22 January 2015

CRN says, "Cloud Distribution hires ‘heavy hitter' for growth assault"


Distributor poaches Palo Alto man James Sherlow to head services and help assess new vendor signings

Hot on the heels of being crowned the UK's fourth-fastest-growing private tech firm, Cloud Distribution has moved to enlist a technical services director.

James Sherlow joins the A10, Aerohive and Lastline distributor from Palo Alto Networks, where he was cyber-security solutions manager for western Europe and Africa.

Cloud's business development director Adam Davison said Sherlow would help the distributor run the rule over prospective vendor signings and build out its "Cloud Cover" portfolio of reseller services.

Cloud Cover, which encompasses pre-sales; implementation; training and certification; and maintenance and support services, is growing rapidly and needed a director in situ, Davison said.

"James is a heavy hitter – he ran a big portion of Palo Alto's EMEA SE team and was the second man in Europe," Davison said. "It validates our growth that someone of this stature sees the excitement and opportunity in what we are doing.

"When we look at new vendors, James will give us another viewpoint on how the market sees the technology."

In taking the job, Sherlow will be reunited with two former colleagues in Davison and Cloud Distribution co-founder Scott Dobson, all three of whom held leadership positions at WAN optimisation vendor Expand Networks in the early noughties.

Founded in 2009, Cloud Distribution grew rapidly on the back of its partnership with wireless vendor Meraki but now counts A10, Aerohive, Lastline, WatchDox, Tibco among its key vendors.

"We have hit that level of growth where we need a technical director and James is one of the best people in the market we could have put in the role," Davison said

http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2391594/cloud-distribution-hires-heavy-hitter-for-growth-assault

Channel Biz says, "Cloud Distribution boosts service by hiring Sherlow"

Cloud Distribution has hired James Sherlow from Palo Alto Networks to help boost support for customers after recently expanding into storage

Security, networking and storage value added distributor Cloud Distribution has appointed James Sherlow as its director of technical services, who has moved from Palo Alto Networks.

Sherlow will head up Cloud Distribution’s Cloud Cover portfolio of services, which includes pre-sales, implementation, maintenance, management and support, training and certification services.

Adam Davison, director at Cloud Distribution, said: “James has great pedigree and is a well-respected technical specialist in our industry. Over the past few years our business has grown significantly and we are bringing James on board to help grow our technical capabilities and extensive portfolio of supporting technical services.”

Cloud Distribution said Sherlow is an acknowledged expert in cyber security, threat intelligence and the secure application delivery of content. He joins Cloud Distribution from Palo Alto Networks, a leader in enterprise security, where he was the cyber security solutions manager for Western Europe and Africa.

At Palo Networks, Sherlow took an instrumental role in helping to grow the EMEA region, leading and building the security systems engineering team.

Sherlow said: “I’ve watched Cloud Distribution’s rapid rise and I’ve been impressed by its approach and growth. It is a highly disruptive company that brings game changing technology to market and I’m looking forward to being part of its ongoing success.”

Towards the end of 2014 Cloud Distribution launched its new storage division, and the company says it is planning to announce some new vendor partners soon.

http://www.channelbiz.co.uk/2015/01/22/cloud-distribution-boosts-service-hiring-sherlow/


Cloud Distribution appoints James Sherlow as Director of Technical Services

James Sherlow, leading cyber security specialist from Palo Alto Networks joins Cloud Distribution to accelerate the growth of its Cloud Cover services


Reading, UK, 22nd January 2015 - Security, networking and storage next-generation value added distributor (VAD) Cloud Distribution is pleased to announce that it has appointed James Sherlow as Director of Technical Services. James joins Cloud to head up and accelerate its highly successful portfolio of Value Added Services, branded ‘Cloud Cover'. Cloud Cover includes a wide range of pre-sales, implementation, maintenance, management and support, training and certification services.

