SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Riverbed Technology, the application performance company, today announced that Karl Meulema, Senior Vice President of Global Channels, and Michelle Hodges, Vice President of Global Channel Strategy & Programs, were named to the prestigious list of the 2017 CRN® Channel Chiefs. The executives on this annual list represent top leaders in the IT channel who excel at driving growth and revenue in their organizations through channel partners.
Tweet This: Congrats to @Riverbed’s Karl Meulema and Michelle Hodges for being named to #CRNChannelChiefs by @TheChannelCo: www.crn.com/channelchiefs
Channel Chief honorees are selected by CRN’s editorial staff on the basis of their professional achievements, standing in the industry, dedication to the channel partner community and strategies for driving future growth and innovation. Each of the 2017 Channel Chiefs has demonstrated loyalty and ongoing support for the IT channel by consistently promoting, defending and executing outstanding channel partner programs.
As organizations pursue a digital business strategy, the vast majority are shifting away from legacy IT services to adopt cloud-based services, with many businesses taking a cloud-first approach. Meulema and Hodges have dedicated themselves to delivering channel strategies and programs that support channel partners through this transition and now as their customers are beginning to do the same across their network and application infrastructure.
This includes preparing the channel for next-generation technologies such as software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), and training them on Riverbed® SteelConnect™, a unique software-defined and application-centric solution that delivers the agility, visibility, and performance that businesses need to succeed in the cloud era. SteelConnect is the industry’s first and only SD-WAN solution to unify network connectivity and policy-based orchestration of application delivery across hybrid WANs, cloud networks – including one-click connectivity to AWS and Azure – and branch LAN/WLANs. SteelConnect, along with Riverbed’s market leading solutions for visibility and optimization provide a significant market opportunity for Riverbed partners and as a channel-driven company, Riverbed will continue to focus on working with partners to deliver market-leading solutions for the cloud and to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.
“The executives on our 2017 Channel Chiefs list have distinguished themselves by building strong partner programs, developing and executing effective business strategy and helping to advance the channel as a whole,” said Bob Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company. “They represent an extraordinary group of individuals who lead by example and serve as both invaluable advocates and innovators of the IT channel. We applaud their achievements and look forward to their successes in the coming year.”
“Riverbed is dedicated to working with partners to deliver architectural solutions that solve the complexities of application, service delivery and visibility for our customers as they ‘digitally transform’,” said Karl Meulema, Senior Vice President of Global Channels at Riverbed. “This designation recognizes the mutual success of Riverbed and our partners in delivering complete solutions that transform business and IT.”
The 2017 CRN Channel Chiefs list is featured in the February 2017 issue of CRN and online at www.crn.com/channelchiefs.
About The Channel Company
The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com
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About Riverbed
Riverbed, at more than $1 billion in annual revenue, is the leader in Application Performance Infrastructure, delivering the most complete platform for the hybrid enterprise to ensure applications perform as expected, data is always available when needed, and performance issues can be proactively detected and resolved before impacting business performance. Riverbed enables hybrid enterprises to transform application performance into a competitive advantage by maximizing employee productivity and leveraging IT to create new forms of operational agility. Riverbed's 28,000+ customers include 97% of the Fortune 100 and 98% of the Forbes Global 100. Learn more at www.riverbed.com.
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