Channel Brief: Deepwatch Names New CEO, Have Broadcom Changes Prompted ‘Devirtualization’?

It's Wednesday, folks! This week is rolling right along.

Gartner released its 2024 hype cycle for data center infrastructure and has come to an interesting conclusion: The analyst firm posits that Broadcom's VMware license changes have sparked a small wave of 'devirtualization.' Devirtualization involves migrating workloads back to physical infrastructure from virtual, and, while currently applicable to only one percent of organizations, Gartner thinks it is about five to 10 years away from maturity. We'll have to wait and see!

There are a number of executive appointments to note this week: Managed security platform company Deepwatch has named John DiLullo as its new CEO as Charlie Thomas retires, and cloud communication and collaboration company Avaya appointed Kamilah Thomas to the role of senior vice president and chief people officer.

And IT services management firm Kyndryl has a new CIO and has announced leadership changes in two of its major practices, Applications, Data and AI and Cloud. Kim Basile has been named Kyndryl’s new CIO, succeeding Michael Bradshaw, who is assuming leadership of the company’s Applications, Data and AI practice. Additionally, Nicolas Sekkaki has been named the Practice Leader for Kyndryl’s Cloud practice. Congratulations!

This week, we opened up our Top 250 Vertical Market MSPs Survey. Many of the most successful managed service provider (MSP) businesses specialize in vertical markets -- perhaps your vertical is healthcare, financial services, retail, government, education, or something else. To honor your success in one or more of these markets, each year ChannelE2E surveys MSPs to identify and promote the top companies in each of these verticals. (Check out past years' lists here.) Don't miss the chance to be recognized! Here's the link to participate.

As always, drop me a line at [email protected] if you have news to share or want to say hi!

Grab your coffee. Here's what you need to know today.

Today’s Tech, Channel and MSP News

1. Gartner Believes Broadcom VMware Changes May Spark 'Devirtualization': In its 2024 Hype Cycle for Data Center Infrastructure Technologies, analyst firm Gartner has added virtual-to-physical migrations – aka "devirtualization" – to its list of ideas that are set to take off, The Register reported. This 'trend' is due, in part, to Broadcom's licensing changes after its VMware acquisition. "As on-premises virtualization projects move from [enterprise license agreement] ELA and perpetual licenses to new bundling, socket-to-core ratios and consumption models, the costs and pricing can increase two or three times," the hype cycle says. "Those costs are hard to justify for some large workloads, which Gartner wrote 'do not benefit from the same density increases and cost savings as consolidating small workloads.' Devirtualization can therefore help, Gartner argues – with plenty of caveats about the cost and complexity of acquiring and operating bare metal systems that offer the same resilience as a virtualized environment," according to The Register. What do you think?

2. Deepwatch Names DiLullo as CEO: Managed security platform company Deepwatch has named John DiLullo its new CEO, succeeding Charlie Thomas. Thomas is retiring and will serve as chairman of the board of directors, effective immediately, the company said. DiLullo has more than 30 years of experience leading global technology teams. He most recently served as CEO of LiveVox which was acquired by NICE Systems in December 2023. Prior to LiveVox, DiLullo was the CEO of the network threat detection company Lastline, which was acquired by VMware in 2020. DiLullo has also held executive leadership positions at Forcepoint, F5 Networks, Cisco, HP/Aruba Networks and Sonicwall. DiLullo holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University and two U.S. patents in signal processing. He will be based in Silicon Valley. Congratulations!

3. Avaya Appoints Kamilah Thomas as SVP and CPO: In other executive appointment news, cloud communication and collaboration company Avaya appointed Kamilah Thomas to the role of senior vice president and chief people officer. Thomas will oversee Avaya’s global human resources organization, advance their Destination Place to Work journey, and continue to strengthen their leadership in customer experience solutions, the company said in a statement. She brings over 20 years of expertise in human resources and transformation leadership experience for both private and public companies. Congratulations!

4. Kyndryl Announces New CIO, Other Practice Leadership Changes: Kyndryl has named Kim Basile as its new Chief Information Officer (CIO) and also announced leadership changes in two of its major practices, Applications, Data and AI and Cloud. Kim Basile has been named Kyndryl’s new CIO, succeeding Michael Bradshaw, who is assuming leadership of the company’s Applications, Data and AI practice. As Kyndryl’s new CIO, Basile will be responsible for building upon the technology foundation that Kyndryl’s CIO team has developed over the past two years. She will also focus on driving continuous improvement and enhancing the employee experience. Basile’s career experience includes positions of increasing responsibility at Lockheed Martin, Leidos and Vanguard, prior to joining Kyndryl. In his role as Senior Vice President and Global Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI, Bradshaw will work in close partnership with Kyndryl Consult, the company's strategic alliance partners and other practices to prioritize and focus on helping customers modernize their complex technology environments and implement AI. He most recently served as Kyndryl’s CIO and, prior to that, held senior leadership positions at NBCUniversal Media, Lockheed Martin and IBM. Additionally, Nicolas Sekkaki has been named the Practice Leader for Kyndryl’s Cloud practice. As Senior Vice President and Global Practice Leader for Cloud, Sekkaki will help support Kyndryl’s customers as they modernize and transform with Cloud. He most recently served as Kyndryl’s Global Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI. Prior to Kyndryl, he held several leadership roles at CMA CGM, IBM and SAP. Congratulations!

5. Top 250 Vertical Market MSPs Survey Open: Many of the most successful managed service provider (MSP) businesses specialize in vertical markets -- perhaps your vertical is healthcare, financial services, retail, government, education, or something else. To honor your success in one or many of these markets, each year ChannelE2E surveys MSPs to identify and promote the top companies in each of these verticals. (Check out past years' lists here.) We opened the 2024 survey today. Here's the link to participate.

In-Person MSP and Channel Partner Events