Adam Davison, Director for Cloud Distribution, comments: “James has great pedigree and is a well-respected technical specialist in our industry. Over the past few years our business has grown significantly and we are bringing James on board to help grow our technical capabilities and extensive portfolio of supporting technical services.”

James brings a wealth of experience to Cloud. He is an acknowledged expert in cyber security, threat intelligence and the secure application delivery of content. He joins Cloud from Palo Alto Networks, a leader in enterprise security, where he was the Cyber Security Solutions Manager for Western Europe and Africa. Here he took an instrumental role in helping to grow the EMEA region, leading and building the security systems engineering team.

James Sherlow, Director of Technical Services for Cloud Distribution, comments: “I’ve watched Cloud’s rapid rise and I’ve been impressed by its approach and growth. It is a highly disruptive company that brings game changing technology to market and I’m looking forward to being part of its ongoing success.”

-END-

About Cloud Distribution

Cloud Distribution is a value added distributor of disruptive next generation security, networking and storage solutions that VARs can take to market quickly and easily. It currently distributes A10 Networks, Aerohive, Cisco Meraki, Cloud4Wi, DataCore, Exinda, Lacoon, Lastline, Maas360, Maxta, Peplink, Talon, TIBCO LogLogic, Watchdox and Watchful. Its portfolio of disruptive security and networking solutions helps resellers to differentiate themselves from the competition and create new markets to sell in. The company was founded in 2009 by senior executives with a wealth of experience in the security, networking and optimisation space. Its philosophy is to take innovative, cutting-edge vendors into the UK market by recruiting and working together with skilled, reputable, market making partners. For further information please visit www.cloud-distribution.com or follow us on Twitter @cloudtweeters.

16 January 2015

CRN says, "LogLogic reveals new partnership with Cloud Distribution"

Security management vendor LogLogic has announced it is signing up Cloud Distribution in the UK.

LogLogic, which was acquired by Tibco in 2012, provides collection and analysis of data in order to deliver business security management and compliance reporting. The company is already partnered with distributor Wick Hill in the UK and Germany.

Stephen Millard, channel manager at LogLogic, said the decision to partner with Cloud Distribution was driven by the release of the latest LogLogic product (LogLogic 6) and its desire to get the drive of a new distribution partner who is "focused on gaining new results and new partners".

Craig Hinkley, vice president and general manager at LogLogic, said: "We are building a very trusted, deep relationship with Cloud Distribution. We see the capabilities they have as aligning well with our go-to-market strategy in the UK."

He said that while LogLogic's partner programme in the UK is "pretty strong", he would like to bring on another five key partners from Cloud Distribution.

Adam Davison, director of Cloud Distribution, said LogLogic's approach to take data and use it for not only security but also the IT team, marketing and logistics made it an appealing vendor partner.

"That's a new approach and that brings value to the channel. A lot of the channel today are selling similar solutions; LogLogic offers partners the chance to go to market with a different offering with higher margins for the partner. It differentiates them and there is great opportunity for services and consultancy revenue around it," he commented.

The partnership with Tibco means that Cloud Distribution now has 12 vendors on its books.

Davison said the new partnership with LogLogic further highlights that Cloud Distribution is not reliant on its relationship with its vendor Meraki for its growth.

http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2390649/loglogic-reveals-new-partnership-with-cloud-distribution

15 January 2015

IT Europa says, "Cloud Distribution signs TIBCO LogLogic"

Cloud Distribution is signing TIBCO LogLogic in a further move into security analysis, where what has been a highly specialist area can reach further channels. Still a product mainly used by major enterprises, LogLogic6 looks into data to hopefully give a faster time-to-resolution for application and security incidents. It also provides proactive monitoring and control of application infrastructures and business-wide access to operational intelligence.

The first new vendor for Cloud Distribution in 2015, TIBCO LogLogic is part of US-based TIBCO Software which claims thousands of customers in the global top 2000 enterprises.

