This article is more than 1 year old

EMC confirms arrival of channel vet as COO EMEA

Ex-Colt and Computacenter man Walsh set to become 2nd in command

EMC has confirmed that former Colt and Computacenter bigwig Simon Walsh will land at the firm as COO for EMEA, as revealed by El Chan this week.

The industry veteran left Colt Technology Services in November, less than three years after heading the newly launched division, amid talk that the service provider was not satisfied with the subsequent growth.

Talking to The Channel, Philippe Fosse, veep of EMEA channels, said the reason it is overhauling its channel programme from Velocity to Business Partner next by January is to "reflect the changes in the market".

"One of the changes is the fact that borders are blurring for the categories of [business types], that is particularly true with the resellers and managed service providers and the background that Simon brings to us will help us tremendously in driving the change into the market," he said.

Resellers are trying to become service providers, system integrators are building reselling businesses and Walsh had worked at Colt and before that was UK MD at Computacenter, added Fosse.

He said the industry is moving toward the Third Platform of computing, a term created by the bean counters at IDC, "the cloud era".

"[This] is where you have billions of users, hundreds of millions of applications and everything virtualised and accessed through any device," he said.

As a result, tech suppliers are being forced to adapt to these changes by building different practices, "some will adapt and some won't".

Asked if Walsh will have a hands-on role - country managers will not report to him in the region - Fosse said that "EMC2 stands for everyone makes customer calls". ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like