Infrastructure – Round 1

Herve Tardy, Eaton vs. George Hope, SimpliVity

Hyper-converged infrastructure startup SimpliVity is getting a lot of attention these days and received a $175 million series D funding round last week. While SimpliVity might be new on the block, George Hope, its vice president of global channels, is not. Hope was previously the director of global channels at EMC's Isilon division and is leaning on that experience to drive SimpliVity's 100 percent indirect go-to-market strategy.

This isn't exactly a first rodeo for Hope's Round 1 opponent, though, as Herve Tardy, vice president, general manager at Eaton, knows a thing or two about the channel himself. With almost three decades in the channel, Tardy and Eaton have seen great success as of late with its average revenue per partner growing by 30 percent in 2014.