Geminare's CEO, Joshua Geist, Named as 2014 CRN Channel Chief

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 24, 2014) - Geminare, the #1 ranked global leader in RaaS Product enablement, today announced that its President and CEO, Joshua Geist, has been named one of CRN's 2014 Channel Chiefs. This prestigious industry designation recognizes outstanding executives who are directly responsible for driving channel sales and growth within their organization, and through their efforts, elevate the importance of the channel throughout the entire IT Industry.

CRN Channel Chiefs are selected by the CRN editorial team based on channel experience, program innovations, channel-driven revenue, and public support for the importance of IT channel sales.

Geist, a recognized leader and founding innovator within the Recovery as a Service (RaaS) channel ecosystem, was instrumental in guiding Geminare's flagship RaaS offering, Cloud Recovery, to be ranked as the #1 Global RaaS Product Offering in a recent report, titled, "2013 Critical Capabilities for Recovery as a Service", (November 2013), by leading analyst Gartner. Cloud Recovery was awarded the Highest Product Rating Score in this report, and is the most mature, proven, and accepted Cloud-based offering in the market -- available exclusively through Geminare Channel Partners with service seamlessly delivered from a Service Provider's Cloud.

"Channel enablement has been Geminare's singular goal since its inception. It's the driving vision behind our success and an important step in the success of our partners," Joshua Geist, Geminare's CEO, stated. "The Cloud has completely changed the way technology is consumed by breaking down virtually every barrier between a channel partner and their customer. Customers no longer look at Channel Partners as merely a distribution mechanism to procure products. Instead, Channel Partners are now being seen as key to the delivery of solutions and offerings. They are, in fact, part of the evolution towards becoming Service Providers in which data and technology simply live in the Cloud while the Partner becomes the critical enablement and transitional link for the Customer. And today, Channel Partners that have embraced and adapted this new delivery model are thriving," Geist commented.

Geist's contributions to the channel are significant and measurable as RaaS is forecasted to grow from $640.8 million in 2013 to $5.77 billion globally by 2018, according to the Global Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service Market report from TechNavio (November 2013). Through Geist's leadership, the number of RaaS providers has grown exponentially and they continue to claim top honors among peers. For example, Channel Partner NTT Communications' Cloud Recovery product received the highest scores in 5 out of 6 categories in Gartner's Critical Capabilities Assessment (CCA) report, published in November 2013. This channel enablement focus has created a global powerhouse Partner within RaaS in just over 12 months.

Geist continued, "The way in which we measure channel success is not only by enabling existing Channel Partners, but by creating new ones simultaneously; this transition to Service Provider is the game-changing nature of the Cloud."

Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company, said, "We are pleased to highlight the many executives throughout the industry who work tirelessly to advance the standing of the channel community. The CRN Channel Chief honorees lead, inspire and engage peers, and serve as valuable advocates to help ensure the health and longevity of the channel within the IT industry. We applaud their efforts and look forward to their continued success."

The 2014 Channel Chiefs list is featured in the February/March issue of CRN, and online at www.CRN.com.

About Geminare
Geminare is the leading Recovery as a Service (RaaS) technology provider, enabling global telecom companies, ISVs, and Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) in their successful launch of multi-region RaaS offerings. Leading the market with the #1 ranked RaaS product offering, Geminare's Cloud Recovery has received the Highest Product Rating Score in Gartner's 2013 Critical Capabilities for Recovery as a Service Report and represents the industry's most mature, patented, multi-tiered, and award-winning Cloud-based offering available within a Service Provider's Cloud. Geminare's RaaS Suite has powered the offerings at the majority of the world's leading RaaS providers including NTT Communications, Cosentry, Columbus Networks, CA Technologies, OpSource, Iron Mountain, CenturyLink, HOSTING, Bell, Allstream, Ingram Micro, Long View Systems and many others, allowing them to enter the rapidly growing RaaS market by leveraging their own Cloud infrastructure. Geminare is headquartered in Los Altos, CA, with additional operations in Toronto, Canada. www.geminare.com

About The Channel Company
The Channel Company is the channel community's trusted authority for growth and innovation, with established brands including CRN, XChange Events, IPED, and SharedVue. For more than three decades, we have leveraged our proven and leading-edge platforms to deliver prescriptive sales and marketing solutions for the technology channel. The Channel Company provides Communication, Recruitment, Engagement, Enablement, Demand Generation and Intelligence services to drive technology partnerships. Learn more at www.thechannelcompany.com.