In a world where tens of billions of Internet-enabled devices communicate with one another, we can now do things we never could before. Think home automation, self-driving cars, and telemedicine. By leveraging IoT and fog and edge computing, today’s businesses can identify KPIs and extract immense value from the data that’s generated and shared by connected devices. Perry Lea, principal technologist at Microsoft and the co-founder of Rumble, joins Pod2112 to discuss the growth path of these technologies, how Moore’s Law is impacting their evolution, why fog computing is the clear route to our future, which industries will flounder and excel, and how systems integrators can tap the fog to add value to systems and solutions.

Cisco’s Andrew Sage: The Vendor Perspective on Distribution

Distribution is a valued resource for the technology industry and channel. For decades, distributors have provided vendors and partners with the logistical support they need to get products into the hands of customers. While distributors continue to provide valuable services and support to vendors, the market is changing rapidly as vendors, partners, and customers shift their models to services, and many vendors are questioning what role distribution will play in the services era. Will distributors, many of which have developed services arms and added more support mechanisms, continue to provide the value-add support that vendors rely upon today? Andrew Sage, vice president of Americas distribution at Cisco Systems, joins Pod2112 to discuss the evolving role and value of distribution from a vendor perspective.

Hardware and software companies such as Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft built the technology channel. They recruited and cultivated value-added resellers, systems integrators, and managed service providers to reach niche market segments, provide integration and customization services, and deliver maintenance and administrative services. Companies tapping into the technology channel today don’t necessarily look like Cisco and Microsoft. They don’t even look like Google and Amazon, but technology is so pervasive that every company is a technology company at some level. These new companies tapping the technology channel leverage cloud computing and software to deliver their services, and they’re discovering that they need the resources and capabilities of technology channel partners to meet customer needs and drive growth. Square, which provides sellers with software services to run and grow their businesses, is one such company. It’s launched a channel program to tap VARs, systems integrators, and digital agencies to help users connect its payment, point-of-sale, and payroll services to other systems and reach new customers and markets. Pankaj Bengani, the global partnerships lead at Square, joins Pod2112 to discuss how the company recognized its need for channel partners and how it plans to leverage partners’ technical capabilities to facilitate growth.

Consolidation is rampant in the managed services segment, with vendors building and acquiring multiple capabilities to enable MSPs to provide wide arrays of managed, security, and backup services. The goal of these vendors is to create one-stop shops for MSPs so they need not go anywhere else for their tools. While this sounds like a good strategy, it flies in the face of a decade in which MSPs built their technology capabilities through a best-of-breed approach. The question: Is the one-stop-shop approach better than the best-of-breed method for building managed services practices? Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola joins Pod2112 to talk about how his company is finding success with the one-stop-shop approach and how that model will sustain continued growth.

Businesses want the benefits of Big Data, as they see data-driven decision-making as a means for making better choices that generate higher returns with less risk. At least that’s the promise. Before businesses can leverage the power of Big Data, though, they first need “the data.” Each day, businesses generate terabytes of structured and unstructured data from traditional endpoints and network systems, mobile devices, and an increasing volume of Internet of Things devices. Collecting, cataloging, and managing that data for use in analytics is a huge challenge. Informatica’s Balaji Subramanian shares insights on how to gain control over the piles of bits and bytes that are the raw fuel for Big Data.

Silicon Valley is where technology dreams are made. Tech entrepreneurs are like the forty-niners of the California Gold Rush; they’re flocking to the tech centers in hopes of hitting the mother lode with their innovative and great ideas. But building a business is hard. It takes vision, planning, hard work, money, and determination. Not every tech venture makes it, and very few make it big. But those few start-ups that are extraordinarily successful have a special name: unicorns. A unicorn is a start-up valued at $1 billion or more. What does it take to build a unicorn? Crowdstrike Co-founder and CEO George Kurtz joins Pod2112 to talk about what it took to start his innovative endpoint security company and get it to that unicorn status.

Managers make decisions every day that affect their staff, businesses, partners and customers. Decision-making is both art and science. Managers must weigh options and available evidence to make sound decisions. Making decisions is unavoidable, and it can be scary. Some managers avoid decision making or make safe choices out of fear that the wrong move could hurt their careers. Managers should fear decision making, and they shouldn’t seek absolutes in the decision-making process. Decision making is about making the most reasonable choices at the right time. Julie Parrish, the chief operating officer at RedSeal and technology industry veteran, joins Pod2112 to talk about the elements of sound decision making and how managers can make better decisions that result in better outcomes.

Brands are more than just the names of companies and products. Brands are the embodiment of corporate missions and value propositions. While brands don’t make products, products can make define brands and buyer propensity to use a company’s products and services. Through brand building, companies position themselves for purchasing consideration, customer loyalty and market influence.

Some brands are so successful that they become genericized, becoming known for their company and/or products as well as the products of competitors. Branding isn’t an overnight exercise. It takes careful crafting to ensure the message aligns with the products and mission, and then it takes a persistent delivery to the target market to ensure prospective buyers understand and internalize the brand message and value.

Toni Clayton Hine, chief marketing officer at Xerox, knows the benefits and challenges of brand building. Hine oversees a brand synonymous with photocopying and the printed page; a brand so well known that it’s hard to think of any other copier vendor without thinking Xerox. But she’s also challenged with evolving the brand so people recognizes Xerox’s existing and future capabilities in document management, business process optimization, and time-savings solutions.

Hine joins Pod2112 to discuss brand building and brand management, sharing what every company needs to know about brand power.

While professional services players such as accountants, lawyers, and marketing firms have operated on the IT channel’s periphery, they’re coming out of the shadows, and in greater numbers. Thanks to cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), they’re joined by a cohort of non-IT manufacturers of consumer and commercial durable goods. Collectively, these are the specialized channel partners, and they’re part of a growing segment of resellers, service providers, and influencers that are opening new routes to market for IT vendors. Rod Baptie, president of Baptie & Co., has long talked about the potential power of specialized channel partners. Even with this influx of non-traditional partners, he believes the IT channel is still in the early days of leveraging specialized channels.

Cloud computing isn’t just a hardware replacement. Cloud infrastructure has little use without applications, and the volume of cloud-enabled software is increasing rapidly. The need for applications that run on cloud-based infrastructure or enhance cloud-based software services is changing the way vendors think about their go-to-market strategies and partnerships. Cloud providers are building software-rich marketplaces that enable customers to access the resources they need to get the most out of their services. And vendors are fostering broad cloud ecosystems of application developers and independent software vendors to bring more applications into the cloud. Chris Rimer, vice president of IBM’s North America Cloud Ecosystems for Business Partners & Channels, joins Pod2112 to talk about the evolving nature of cloud partnerships, alliances, and go-to-market strategies.