Monday Morning Impact – February 9

Published On: February 9, 2015Categories: Buzz, Uncategorized

By Ken Presti, Senior Consultant, Channel Impact

Accuvant and FishNet Security Complete Merger

Accuvant and FishNet Security announced the completion of their merger, although the combined company’s new name in marketing brand is not expected to be released until the second half of the year. Until that time, the two units will operate under their existing names and will focus will on operational integration.

“Our combined organization will offer a comprehensive suite of end-to-end services and solutions ranging from strategy to tactical and everything in between, enabling organizations to rely on one trusted source for all their information security needs,” said CEO Dan Burns. “Together, Accuvant and FishNet Security will be able to do so much more for the world than either company could have done alone.”

In 2014, Accuvant and FishNet Security had combined total revenue of approximately $1.5 billion. Collectively, the two companies have approximately 1,400 employees, have served more than 10,000 customers of various sizes across multiple industries, offer an extensive geographic footprint with 60 office locations across the U.S. and Canada, and have premium partnerships with all the leading security product manufacturers.

The executive team for the combined company also includes Mark Williams, president and chief operating officer; Tim Hoffman, executive vice president of worldwide sales;
Aaron Shilts, executive vice president of worldwide services; and Dan Wilson, executive vice president of partner strategy.

A private equity fund managed by Blackstone is maintaining a majority ownership while Sverica International, Investcorp, and management of the new, combined company are all maintaining minority interests.

Channel Impact:
This merger arguably simplifies life for channel partners working in the security segment. Combining the two product lines into a unified structure and program is likely to streamline the training and administrative components.

Blue Coat Names New Sales and Channel Leadership

Blue Coat Systems, Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based security vendor, has named Kurt Mills as its new vice president, worldwide channel sales and operations, and Steve Tchejeyan as the company’s new senior vice president for Americas, sales and field operations.

Reporting to Marc Andrews, Blue Coat senior vice president of worldwide field operations, Mills is responsible for field and channel partner-facing business operations and collaborating on strategy. He previously served as vice president of channel sales at Aerohive Networks where he developed its channel program structure, teams, systems and channel routes to market. Mills has over 25 years channel sales experience and has also held executive channel management positions with Websense and McAfee.

As senior vice president of the Americas sales and field operations, Steve Tchejeyan will focus on markets and customer segments that represent the largest market-share growth. Tchejeyan previously managed the US-based consumer, commercial, enterprise and public sector clients at McAfee.

“Both Kurt and Steve have proven track records of channel transformation, partner success and sales operations” said Marc Andrews, Blue Coat senior vice president of worldwide field operations. “They are terrific additions to our team. I’m looking forward to working with them to expand our global partner base and our sales efficiency while driving increased revenue.”

Channel Impact:
The new arrivals come to the table with experienced leadership credentials in the industry in general, and in security, in particular.

Infinio Launches Channel Program for Storage Acceleration

Infinio, of Cambridge, Mass., has rolled out a new, multi-tiered partner program expected to help partners pursue opportunities in the storage acceleration market, where the demanding I/O requirements of today’s applications combined with growing data volumes are straining capacity and performance.

Program benefits include in-depth training, a co-selling strategy intended to speed the sales cycle, and joint marketing activities to position partners as thought leaders in a disruptive market segment.

“Our partners will be well positioned to help their customers implement both a storage performance layer with Infinio that can be built on next-generation flash devices, as well as a simplified storage capacity tier that can leverage SMR drives and cloud storage,” said Alan DiPietro, Infinio vice president of sales. “Our channel program is integral to fulfilling Infinio’s vision to deliver a strategic, architectural layer in the storage I/O stack, and our partners will help turn this vision into a reality.”

The Infinio Accelerator leverages a server-side, software-based approach to support growing virtualized enterprise applications and desktops, without the traditionally associated expensive upgrades to storage hardware.

Channel Impact:
Channel enablement for this type of solution underscores the degree to which virtualization has moved downward from the enterprise level.

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