The Cloud Channel Summit Announces Speakers for Third Annual Event

WELLESLEY, MA--(Marketwired - Oct 15, 2013) - THINKstrategies today announced the speaker lineup for its third annual Cloud Channel Summit. This year's conference will focus on the future of Cloud channel partnerships by tapping executive expertise from some of the industry's leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) technology providers. The event will take place on Monday, Nov. 4, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

This year's Cloud Channel Summit will feature a number of keynote presentations exploring the implications of Cloud computing on the channel. This includes:

• "Where's the Channel in the Cloud? A State of the Industry," presented by Tim FitzGerald, Vice President, DataCenter & Cloud Technology Solutions Practices, Avnet Technology Solutions
  
  
• "Redefining Channel Relationships in Today's Cloud Ecosystems," presented by Ron Huddleston, senior vice president of ISV alliances at Salesforce.com
  
  
• "Key Trends Reshaping Partner Relationships in the Cloud," presented by Dave O'Callaghan, SVP of Global Channels & Alliances, VMware
  
  

"The goal of the Cloud Channel Summit is to increase awareness and provide a forum for attendees to share best practices for creating successful partnerships that will lead to profitable business models within the cloud ecosystem," said Jeffrey M. Kaplan, founder and managing director of THINKstrategies, and host of the Summit. "Based on the strength of our speaker lineup and the overwhelming interest we've received from attendees over the years, I know we are succeeding in illustrating the importance of strategic partnerships in achieving cloud computing success."

In addition to the keynote speakers, more than 25 thought leaders -- from the world's leading technology companies -- will provide their practical perspectives in a series of executive roundtable panels. This includes executives from Amazon Web Services, Box, DropBox, CallidusCloud, HP, Informatica Cloud, Oracle, and Pivotal Labs, among other leading companies. A full list of speakers can be found here. Also, new to the agenda this year will be the 'unConference' led by Katherine Hunt of CompTIA, an open forum lunch session with topics to be proposed that morning.

The Cloud Channel Summit is supported by an ecosystem of leading industry organizations dedicated to building strong channels in the Cloud, including publications such as APMdigest, Cloud Computing Wire, CloudTimes, Datamation, Data Storage and Management Report, Integration Developer News, The Hot Line Magazine, SandHill.com, E-Commerce Times, MSPmentor Softletter (SaaS University), Talkin' Cloud, Web Host Industry Review, The VAR Guy and VentureBeat; industry associations such as CompTIA and the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA); and other companies including ClikCloud, CloudSchool.com, Dealmaker Media, Software Pricing Partners, SpiceWorks, Trainer Communications and the Technology Council of Southern California.

For more information on the Cloud Channel Summit and to view the full conference agenda, please visit http://cloudchannelsummit.com/. Follow the event on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cloudsummits.

About THINKstrategies, Inc.
THINKstrategies, Inc. is an independent, strategic consulting services company focused on helping business and IT decision-makers, solutions providers and investors capitalize on the opportunities and challenges created by the technology industry's shift from a product-centric to a services-driven business model, including Cloud Computing, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Managed Services. THINKstrategies helps enterprise decision-makers with their sourcing strategies, IT solutions providers with their marketing strategies, and VCs with their investment strategies. THINKstrategies is also the founder of the Cloud Computing Showplace which is the largest online directory of Cloud solutions and industry best practices, www.cloudshowplace.com. For more information about THINKstrategies, visit www.thinkstrategies.com or email info@thinkstrategies.com.