8 Channel People Making Waves This Week at IBM, Upstack, Open Systems, More
We highlight an executive departure at RingCentral, the selling of IBM’s Watson assets and the debate around decentralized security.
January 28, 2022
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People get hyped at conferences, even during online ones. Wildix asked its virtual 2022 UCC Summit participants if they were ready to join its “army” and ditch “vampire vendors.” Wildix’s chief sales officer Alberto Carlos Benigno made the week for getting attendees pumped.
“New doors are opening and you’ll have the opportunity to approach bigger customers than ever before,” Benigno said.
There’s good reason for all this fanfare. For the first time, researchers at Gartner included Wildix in its Magic Quadrant for UCaaS. Wildix was a “niche player” in the 2021 Magic Quadrant.
Find out more in this quick read.
Sometimes it’s necessary to cut your losses. That’s not exactly what IBM said it did when it sold its health care data and analytics assets (part of Big Blue’s Watson Health business) to Francisco Partners. However, it’s easy to read between the lines.
Analysts have determined IBM was not gaining traction in the health care market. Rather than focus on that, IBM’s Tom Rosamilia reframed the narrative and said the deal was a “clear next step as IBM becomes even more focused on our platform-based hybrid cloud and AI strategy.” Rosamilia makes the list this week for winning the public relations game.
Learn about Francisco Partners’ health care portfolio.
Upstack executives are having another good week out of the many they already seem to have. The company acquired yet another operation, Florida-based consulting firm Texium. Upstack has bought upward of 15 partner firms in the past year.
Michael Scharf and Michael Martin were CEO and CRO of Texium. The two Michaels made the Channel People Making Waves list for joining the Upstack family, now in partner and managing director roles. Not only did they sell their firm, but they have jobs to boot.
Learn why this acquisition is a significant opportunity for partners.
The debate surrounding decentralized security is kind of like the discussion around federal vs. state rights. States feel the need to assert control because they perceive the federal government as inept or overbearing. In contrast, the federal government’s argument is that they have the resources to handle problems that cross state lines. If IT teams are the country, then individual departments are like the states. WatchGuard Technologies’ Stephen Helm makes the week for explaining the relationship between IT teams and departments, and why it doesn’t bode well for cybersecurity and MSPs.
“Maintaining a consistent security policy across the broader organization can be difficult without centralizing security, especially for time-strapped IT teams. Signs of an active attack can be lost in the cracks or missed because they weren’t contextualized with events occurring at other security layers,” Helm said.
Read more from Edward Gately’s interview.
Some people just keep busy.
Gavriella Schuster left her role as Microsoft’s channel chief six months ago. Instead of taking an extended vacation or sabbatical, Schuster dug into the channel even more. She joined the Open Systems board, using her channel experience at Microsoft to enhance programs at the company.
“I see a huge opportunity at Open Systems for the partner community to build on the skill set they have around Microsoft 365,” Schuster told Channel Futures.
She added: “What Open Systems is doing is really leveraging Microsoft 100% — Azure Sentinel and Defender — and making real use of that in a way I don’t see anyone else in the market doing. So the customer already owns [that] and then [needs] services.”
Kelly Teal’s interview with Schuster is the third most-read story of the week.
If you’ve been at a company for 20 years, the going away party better be good.
Lisa McLin left Rackspace this month after spending two decades at the company. Her last role as global vice president alliances and channel chief she held for five years, more than the industry average of 4.2 years. McLin makes the week for devoting herself to a job maybe longer than most in the industry.
For some, McLin’s departure symbolized upheaval at Rackspace. That’s hard to say when the company already lined up a replacement.
To find out who that is, read the original article.
We also learned Friday that McLin was taking the reins as channel chief at Unisys.
Speaking of Lisas, Lisa Del Real is now 8×8’s new global channel chief. It’s hard to imagine that doesn’t sting a little for executives at RingCentral, 8×8’s competitor. Del Real had worked at the company for 11 years, most recently as RingCentral’s vice president of strategic partnerships. She was an award-winning employee.
However, Del Real already seems settled into her new role. It’s an “exciting time,” she said.
“There is an incredible opportunity to scale 8×8’s global partner-first channel program that drives efforts to expand industry leadership for an integrated cloud communications and contact center solution,” she added.
Learn about 8×8’s next phase of growth.
Speaking of Lisas, Lisa Del Real is now 8×8’s new global channel chief. It’s hard to imagine that doesn’t sting a little for executives at RingCentral, 8×8’s competitor. Del Real had worked at the company for 11 years, most recently as RingCentral’s vice president of strategic partnerships. She was an award-winning employee.
However, Del Real already seems settled into her new role. It’s an “exciting time,” she said.
“There is an incredible opportunity to scale 8×8’s global partner-first channel program that drives efforts to expand industry leadership for an integrated cloud communications and contact center solution,” she added.
Learn about 8×8’s next phase of growth.
Two themes emerge when reviewing companies like Open Systems and Upstack whose channel people are among those making waves this week. Individuals are either moving to new positions or companies are being sold. It’s exciting news to read about.
That said, one person stands out from the pack. Stephen Helm’s cybersecurity advice regarding decentralized security should be read by every company, MSP or otherwise. In fact, his expertise made the article the fourth most-read story of the week.
When it comes to public relations, many big companies have perfected the artform. IBM showed us that was the case with its most recent deal. A top executive finds a way to spin the selling of the company’s health care assets, a tactic we point out in this edition.
Finally, 8×8 graced last week’s Channel People Making Waves and is on the list again this week. Find out whether its new channel chief hire was our top story of the week in our slideshow above. We are counting them down from seven to one!
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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