But is this a product for two-tier distribution, we put to Adam Davison, Director at Cloud Distribution? He says: “We need to educate more partners about this market. With the amount of data that organisations have to deal with there is a real need for company-wide operational insight. Other legacy SIEM and Log Management solutions are great for security and event management, but don’t really give customers a complete overview across their organisation that they can easily translate into graphical reports to gain valuable insight.

The primary markets are those looking for compliance in security- financial services is an obnvious one, but there is also the local goverment market to go after, says Steven Millard, who manages Loglogic in UK&I, Germany and Austria. In some ways Europe could see more growth than the US, says Tom Yates, in charge of Product Marketing. Stephen Millard had previous experience of channels at Wick Hill and decided that LogLogic needed more focus. The decision was therefore taken to appoint Cloud Distribution, for a proactive approach, partner enablement tools and support programmes and its ability to create the “right type of partner base in the UK to accelerate market adoption”. Cloud Distribution will work with its partner eco-system, primarily selecting resellers that supply solutions to enterprise customers at the operational or infrastructure level.

The competition is falling behind, engaged in IPOs etc, Tom Yates adds, so this is a good time to sign up partners – not a huge number, but significant. Probably this means around a dozen in the major markets. Between them Cloud Distribution and TIBCO LogLogic are planning a big drive to channels, not just directly, but with pull through from customer campaigns.

http://www.iteuropa.com/?q=cloud-distribution-signs-tibco-loglogic

14 January 2015

MicroScope says, "Cloud Distribution signed by TIBCO LogLogic"

Cloud Distribution has signed its first vendor of the year and gained the rights to handle TIBCO LogLogic, which has chosen to widen its UK channel in a move that should help the firm gain access to more resellers.

Currently the vendor sells through Wick Hill but will be adding Cloud Distribution to the mix as part of its moves to tap into a growing market for its operational intelligence technology.

Craig Hinkley, vice president and general manager for LogLogic, said that it was not just large enterprises that wanted to take advantage of tracking logs and working out what was happening across the business and it had also seen growing interest from SMEs.

As the market has taken off and the concept of operational intelligence gets more widely circulated the moment was deemed to be right to bring on board a second distributor.

Stephen Millard, channel manager at TIBCO LogLogic, said that there was the room for Cloud Distribution and it had wanted to work with a channel player, "who understands this business" and could bring some value for both the vendor and partners.

Adam Davison, director at Cloud Distribution, said that it was always careful when adding new vendors to make sure that it fitted into its networking and security expertise.

"This is going to enable the resellers to have a far deeper awareness with their customers. Businesses are collecting logs everywhere and all these are going into one place so the whole business can take something from it," he said.

He added that it would be providing partners, particularly those with security and infrastructure backgrounds, with plenty of education to ensure they could generate the right sort of conversation with customers.

http://www.microscope.co.uk/news/2240238138/Cloud-Distribution-signed-by-TIBCO-LogLogic

Channel Pro says, "Cloud Distribution signs TIBCO LogLogic"

Cloud Distribution adds TIBCO LogLogic to vendor line-up

Security, networking and storage distributor Cloud Distribution has added TIBCO LogLogic to its roster of vendors.

LogLogic6 is TIBCO Software’s (NASDAQ: TIBX) enterprise-grade machine data management and operational intelligence platform.

LogLogic6 finds and extracts critical business insight hidden in volumes of log and machine data, enabling businesses to make use of machine data to drastically accelerate time to value. It also provides monitoring and control of application infrastructures and business-wide access to operational intelligence.

Cloud Distribution says LogLogic6 will enable its partners to offer their customers have a ‘single pane of glass view’ of their network through centralised machine data. This data can then be turned into meaningful intelligence.

“With the amount of data that organisations have to deal with there is a real need for company-wide operational insight. Other legacy SIEM and Log Management solutions are great for security and event management, but don’t really give customers a complete overview across their organisation that they can easily translate into graphical reports to gain valuable insight,” says Adam Davison, director at Cloud Distribution.

