Top 200 Cloud Computing Executives and Experts List, K-O

November 18, 2011

11 Min Read
Top 200 Cloud Computing Executives and Experts List, K-O

By samdizzy

Here’s a look at the top 200 cloud computing experts and executives working with cloud services providers (CSPs), MSPs and VARs, last names K through O. You can also return to our main Talkin’ Cloud 200 center here.

K-K-K-K

Jeffrey M. Kaplan, managing director, THINKstrategies, Inc. Twitter: @thinkstrategies

jeff_Kaplan

Kaplan is a well-known consultant within the managed services, SaaS and IT channel markets. Most recently, Kaplan launched Cloud Showplace, which combines his previous SaaS and managed services portals into a single directory for the cloud computing market. Kaplan also is a frequent speaker at a range of cloud, SaaS and managed services events.

Steve Kaye, executive chairman, Cloud Technology Solutions. Twitter: @cloudsols

steve kaye

Kaye positioned Cloud Technology Solutions to offer a professional suite of migration tools for Google Apps. As a Premier Google Partner, Cloud Technology Solutions now helps enterprise and midsize businesses migrate to Google Apps and cloud computing. More recently CTS has announced support for Microsoft Office 365.

Jacob Kazakevich, President, OS33. Twitter: @OS33Soft

jacob kazakevich

Kazakevich is building a multi-tenant hosted IT platform for MSPs. The solution includes pre-integrated business apps and third-party SaaS offerings. Moreover, OS33 can be deployed in private data centers. Kazakevich also has joined the board of directors at Technology Capital Investors, which invests in MSPs.

Alexandra Krasne, Global Communications Manager for New Media, Cisco Systems Inc. Twitter: @Cisco_Channels

alex_krasne

Where are Cisco channel partners heading in the cloud? Krasne usually has the answers. As a video blogger for Cisco, Krasne is in constant contact with Cisco VARs, MSPs and service providers that are marching into the cloud. You can spot her shooting video at the annual Cisco Partner Summit, and the content usually pops up on the Cisco Channels blog. Krasne also teaches channel partners how to leverage video during the annual Cisco Partner Velocity conference, which focuses on marketing and social media initiatives.

L-L-L-L

Rafael Laguna de la Vera, CEO, Open-Xchange. Twitter: @openexchange

rafaellaguna

Laguna de la Vera is disrupting the traditional Microsoft Exchange market, positioning Open-Xchange as an open source alternative to traditional email and groupware. Moreover, Open-Xchange is available for channel partners to host on their own; the company isn’t out to compete with hosting partners and VARs that move into the cloud. So far the strategy seems to be working well. Open-Xchange expects to have 40 million users in 2011.

Robert Leibholz, senior VP, Intermedia. Twitter: @intermedia_net

Leibholz has helped to build one of the largest third-party providers of hosted Exchange. Next up, Leibholz is helping to position Intermedia for the hosted Unified Communications market, potentially competing with Microsoft Lync — the successor to Office Communications Server. The Intermedia effort includes a recently launched hosted Unified Communications partner program.

Dave Leonard, senior VP, Data Center Operations, ViaWest. Twitter: viawest_inc

Dave Leonard ViaWest

Leonard directs all of ViaWest’s day-to-day data center operations and procedures, as well as expansion projects and future data center builds. Leonard is also a Fellow at the Uptime Institute, the leading educational and standards organization in the data center industry, and is a judge for their annual Green IT awards in the Data Center Design category. Leonard holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Texas Christian University.

Neil Levine, VP, Corporate Services, Canonical. Twitter: @neilwlevine

Canonical is perhaps best know for promoting Ubuntu as a Linux desktop. But Levine and his team have been working hard to ensure Ubuntu is a significant player in cloud computing. Canonical’s longterm vision is to make Ubuntu the operating system that powers cloud-hosted servers, as well as the desktop machines accessing the cloud-based resources hosted on those servers.

Jacqi Levy, marketing manager, Business Partner Communications, IBM. Twitter: @IBMPartnerMktg

During the IBM PartnerWorld Leadership Conference this week, Levy was busy promoting a range of new cloud efforts for channel partners — including an IBM Cloud Computing Specialty. I concede: I wasn’t aware of Levy’s Tweets… that is, until this week.

