
‘The Same Zoom You Know And Love’
To say Zoom Video Communications saw business boom as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic is an understatement. The global health crisis has forced millions of people out of their offices and schools to work and learn from home, and shelter in place as social distancing orders went into effect in many countries to slow the spread of the virus. In the meantime, Zoom went from 10 million daily meeting participants to 300 million daily meeting participants on its videoconferencing platform -- a growth of 30x in a matter of months.
At the same time, the company has faced criticism around the security of its platform as hacking and so- called "Zoom-bombing" -- when uninvited attendees join and disrupt meeting -- incidents began to rise along with the popularity of the platform. But despite its security challenges, which the provider is diligently working to overcome, Zoom is still the platform that customers know and love to use, said Laura Padilla, head of channel and partners for San Jose, Calif.-based Zoom. The company is using the staggering growth it has seen as an opportunity to improve its platform and bolster is security posture, she said.
"I look at this experience as making us an even better platform for partners to sell because the list of things that we have introduced have made us stand out even more from our competitors," Padilla told CRN.
Padilla talked security updates and the use cases that have emerged that have surprised the company, beating out the incumbents, such as Cisco Webex, and long-term opportunities for partners after COVID-19. What follows are excerpts from the conversation.