Tech Advisor 3DG Hires Rackspace, HPE Alum, Eyes Latin American Market

Technology advisory and consulting company 3DG Partners tapped a new executive with expertise in cloud and the Latin American market.

Rodrigo Martineli joined the Allen, Texas-based firm as executive advisor. 3DG co-founders Guhan Raghu and Doug Cardozo said Martineli brings deep experience in global business development, which he notably conducted at Rackspace and HPE.

Martineli most recently led revenue and sales at the data consulting company Anblicks. Prior to that he rose up the ladder at private cloud provider Rackspace Technologies to vice president and general manager of the vendor's Private Cloud Americas business and managing Director of its Latin American market.

3DG's Rodrigo Martineli

"Rodrigo is exactly the type of talent that 3DG continues to strive to bring to our executive advisory board," said Raghu, who is partner and chief operating officer at 3DG Partners. "We know he will make an immediate impact to our existing customers as well as to our growing customer base."

Martineli joins a consultancy that has quickly caught the attention of the channel, thanks in no small part to a multi-million-dollar engagement with a retail customer. The company sources technology in the agent/advisor model, but leverages Raghu experience as a CIO and Cardozo's experience in the VAR world to provide ongoing consulting across the tech stack. Channel Futures named Raghu and Cardozo its Technology Advisor 101 Rising Stars of the Year.

Related:TA 101 Rising Star Award: Doug Cardozo and Guhan Raghu

"I am thrilled to join 3DG Partners and contribute to its continued success," Martineli said. "I look forward to collaborating with the team to drive innovation, expand market presence, and deliver exceptional value to our clients."

International Expansion and the Latin American Market

Cardozo said Martineli will play an important role helping 3DG expand its footprint internationally. Specifically, Martineli speaks Spanish and Portuguese in addition to English, and he holds a degree from the Estácio de Sá University in São Paulo, Brazil.

Expansion by the agency into Latin America should draw eyeballs. While non-U.S. suppliers exist in the technology services distributor/advisor channel where 3DG plays, the established tech services distributors (TSDs) all operate out of U.S. Those TSDs have expanded into English-speaking Canada and the United Kingdom with varying success, but the Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America have received less attention.

But the team at 3DG said they see a lane.

"The Latin American market, although smaller than other regions, presents a significant opportunity for IT advisors like 3DG Partners. The social and political complexity in the region directly impacts the field of IT. While some countries like Brazil are making progress in the cloud space, many Spanish-speaking countries still have plenty of room for development," Martineli said. "We believe that by adopting a near-shoring mindset, we can leverage our expertise to support these countries and expand our business in the region.”

Related:When a Modern Customer Meets the Modern Technology Advisor

Near-shoring proved successful for New York-based Advantage Communications Group, which established a European headquarters in Barcelona and hired native language speakers for multiple countries. Speaking the same language as the customer was essentially for gaining credibility with enterprise customers and suppliers, particularly in EMEA, CEO David Gardner told Channel Futures.

Many agencies could call themselves "international partners" in some regard, as many of their U.S.-headquartered customers possess off-shore offices. But Cardozo said 3DG wants to bulk up the support for that non-U.S. contingent.

“Many of our clients today have a global footprint, so being able to support customers wherever they may be is already a core part of our business, but the real challenge is providing parity to the level of service and support that U.S. clients get," Cardozo said. "A big part of what we do is provide due diligence as a service to our clients when they are evaluating technology decisions, but this is substantially harder in international markets when qualified supplier options through TSDs are limited. To work through this we are putting in extensive efforts to pre-vet TSD suppliers’ international capabilities before customers’ needs arise and ensuring that we have direct relationships in market where needed to augment lack of global options through TSDs.”

Related:Nonstop AI Demand Fueling Cloud Infrastructure Spending

Cloud Opportunity

In addition to working at private cloud provider Rackspace, Martineli developed business models for the HPE GreenLake as-a-service platform. And that multi-cloud expertise will come in handy as cloud projects pick up for technology advisors. Channel Futures' latest quarterly survey found that 32% of tech advisors reported a year-over-year revenue increase for cloud infrastructure.

That demand stems impart from larger and more complex needs, Raghu said.

“Companies seek cloud solutions that offer reliability, scalability, robust security, cost efficiency, seamless integration, responsive support, innovation, and effective data management," Raghu said. "Managing these requirements in a provider-agnostic manner provides an effective way to compare public/private cloud computing in a financially and security-constrained environment.”

Cloud services proliferated during the pandemic. Then shift of sorts occurred in 2023 wherein some enterprises decided they were spending too much on public cloud and others realized they needed to bring certain workloads back on-premises. Economics are playing perhaps more heavily than ever into cloud purchasing decisions.

“One third of the clients are satisfied with the cloud, another third are balancing costs with demand, but one third are over budget and trying to optimize cloud costs while improving decision-making," Martineli said. "Choosing the right cloud vendor – and even considering private cloud – can be a huge challenge, and we believe 3DG can definitely help with that.”