Phil Crocker VP Business Development and Channel, SoftIron

SoftIron Ltd. appointed 5-time CRN channel chief Phil Crocker as VP business development and channel.

He has been tasked with leading the company’s growing business development team and building out its channel partner program with a focus on HyperDrive, firm’s flagship open source-based, SDS solution.

“We’re reaching an inflection point as an industry, as organizations consider how they scale their data center operations, and SoftIron is delivering innovative solutions that put them in the driver’s seat,” said Phil Straw, CEO. “The addition of Phil Crocker, a proven leader who has built tremendously successful partner programs, is a real boon for SoftIron. We’re reinventing what is possible – not only in performance for data center appliances –  but also in the approach of operationalizing open source solutions that empower our customers. Phil Crocker joining SoftIron gives us one of the brightest minds in the industry and I strongly believe in his ability to further drive the benefits that SoftIron has engineered for our partners and customers with our task-specific hardware approach.“

“SoftIron is changing the storage paradigm, having reinvented the way data center appliances are engineered and manufactured from the source code on up,” said Crocker. “As a challenger in the data center appliances industry, SoftIron places high value on being strategic. We’re playing the long game and are laser-focused on extracting the most value out of every decision we make. An approach that maximizes the benefits of each and every win is how we’re going to build our sales organization and channel strategy, which is where hand-picked partners will feature. I am confident that as our channel partners come to understand the full spectrum of the package that SoftIron is bringing to them and their customers, they are going to see us as a critical link in their go-to-market offering. This is one ride they’re not going to want to miss out on.“

He joined from Panasas, where he developed and executed the accoladed ‘Panasas Accelerate’ Partner Program, creating an average annual 70% partner revenue mix, working as the senior director of channel and business development. Before that, he spent 8 years with EMC/Isilon. After co-founding Isilon’s EMEA entity and driving early European channel revenues, as global channels director, he led the development and post-acquisition transition of the company’s channel program, resulting in a $1 billion annual partner revenue run-rate.

He is working from his remote office in Bellevue, WA.