CRN Interview: Tarantella CEO Frank Wilde

High-tech veteran Frank Wilde became president, CEO and director of Tarantella in mid-December. Previously CEO of Ravisent Technologies, he succeeds Doug Michels, who remains a strategic adviser to Tarantella. In an interview with CRN Senior Writer Paula Rooney, Wilde said he aims to grow the Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Citrix competitor by pushing the expanded Linux support and robust security of its Tarantella Enterprise 3 Version 3.4 line and bolstering Tarantella's channel base and partner programs in 2004.

CRN: What is Tarantella's biggest challenge in 2004?

WILDE: It needs to be focused on the customers we have and identifying customers with similar needs. Tarantella customers include Citibank, the NSA, U.S. Navy, Oracle and Deutsche Telecom in Europe. Our biggest challenge is to ramp up revenue. Our revenue is less than $25 million per year. The plan for growth is to get the company profitable. We're seeing very nice business in Europe, there's a very definite expansion plan for the U.S., and we will expand in Asia. There's a great opportunity for expansion because our products are so secure.

CRN: What are your plans for growing Tarantella's channel?

WILDE: The channel is a big part of [our growth plans] going forward. Our history is all about the channel, and we have excellent channel relationships in North America, Europe and Asia. As we move forward, we're expanding those partnerships and leveraging our relationships with Microsoft to bring those partners new leads. We're also focusing on heterogeneous customers with different devices on different platforms. Our products carry a nice margin. One big initiative is the launch of an inside sales program this month to help our channel partners be successful. We brought a team on board, and they're working with reseller partners. It's a small group, but their role is primarily to work with channel partners and partner with our outside sales force.

CRN: How many channel partners does Tarantella have now?

WILDE: It's in the hundreds, definitely over 600 worldwide, with 60 percent in the U.S. and 40 percent worldwide.

CRN: Citrix is growing rapidly. How do you plan to compete with that company this year? Do you think Tarantella's unique support for Linux will pay off?

WILDE: Citrix is gigantic, and they provide an umbrella for us. What customers like about Tarantella is that we can deliver applications in a highly secure way. And we deal with customers who have heterogeneous applications. We support a heterogeneous environment, so many customers are moving to Linux. In our case, our significant value-add is that we deal with customers who have mixed systems. In fact, we support Unix, Linux and Microsoft. We were a Unix shop and now have a big focus on Microsoft through our acquisition of New Moon last year. And we recently introduced Linux functionality. This drive to Linux is really ramping up, and we can play heavily in this space.

CRN: What margins do you offer your channel partners?

WILDE: It varies around the world, of course. But distributors get margins in the 10 percent range, and resellers get 25 percent to 28 percent. Our resellers get a good margin.

CRN: Tarantella Enterprise software runs on Unix and Linux servers and gives access to Unix, Linux, mainframe, AS/400 and Windows Terminal Server applications. Why is the Linux support important, given that so few applications are Linux-based and many are legacy or Microsoft-based?

WILDE: A lot of applications are Windows-based, but there are legacy apps that are 3270-based and have been built on the Unix platform over the years. We provide the ability for customers to provide their users with access to a mixed environment, and it gives enterprise customers the ability to move those legacy applications to Linux. There are many customers going through these transitions now. Customers also use our capabilities to have offshore development capability and the ability to transport their applications around the world on a thin-client solution that gives them flexibility in cost and scalability.

CRN: How do you plan to leverage the Microsoft relationship?

WILDE: With our acquisition of New Moon and the Canaveral iQ product, we inherited a good relationship with Microsoft. Their entire life was working with Microsoft. Microsoft is trying to make RDP [remote desktop protocol] a worldwide standard, and we're a licensee of that product. So we're continuing to have a close working relationship with Microsoft.

CRN: And how do you plan to leverage the Microsoft channel?

WILDE: With our channel program, we're working with Microsoft partners to interest them in the Canaveral product. We have a recruitment program that's being run by the inside sales group, and they're working with Microsoft resellers and demonstrating how the Canaveral product is easy to use and easy to install. In October and November, we saw a nice increase in the growth of that business in the reseller channel. Microsoft has a big push for Terminal Services in Windows Server 2003, and we give customers the ability to have a very easy-to-use product that extends the functionality of Terminal Services. Canaveral is based on the RDP client. If you go to Citrix, it has a proprietary technology embedded in its products. So we're more open.

CRN: Will it be difficult for Tarantella to bond with Microsoft, given the tight relationship between Microsoft and Citrix? Do you think Citrix will support Linux anytime soon?

WILDE: Citrix is going to continue to be a big partner of Microsoft. But Microsoft always works with multiple partners. I'm sure that, at some point, Citrix will come out with Linux support. But it comes down to the performance of each product, and we've spent five or six years making our products enterprise-ready and bulletproof. Our product is scalable, works in a heterogeneous environment and delivers Terminal Services applications remotely and securely.

CRN: Why do you say Tarantella's products are so secure?

WILDE: The NSA and the Department of the Navy have selected us over anyone else in the market. We solved the security question for them.

CRN: Are you concerned that improving Terminal Services features in Windows might put your company out of business one day?

WILDE: You'll see some level of parity, but the latest Canaveral has additional features. We're looking at device support and want to run on a variety of devices. We're also looking at different relationships with companies we can partner with.

CRN: What devices does Tarantella support now?

WILDE: Handheld devices like the Palm, MAC and the PC. [We support] a lot of different handhelds. We want to add support for the BlackBerry and cell phones.

CRN: Do you think the growth in server-based computing will slow once the economy recovers?

WILDE: No. We're seeing server-based computing take off for a lot of reasons, such as to centrally maintain servers and give good support to users. Customers with anywhere from two customers to 3,000 to 5,000 seats found that they like the server-based computing model because it's easier to administer, and they can rapidly provide support to internal employees and external partners in a very secure manner. We see a lot of new areas for growth and support.