Savvis Signs On Former Microsoft, Amazon Execs In Cloud Push

The St. Louis-based cloud infrastructure and hosting provider added to new cloud executives to its ranks with an American sales senior vice president and a cloud vice president.

First, Savvis tapped James Parker as senior vice president of Americas sales. Parker previously held a senior sales position within Microsoft, and at Savvis, will oversee all activities within its American sales channels. Parker is also responsible for sales support functions like technical design, renewal strategies and sales effectiveness.

Parker has two decades of experience in software sales, service and development, Savvis said, and at Microsoft he was most recently the general manager of the enterprise and partner group for Central Easter Europe. There, he oversaw more than $1 billion in sales of software and related services across 32 countries and supported more than 1,600 corporate clients. Parker also worked in the northwest U.S. and greater China regions during his tenure at Microsoft, which was preceded by a stint at Dell as a consultant and his role as a senior programmer analyst and consultant with IBM in Italy.

"As cloud services continue to assume their place at the very core of IT, Savvis has the resources and reputation to compete anywhere in the world," Parker said. "I'm looking forward to helping Savvis extend its leadership in new vertical and geographic markets in the United States and beyond."

Savvis also tapped Daniel Patton as vice president and general manager of cloud services. Patton ran the Americas sales team for Amazon Web Services and will take the help of Savvis' enterprise-class Savvis Symphony cloud computing platform while driving the company's growth strategy in the cloud.

Patton also brings more than 20 years experience in tech to Savvis. Previously, he worked in sales, product development and product marketing and at Amazon Web Services he drove cloud adoption across the start-up, SMB and enterprise markets. Patton also managed regional and global sales teams with IBM and Rational Software and cut his teeth at Boeing with nine years in product development, product marketing and sales.

"I am excited to join Savvis and work with the team that brought the first enterprise-class cloud to market," Patton said in a statement. "Enterprise clients require a well-performing and secure cloud platform with solid service-level agreements in order to run their production applications. Savvis Symphony is that platform, and I look forward to driving its growth."

The addition of Parker and Patton comes as Savvis continues to beef up its cloud profile. Savvis, which was acquired by telecom giant CenturyLink in April to the tune of $3.2 billion, has continued its cloud momentum this year. Savvis is also currently undergoing a massive nationwide data center expansion designed to increase its footprint and fulfill the massive demand for cloud computing infrastructure and services.

"Savvis continues to expand in size and scope, and the extensive experience that James and Daniel bring to Savvis will further help us continue to innovate and lead the market in enterprise cloud, managed hosting and colocation," said Bill Fathers, president of Savvis, in a statement. "We're confident their unique abilities will be a great fit with our global growth strategy."