Dimension Data Names New Cloud Services GM

By TC Doyle

**Editor’s Note:

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Global integration giant Dimension Data has named Verizon Terremark veteran Tina Gravel as its new general manager of its Americas cloud services business.

Gravel will leverage her marketing and partnering background to help Dimension Data build momentum for the growing business unit, which last year was identified by Gartner as a challenger” in its 2013 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service analysis.

As vice president and GM of the Americas cloud business, Gravel will play a key role in helping customers and partners better understand the value that Dimension Data provides in cloud technology. Gravel has a background in direct sales, partner management, outsourcing and more. Prior to joining Dimension Data, she served as vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Nirvanix, the online cloud storage provider that went unceremoniously out of business in the fall of 2013.

Before that, Gravel spent at 13 years at Terremark, where she was a member of the original executive management team. After it was acquired by Verizon, she stayed on for an additional 13 months before moving to Nirvanix.

Gravel arrives at Dimension Data without a lot of pre-hand knowledge about the company. After doing her due diligence on it and learning of its go-to-market strategies, global footprint and customer focus, she became convinced that the company was for her.

Its a perfect fit,” she said in an interview with Channel Partners.

In addition to the hiring of Gravel, Dimension Data has made headlines in the cloud with other efforts. Last year, for example, it expanded its global Managed Cloud Platform footprint with the addition of four new centers. Today, the company has 11 data centers in which cloud services are managed. They are in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Melbourne, Sydney, Tokyo, São Paulo, Santa Clara, Calif., and two sites in Ashburn, Va.

In August 2013, the company launched Cloud Backup, a backup and recovery service available as an add-on to its enterprise-class Public, Private and Hosted Private Compute-as-a-Service (CaaS) offerings.