M-M-M-M

Taylor Macdonald, VP of Channel Sales, Intacct Corp. Twitter: @taylormacd

intacct_leadership_taylor_macdonald

Macdonald is striving to help VARs profit from ERP in the cloud. In the past year or so, he has expanded Intacct’s channel from two partners to more than 50 companies. Recent partner recruits include Altara (one of the largest ERP consulting firms in the western United States) and AZ Technology Solutions (an on-premise Microsoft and Intuit partner that’s focusing more on the cloud).

Angus MacSween, CEO, Iomart Group PLC. Twitter: @iomarthosting

MacSween is building a cloud computing success story in Europe. The company’s cloud data centers generated seven times more revenue in 2010 vs. 2009. Leading a 180-person company, MacSween has focused Iomart on such market opportunities as Citrix Cloud Center and VMware virtualization.

George Mach, CEO Apex IT Group. Twitter: @apexitgroup

Here’s another small business CEO with big aspirations. Mach has positioned Apex IT Group to partner up with Asigra, Citrix Cloud Center, Ingram Micro Seismic, VMware and several other well-known cloud players. The results are promising. The 17-person company saw its annual cloud revenues grow 5X in 2010, according to data from our Talkin’ Cloud 50 survey.

Heather K. Margolis, founder, Channel Maven Consulting. Twitter: @HeatherMargolis

Heather Margolis

Margolis previously served as a channel manager at EMC, EqualLogic and Dell. These days, she’s best known for consulting on channel-related business development. And she’s also wise to the world of social media. Her Channel Maven Consulting blog provides guidance to vendors that are seeking to strengthen partner relationships. Margolis has also consulted with Everything Channel’s IPED business.

Colm McGoldrick, CEO, Maildistiller. Twitter: @maildistiller

Colm McGoldrick

McGoldrick has grown Maildistiller from a small, Irish, security company to a globally operating, cloud security vendor with strategic partners worldwide. The company increasingly works with managed services providers, with a growing focus in North America.

Kent S. McNall, President and CEO, Quosal. Twitter: @QuosalMan

Quosal-CEO-Kent-S-McNall1

McNall made headlines this week when ConnectWise Capital invested in Quosal, which VARs and MSPs use to develop project quotes for customers. But more interestingly to TalkinCloud, Quosal has a cloud option hosted in the Microsoft SQL Azure cloud. That means McNall was one of Microsoft’s earliest cloud partners on SQL Azure.

Jim Melvin, President and CEO, AppNeta. Twitter: @Pathview_Hero

Melvin has successfully rebranded and relaunched Apparent Networks as AppNeta, a cloud-based network performance management service. The company in April 27 raised $6.2 million in new venture funding. The company claims that its customer base exceeds 1,000 MSPs and enterprise customers. Pretty impressive.

Kurtis Meloche, CEO and Managing Partner, Trajectory Inc. Twitter: @Trajectoryinc

kmeloche

With his company, Trajectory Inc., Meloche focuses on moving businesses to the cloud. Trajectory is a software and services provider for the SMB marketplace and has been named to CRN’s inaugural Next-Gen 250 list. Trajectory works with leading cloud technologies, system integration platforms and internally developed applications.

O’Grady Milner, CEO, NetBoundary. Twitter: @NetBoundary
Milner leads a fast-growing managed security service provider. NetBoundary works closely with LogLogic, McAfee, nCircle, Fortinet, Imperva, Net Optics and F5 Networks. Recurring cloud revenues jumped 100 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to our Talkin’ Cloud 50 Survey.

Yatish Mishra, President and CEO, Stratascale. Twitter: @stratascale
Under Mishra, the private cloud and public cloud hosting specialist has seen its cloud revenues roughly double from 2009 to 2010. The company’s cloud customer base grew roughly 150 percent during the same timeframe, according to our Talkin’ Cloud 50 survey data.