“With LogLogic6, all departments can log their information into one central point so that everyone can gain intelligence. The net result is that there is far more data across the business that can be analysed and used for business advantage.”

The vendor recently appointed new channel manager Stephen Millard, who upon reviewing LogLogic’s channel strategy, decided it needed more direct focus. As such, the decision was taken to appoint Cloud Distribution.

“There is pent up demand for a solution like LogLogic6 and with Cloud Distribution we believe we can gain traction into verticals and channels that are not yet using our solutions,” he comments.

The distributor says it will work primarily select resellers that supply solutions to enterprise customers at the operational or infrastructure level.

http://www.channelpro.co.uk/news/8910/cloud-distribution-signs-tibco-loglogic

08 January 2015

Channel Pro says "When insight picks up where data left off…"

Adam Davison urges the channel to look beyond data, instead focusing on industry insight

I had a fantastic day at the races at the weekend. I went with a friend, who it turns out, has an unnerving ability to pick a winner. After three consecutive losses, I was beginning to get frustrated with his ability to beat the bookies and asked him if it was sheer luck, or whether there was some method to his madness.

“I do my research,” he explained with a knowing wink. He went on to explain that he knew a couple of trainers who had given him some insight on the runners and he offered to pass some of that information on to me. Lo and behold, his insight proved the recipe for success and, one race later; it was me feeling smug as I collected my winnings!

The whole experience made me think about our business. A large part of the value of Cloud Distribution is our ability to spot a potential disruptive technology and introduce it successfully to the UK market. In a way, we’re talent spotters.

So, with 2015 just around the corner and everyone’s attention turning to technology predictions, what do we see as the key determinants that are likely to create commercial success for next generation vendors in 2015?

Rather like my experience of relying on information from a racecard to make an informed decision; speaking to potential vendors, or looking at their websites is a good place to start but this is just data. What you need is industry insight.

True entrepreneurs should spend their time looking for business ‘pain points’ or problems that need solving rather than coming up with technical features in isolation and then retrospectively trying to think of an application and market for those features. The most successful businesses are those that offer a solution to a very real business or life problem. People often think the most difficult part of creating a business is finding the right team and sourcing financial backing, but it's actually identifying the business issue that needs solving in the first place that’s the hard part.

So how can industry insight help this?

Our job in identifying the next big thing in new technologies is to look beyond the vendor data and gather insight from three key parties.  Firstly, the market; the end users.  People like you and me who are identifying the problems that a new technology might overcome. Our conversations often contain statements such as “Wouldn’t it be great if you could…” Or “I wish you could…”

Secondly, once we have our wish list, our next port of call is the VC community. Which fledgling companies are they talking to who could offer solutions to these problems? We talk, we marry problems to solutions and, ultimately, we end up with a pretty clear idea of which companies to back.

To complete the picture, we spend time with our resellers. What gaps do they have in their existing portfolio?  How can we help them get ahead by offering additional revenue stream opportunities? One of the key determinants of commercial success for the channel today is higher risk, higher margin products which enable resellers to differentiate themselves in the market. I say higher risk, but if you’ve gathered your insight, then it’s a calculated risk.

Resellers need to differentiate themselves and we strive to offer our partners high margin products within our strategic solution stacks for which the due diligence into customer demand has been done. In the financial sector, for example, where speed is crucial, we have products that offer customers an extra millisecond of latency and advanced compliance, or additional PCI security for customers in the retail sector; these are all features that enable our partners to differentiate themselves to their customers, sell at a higher margin and, with the additional training and certification services available; derive a healthy, sustainable recurring revenue stream in the process.

That’s the hard part over, now you can have fun taking these companies to market! But know that this requires some additional skills: the courage of conviction and the ability to take calculated risks.

So, my predictions for 2015? They are rather like my day at the races; look beyond the data, do your due diligence, gather your insight and you can win big!

http://www.channelpro.co.uk/opinion/8896/when-insight-picks-up-where-data-left-off