Plexxi Nabs Former SimpliVity Sales Leader To Drive Hyper-Convergence Growth
Plexxi has hired two veteran sales executives to help drive channel revenues around hyper-convergence, including Mitch Breen, the former global sales leader and chief channel for hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) standout SimpliVity.
"The market for HCI is exploding and will continue to expand at a fever pitch," said Breen, Plexxi's new senior vice president of enterprise sales, in a statement. "Plexxi's unique HCN (hyperconverged networking) solutions provide the networking simplicity, automation, and scale that customers look to HCI to deliver. I see the tremendous value in bringing hyperconverged networking into the equation, because it vastly simplifies HCI deployment for customers."
The Nashua, N.H.-based networking startup develops SDN software that configures a network for converged or hyper-converged infrastructures based on application requirements.
Breen could not be reached for comment by press time.
Breen was most recently Chief Revenue Officer at software vendor Progress, a position he left after less than a year. Before working for SimpliVity, which Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquired for $650 million in February, Breen was senior vice president of North American sales for Oracle. He spent the majority of his career – over 26 years – in various executive roles at EMC.
Breen new role will be focused around driving revenues for Plexxi's HCN solutions for customers adopting HCI to modernize their data center infrastructure.
Additionally, Plexxi hired Mark Wright as its new vice president of sales operations, responsible for all aspects of growing the vendor's revenue and customer footprint.
Wright has over 30 years of experience working for EMC and Verizon. Prior to Plexxi, he was the COO of 3D Systems Corporation.
Mike Gregory, founder and CEO of CloudGov Technologies, a Rockville, Md.- based Plexxi partner, said onboarding two industry veterans keeps Plexxi is on the right technology path with a "strong and ongoing" channel commitment.
"Plexxi's investment in these two HCI industry pros means that Plexxi is very serious about selling their HCN technology to the market," said Gregory. "We're excited to work with Mitch and Mark to grow our Plexxi HCN business and help our customers automate and accelerate service delivery."
Breen will report directly to Plexxi CEO Rich Napolitano, while Wright will report to Tim Lieto, senior vice president of strategic sales and marketing.
"We are thrilled to have two industry veterans join our team as we double down on hyper-converged infrastructure and hyper-converged networks," said Rich Napolitano, CEO of Plexxi, in a statement to CRN. "Both Mitch and Mark have strong track records of growing businesses at start-up companies and large enterprises alike, and they will play a vital role in extending our momentum into the HCI market."
Plexxi, named in CRN's 2017 Software-Defined Data Center 50, touts itself as a pioneer in converged and hyper-converged network infrastructure for public and private cloud deployments. Investors for the privately held company include GV (formerly Google Ventures), Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.