StorMagic hires Scott Mann to drive global edge sales

StorMagic has appointed Scott Mann as global SVP of sales as it looks to expand sales for on-site virtualisation and edge deployments.

Mann joins from Scale Computing, where he held sales leadership roles. He has more than 15 years' experience in IT sales leadership across security, virtualisation, edge computing and hyperconverged infrastructure.

He will focus on scaling a channel-first go-to-market strategy, working with partners and customers on on-site virtualisation projects and transitions from VMware environments.

The appointment comes as many organisations review virtualisation roadmaps and supplier relationships. Broadcom's acquisition of VMware has increased scrutiny of licensing and commercial terms, prompting some customers and partners to assess alternative platforms for on-premises and edge locations.

Channel focus

StorMagic positions its software for on-site and edge virtualisation. It sells through partners and targets organisations with distributed sites where local compute and storage remain necessary for operational or resilience reasons.

It also promotes its products as simpler to deploy and manage than traditional stacks, with availability a key theme for deployments where IT teams have limited local support.

Susan Odle, StorMagic's CEO, linked the hire to expansion plans through partners.

"Scott brings extensive global experience leading international sales and channel teams, with a strong track record of scaling partner ecosystems and driving growth, making him a tremendous addition to the StorMagic team," Odle said.

She also pointed to customer work related to VMware migration and hardware costs.

"StorMagic is excited to work closely with Scott to expand our reach in helping partners help their customers navigate VMware migration and hardware cost challenges with our simple, reliable and trusted virtualization software," Odle said.

Edge demand

Edge computing remains a contested area for infrastructure vendors, with customers balancing cloud adoption against requirements for local processing, data residency and uptime. Many deployments also need consistent management across multiple sites. This has kept smaller-footprint virtualisation offerings in the conversation for retailers, manufacturers, healthcare providers and other organisations with large numbers of locations.

Mann's role covers global partner and customer growth. His background includes roles at WinMagic as well as Scale Computing.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

Mann said he sees partner-led demand for products designed for operational constraints outside central datacentres.

"StorMagic solves practical problems for customers at the edge with solutions that partners genuinely believe in and enjoy taking to market," Mann said.

He added that the sales organisation will focus on deepening partner relationships, expanding globally and making it easier for customers to succeed.

StorMagic was founded in 2006 and has operations linked to Bristol in the UK. It works with IT teams running environments that range from a single site to thousands of locations.

In the coming months, Mann will oversee sales execution across regions as StorMagic pushes further into edge and on-site virtualisation projects tied to partner-led deployments and VMware transition work.