Best Of Breed Virtual 2021

The Best of Breed (BoB) Virtual Series is designed to meet the evolving needs of the IT channel’s largest, fastest-growing, and most progressive solution provider organizations and the top technology vendors and distributors. Each event in the invitation-only BoB Virtual Series will bring together 50+ attendees from CRN’s elite solution provider lists ─ Solution Provider 500, Tech Elite 250 and Fast Growth 150 ─ to connect and engage in a strategic, highly focused 2 ½ hour online format.

The virtual event will feature what you have come to expect from our BoB conferences, including: empowering CEO interviews, SP 500 solution provider spotlights, economic and market trend sessions, and peer-to-peer networking.

Get all of CRN's coverage of the event here and follow along on Twitter at #BOB21.

SPRING 2021

Pure Storage CEO Charles Giancarlo’s 10 Boldest Remarks From BoB Virtual 2021
‘Our software runs on AWS, on Azure, on-prem, and it allows you to not only move your data, but it gives the same interfaces to the applications themselves, meaning that you can move your applications between these three environments. So it gives you ultimate choice,’ says Charles Giancarlo, Pure Storage chairman and CEO.

Pure Storage’s Portworx Targets Modern App Development
Partners looking to stay relevant in the next generation of application environments need to provide customers with the tools necessary to scale in those environments, says Pure Storage Chairman and CEO Charles Giancarlo, adding that ‘this is where Portworx comes in.’

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins: Moving To The Cloud Alone Isn’t A Security Cure-All
Moving to the cloud won’t solve all security woes, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins tells CRN. A holistic approach to architecting a secure overall environment is what’s required in today’s hybrid cloud world, solution providers add.

Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry’s 10 Boldest Remarks From BoB Virtual
From why the cloud is safer than on-premises to VARs walking away from large box vendors to the need to protect workloads like we do applications, here’s a look at 10 notable statements made by Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry.

GTDC CEO Frank Vitagliano: IT Distribution In A Sea Of Change
‘People are recognizing the inherent value that distribution provides into the marketplace and into the community. And they recognize that value both from a legacy standpoint, traditional types of things that everybody knows about. ... But they also acknowledge and recognize the investments that are being made in order to take advantage of the digital transformation,’ says GTDC CEO Frank Vitagliano.

Zscaler’s Jay Chaudhry: Partners Must Embrace Cloud, Zero Trust Security
‘One infected workload can infect thousands of other workloads in the cloud. Then you can try to say, ‘Cloud is bad.’ [But I’d say,] ‘No, it’s not the cloud that’s bad. It’s the network security that’s bad,’’ says Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry.

N-Able Exec: How MSPs Can Win Through Automation, Specialization
Processes, people and tools are the three areas to focus on for MSPs investing in automation and standardization to improve revenue and lower costs, says David Weeks, senior director of partner experience at N-able.

Savvy Partners Are Embracing AI, Security, Cloud: Channel Chiefs
A panel of channel chiefs—from cloud distributor Pax8 and from security vendors Check Point and Proofpoint—shared their channel outlook during a session at the Best of Breed Virtual event.

Dell To Partners: Step Up On Refresh, Seize On Front-End Margins
The IT infrastructure giant wants partners to rally around its Tech Refresh and Power Up programs to drive new PC and server sales while also taking advantage of new front-end margin opportunities. ‘We’ve now just made it more compelling, more competitive than ever before,’ Dell’s Cheryl Cook says in a talk with North American channel chief Gregg Ambulos at The Channel Company’s Best of Breed Spring 2021 event.

Sentinel Technologies CTO: ‘Innovate Rapidly, Do It In An Agile Way’
‘Innovation is alive,’ says Bob Keblusek, chief technology officer at Sentinel Technologies. ‘It needs care, it needs feeding. It grows.’

Pure-as-a-Service Structured For Channel Profitability
‘We’re providing upfront compensation for multi-year minimal [Pure-as-a-Service] subscriptions from the customers. So that allows the partner’s cash flow to stay intact. And we have a very straightforward and simple process for smaller transactions as well. So it’s not just for large customers, it’s for small as well,’ says Pure Chairman and CEO Charles Giancarlo.

WINTER 2021

Intel’s Jason Kimrey On 4 Technologies Key To COVID-19 Recovery
‘While the impact was significant and to some industries was literally catastrophic, technology is at the heart of the recovery, and we believe this creates a lot of opportunity for all of us moving forward,’ the chipmaker’s U.S. channel chief says at The Channel Company’s Best of Breed (BoB) Winter 2021 event.

10 Boldest Statements From AWS Channel Chief Doug Yeum At Best Of Breed Virtual Winter 2021
‘In general, I think people think that AWS may not be as partner-friendly, but that just could be the furthest thing from the truth about how we think about our partners,’ said Doug Yeum, who leads Amazon Web Services’ worldwide channel and alliances.

AWS Channel Chief: Pandemic Underscores Limits Of Companies’ Data Centers, Value Of Cloud Computing
‘We think migrations and modernization by these large enterprises or even small companies are going to become an important trend in 2021,’ Doug Yeum, AWS’ worldwide channel and alliances head, said during The Channel Company’s Best of Breed Virtual Event Series.

AWS Channel Chief: CEO Andy Jassy ‘So Hungry To Do More’
‘His craft is managing this company and making sure that we do all the right things for the customers,’ Amazon Web Services channel chief Doug Yeum says.

Arrow: HPE GreenLake Provides Consumption Model Without Moving To The Cloud
‘HPE GreenLake affords customers the option to eliminate the up-front cash outlay and they only pay for what they use on-premises with metered usage. So, [it’s] similar to a cloud model, but on-premises, in their own location or in a co-location data center of their choosing,’ says Paul Poynter, supplier manager for HPE GreenLake at Arrow.

WWT CEO Jim Kavanaugh’s 5 Big Leadership Tips During COVID
From key executive messaging during COVID-19 to not raising health insurance, World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh gives his best leadership advice during uncertain times in his Best of Breed Virtual Series keynote today.

Ingram Micro: Work-From-Home Quickly Became The ‘Center Of Everything’
‘ We went to work-to-home and we all realized how that business exploded from a technology standpoint. So we’re looking at all the technology that fits in that center of everything to help support the growth of our partners. We’re also diving deeper into gaming, into health care with telemedicine, and into mobility with 5G,’ says Ingram Micro’s Kirk Robinson.

Sophos CEO Kris Hagerman’s 10 Boldest Remarks From Best Of Breed Virtual Winter 2021
From surging sales and profitability and securing the supply chain to combating complexity and doubling down on detection and response, here’s a look at 10 notable statements made by Sophos CEO Kris Hagerman.

SolarWinds Hack ‘One Of The Most Dramatic’ In Last Decade: Sophos CEO
‘You cannot think about your security only in the context of, ‘How well am I secured?’ You’ve got to go beyond that to say, ‘How well am I secured and how well am I securing everything that I connect to?’’ says Sophos CEO Kris Hagerman.

Sophos Rides MDR Wave To Massive Managed Services Growth
Sophos CEO Kris Hagerman says the company is now one of the world’s largest managed detection and response (MDR) providers with more than 2,000 customers after moving into the space just 15 months ago.