7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Google Cloud, SAP, AWS Marketplace, More
One of our most-read stories takes place across the pond.
February 4, 2022
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Good things come to those who wait.
For a year.
That’s how long it took for the unveiling of ThycoticCentrify’s new brand. ThycoticCentrify, which formed when TPG Capital acquired Thycotic and Centrify in 2021, has rebranded as Delinea.
Chris Smith, the company’s chief marketing officer, made Channel People Making Waves this week for his passion for the new Delinea brand.
“After the merger last year, we saw an opportunity to rebrand with a name that the combined company could conceive, own and grow as our new identity emerged,” he said.
“Many people have emotional ties to the legacy brands. However, the company is confident its customers, partners and employees will be passionate about our new brand and identity.”
Read more about how the company has set its sights on creating a dynamic security platform.
Money, money, money, money, MONEY.
Cue that song from The O’Jays.
That’s how it feels when reading this next story about the Rise with SAP program, launched last year to accelerate SAP’s customers’ cloud migration. According to Channel Futures journalist Jeffrey Schwartz, SAP is flush with cash because of the program, as fourth quarter earnings showed higher than expected cloud revenues. And by a lot.
SAP SEO Christian Klein should be practically giddy.
“You have seen from our 2021 results that there is now a large movement of our installed base to the cloud,” Klein said.
The excitement is overwhelming.
(We should add that the company did see operating cash flow drop some.)
A quick review of Schwartz’s story shows a flurry of SAP earnings activity.
It takes a strong person to admit when they’ve made an error.
That’s why Chris Grusz, director of business development at AWS Marketplace, made this week’s Channel People Making Waves.
The latest news: Dropbox has joined the AWS Marketplace.
The Marketplace should benefit partners, as this recent news reflects. However, it didn’t always appear so.
“The original idea for Marketplace was more of an app store model, with providers on one side and customers on the other,” Crusz said.
The arrangement negated the need for the channel.
“That was a mistake,” he told Channel Futures.
To make up for it, AWS Marketplace has spent the last four years launching programs that involve partners.
To read more about the new Dropbox collaboration, read Kelly Teal’s story here.
Seth Penland, the CEO of Bluewave Technology Group, has vision, promising to take the company to a new level. His ambition is what put him on this week’s list.
Bluewave is harnessing $75 million in capital to buy agents and build a technology advisory and life cycle management company. The transaction is one of the largest the traditional channel partner space has seen.
“We’re really focused on building a great premium advisory life cycle management company that is going to be here for the next 20 years,” Penland told Channel Futures. “M&A is obviously a core part of that strategy. We’re well-capitalized to pursue a lot of acquisitions if we find good targets that match our strategy and fit well within our culture.”
Learn more about Bluewave’s business model through James Anderson’s reporting.
Kevin Ichhpurani is having a good month.
He’s gotten a wave of publicity as the new Google Cloud channel chief. He’s set the tone for his vision for the channel. And Ichhpurani hasthe support of Google Cloud higher-ups who are working to bring dispersed teams under one roof that leads with partners.
Ichhpurani now reports to Rob Enslin, president of cloud sales at Google. He had been accountable to Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, who, over his three-year tenure, has had no qualms about instituting shake-ups to try to get his company more competitive against AWS and Azure.
Ichhpurani’s transition is one of several recent organizational changes at Google Cloud related to the channel.
Read more from Kelly Teal’s piece.
“It’s a cool British company.”
That’s how the CEO of digital employee experience firm IE described his firm. Mark Banfield made this week’s list for being nonchalant.
However, there’s nothing casual about IE’s projected growth in the next year. 1E will add 125 people this year into the business — a 40% increase in headcount. Moreover, the firm is well on track to get $100 million in annual recurring revenue within 12-18 months.
Cool, indeed.
Read more from our No. 2 most-read story here.
It’s not surprising that our most-read story of the week was about an acquisition. And not just any. It’s a $16.5 billion buy! Tibco portfolio company Vista Equity Partners has acquired Citrix in what some consider a game-changing acquisition.
Citrix board chairman and interim CEO Bob Calderoni added that combining the two companies’ platforms will help achieve improved hybrid work solutions.
“Together with Tibco, we will be able to operate with greater scale and provide a larger customer base with a broader range of solutions to accelerate their digital transformations and enable them to deliver the future of hybrid work,” Calderoni said.
Bringing the companies together will let Citrix combine Tibco’s “connected intelligence” technology with its digital workspace platform. The combined company create a software giant with 400,000 customers, including 98% of the Fortune 500, according to Citrix.
Jeffrey Schwartz’s story can be found here.
It’s not surprising that our most-read story of the week was about an acquisition. And not just any. It’s a $16.5 billion buy! Tibco portfolio company Vista Equity Partners has acquired Citrix in what some consider a game-changing acquisition.
Citrix board chairman and interim CEO Bob Calderoni added that combining the two companies’ platforms will help achieve improved hybrid work solutions.
“Together with Tibco, we will be able to operate with greater scale and provide a larger customer base with a broader range of solutions to accelerate their digital transformations and enable them to deliver the future of hybrid work,” Calderoni said.
Bringing the companies together will let Citrix combine Tibco’s “connected intelligence” technology with its digital workspace platform. The combined company create a software giant with 400,000 customers, including 98% of the Fortune 500, according to Citrix.
Jeffrey Schwartz’s story can be found here.
From the AWS Marketplace collaboration with Dropbox to cash flow at SAP, this week encompassed an array of stories. The people behind them were equally as diverse.
Take Google Cloud’s Kevin Ichhpurani, for example. He’s been able to keep a low profile (few media interviews) but still get his message across about how he sees the channel in the year to come. We’re awaiting his public interview as “channel chief” later in the quarter.
Other corporate executives are quite chatty with journalists. Seth Penland, the CEO of Bluewave Technology Group, was this week with our editor, James Anderson. Bluewave is leveraging $75 million in capital to buy agents and build a technology advisory and life cycle management company. It’s one of the largest transactions ever within the channel partner community.
Although the Bluewave story was quite popular among our readers, it wasn’t the most-read article. That award went to an acquisition valued in the billions of dollars.
See our slideshow above to find out about that story and the individuals who made waves in the channel community this week. It’s our weekly top stories countdown.
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. |
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