Exclusive Group Puts Cloud First

Exclusive Group Puts Cloud First

Patrick van Arendonk heads global ‘Cloud First’ strategy driving partners to more cloud opportunities, greater value and added customer relevance

PARIS, FRANCE – May 15th 2017 – Exclusive Group, the value-added services and technologies (VAST) group, is helping partners evolve from a solely hardware-based solutions approach to take advantage of on-premise, private and public cloud opportunities, with the appointment of Patrick van Arendonk to steer the evolution of its Cloud First strategy. The role combines an educational remit, to promote the adoption of cloud principles among reseller partners, with a wide-ranging business transformation mandate that includes engaging existing and new vendors and creating the infrastructure and processes for future cloud-based services.

“It’s time for some ‘blue-sky’ thinking now that the cloud consumption model is beginning to become more relevant,” said Barrie Desmond, COO of Exclusive Group. “The Cloud First initiative is our way of helping us, our vendors and most importantly, our reseller partners understand their relevance in this journey – as much symbolic as it is strategic – to get them to put cloud at the forefront of their proposals and strategic mindset. Cloud First means always thinking cloud – something we’ve done ever since the launch of BigTec four years ago. And to underline the significance we have appointed Patrick as our ‘envoy’ to spread the message and activate new, practical programmes across all divisions of Exclusive Group.”

Patrick van Arendonk is a highly successful channel entrepreneur with nearly 30 years’ experience who joins Exclusive Group from Exclusive Networks Netherlands, where he held positions including General Manager and Director of Business Development. Prior to this he was Founder of VADition Benelux (acquired by Exclusive Group in 2011) and has also worked in senior sales roles at Juniper, F5 and Cisco, among others.

“The traditional on-premise, hardware-based markets for cybersecurity and infrastructure are still growing, but the private, public and hybrid cloud alternatives are growing 10 times faster. The opportunities for partners are huge but only if they take some steps to evolve,” said Patrick van Arendonk, Director of Cloud First at Exclusive Group. “We will support them and stay at the forefront of cloud-driven change. I am looking forward to taking Cloud First to the next level, expanding our global vision to accommodate new kinds of vendors, services and cloud solutions.”