New Partners In Venture Capital, Software, IoT

/**/ /**/

There's a whole new class of partners rising in the channel, and they may not be who you expect.

"We're seeing a burst of new types of partners," said Rackspace's Will Knight. "Probably one of the best partners we have is emerging in the private equity and venture capitalist space, and an example is they have this portfolio of companies and they're trying to run them more efficiently."

Knight said he never expected the channel to intersect with the banking space. "If you would have asked me five years ago when I was at Microsoft, 'Hey, are you going to be partnering with venture capital and private equity firms?' I would have said, 'You're nuts.' "

"We're seeing a lot of new partners in the world of Internet of Everything,’ said Cisco's Bruce Klein, "looking at how do you create a new connected enterprise.'

IBM's Tami Duncan said the company is seeing success with "software-only partners." HP’s Stephen DiFranco agreed. "Software-driven, application-driven partner sales are the future," he said.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 24, 2014