Windstream, Intelisys Vet No Longer 'Interim' RapidScale Leader

Cox Business has chosen Duane Barnes to permanently oversee the RapidScale leadership team as general manager and company vice president.

RapidScale’s Duane Barnes

Barnes, RapidScale’s CEO, has been serving as an interim GM and VP at Cox. The RapidScale leadership team oversees operations, product, technology and sales.

Larry Steelman is RapidScale’s vice president of new business ventures.

“Duane has been an integral part of RapidScale’s growth since joining the company in 2016, demonstrating an exceptional ability to lead sales in growing market share, support new product launches, and efficiently manage other internal operations,” he said. “His thought leadership has put us in a position to be a top managed cloud services provider in the market. I couldn’t be more excited to have a respected and talented leader who consistently delivers results for his employees and clients.”

Barnes began his interim role last September. Since then, he was instrumental in the launch of RapidScale’s identity as a service (IDaaS) and managed device as a service (MDaaS). Those are the newest additions to RapidScale’s solutions portfolio.

Over the past few months, Barnes brought on technology leaders to the team. That includes one for solutions engineering and operations, two sales managers to oversee internal sales within Cox Business nationwide, and three cloud solutions consultants to support channel partners in developing markets.

Barnes has more than 20 of experience in the service provider sector. He started at RapidScale in 2016 as senior vice president of technology.

Past Gigs

In addition, Barnes has held vice president, director and other leadership roles in top-performing technology companies. Those include Windstream Hosted Solutions, Open-Xchange and Intelisys.

Barnes also led teams at MPInet, PowerOne Communications, and the Walt Disney Co.

In December, RapidScale unveiled its managed device-as-a-service (MDaaS) solution. It offers businesses the latest devices such as laptops, Chromebooks and tablets for a monthly price over a fixed three-year term. You can couple MDaaS with other RapidScale cloud solutions including Microsoft 365, Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), and SD-WAN.