Justin Moore, CEO, Axcient. Twitter: @justinrmoore

Justin_Moore

During dinner on January 28, Moore described why he believed Axcient will emerge as one of the top providers of data backup and business continuity solutions during the age of cloud computing. Most of the chatter involved Axcient’s R&D. But we also got sidetracked on the U.S. economy… Moore strongly endorses the Startup Visa Act — which could help the U.S. economy and upstart companies compete more effectively on a global basis.

Dina Moskowitz, founder and CEO, SaaSMAX. Twitter: @WiseSaaS

Dina_Moskowitz_173

Moskowitz is building an app marketplace and solution provider network on the SaaSMax portal. The portal allows App Vendors to submit their apps; solutions providers to become resellers, and business users to find apps and business partners. Sounds simple. But can it succeeed? Talkin’ Cloud will be watching.

Nand Mulchandani, co-founder and CEO, ScaleXtreme. Twitter: @ScaleXtremeInc

nand mulchandani scalextreme

Mulchandani previously launched Oblix and Determina, acquired by Oracle and VMware respectively. Now he’s focused on ScaleXtreme, provider of cloud-based server automation products for the distributed data center. Early partners include big-name cloud hosting providers like Rackspace, Savvis, TerreMark, GoGrid and Softlayer, just to name a few.

Ian Moyse, EMEA Channel Director, Webroot. Twitter: @imoyse

ian moyse

Moyse is a well-known authority on cloud security. And each time a new cloud trend unfolds in Europe it’s a safe bet Moyse alerts channel partners. He’s a member of Cloud Industry Forum Governance Board , Eurocloud UK, and several other channel-centric cloud organizations.

Todd Myers, CEO, Veddio Cloud Solutions. Twitter: @veddio

Myers’ latest company, Veddio Cloud Solutions, strives to fill the gap in the MSP and Integrator space related to cloud services. Veddio positions itself as a one-stop shop for cloud services that help MSPs build recurring SMB revenues. Veddio provides all-inclusive services such as Cloud backups, Cloud VoIP, Cloud Servers, Exchange, Sharepoint and Veddio’s exclusive “by-the-seat” bundles, all controlled by an easy to use Dashboard.

N-N-N-N

Christian Nagele, CEO, CentraStage. Twitter: @CentraStage

Christian Nagele

Nagele is trying to disrupt the remote monitoring and management (RMM) software market, where entrenched companies like Kaseya, Level Platforms, N-able and Zenith Infotech (among others) compete for the hearts and minds of MSPs. CentraStage got its start as a SaaS provider to MSPs in Europe, but the company is gradually stepping into the U.S. market. A partnership with Autotask surfaced in April 2011, and it’s safe to expect CentraStage to make more U.S.-based moves in late 2011.

George Naspo, CEO, Virtacore Systems Inc. Twitter: @virtacore

Talkin’ Cloud likes to keep an eye on upstart companies. Virtacore Systems certainly fits that description. The 40-person company specializes in Parallels, VMware and other virtualization strategies. Plus, Virtacore’s parent company — IKANO Communications — is a key implementation partner for Google Apps for Service Providers.

O-O-O-O

Gretchen O’Hara, cloud channel chief, Microsoft. Twitter: @msuspartner

Sure, some partners are skeptical about Microsoft’s cloud strategy. But give O’Hara credit. Instead of ducking questions, she has been on the road and listening to partner feedback. She answered questions head-on during last year’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference and the N-able Partner Summit, an MSP gathering held in October. And we get the sense that O’Hara has been sending partner feedback up the executive ladder at Microsoft.

Kevin O’Brien, Senior Director, ISV and SaaS, Oracle Corp. Twitter: @OraclePartners

O’Brien is quietly working to promote service provider licensing agreements to ISVs (independent software vendors). He’s also helping Oracle ISVs to leapfrog from legacy client-server applications to SaaS and cloud-centric applications. Also, watch for O’Brien to work closely with Oracle Channel Chief Judson Althoff on a new corporate ISV strategy, The VAR Guy recently reported.

Next Steps

That’s the end of K through O. Return to our main Talkin’ Cloud 200 center here to see the rest of the list.

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