO served two executive roles at Rackspace before taking the helm.
Layoff news isn’t new in the channel as of late. This week we covered another UCaaS company that reduced headcount. Although it’s important to track the numbers, it’s also critical to document the reasons leadership gives for a layoff. In our No. 1 story this week, an executive from the company cited “operational efficiency” as the justification.
Finally, a Kaseya acquisition has led to the expansion of the company’s signature platform, IT Complete. Adding an account receivables automation program isn’t exactly sexy, unless, of course, it saves you time and money.
And, if you didn’t catch our previous edition, you can find it here.
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