Executive’s Strategic Vision and Team-Building Approach Fuel Company’s FinOps and Automation Growth.
Addison, Texas – October 15, 2025 — Clear Technologies, a leading IT value-added reseller, today announced the expanded leadership role of Diego Gonzalez as Vice President of Sales, recognizing his instrumental contributions to the company’s strategic growth initiatives and market expansion over the past five years.
Gonzalez has demonstrated exceptional ability to bridge innovative technology solutions with measurable business outcomes. His leadership has been pivotal in launching Clear Technologies’ Automation solutions business unit, where he developed strategic partner relationships and executed comprehensive go-to-market strategies that generated significant new revenue opportunities in emerging market segments.
“Diego represents the evolution of sales leadership in our industry,” said Phil Godwin, President & COO at Clear Technologies. “His unique ability to combine educational mentorship with sophisticated sales strategy has transformed how we approach market opportunities. He doesn’t just drive revenue—he builds capabilities and develops leaders who can sustain growth long after the initial sale.”
Gonzalez’s track record speaks to his strategic value. His innovative outbound engagement framework has significantly increased meeting conversion rates and accelerated pipeline velocity across the organization. More importantly, he has created scalable processes that enable teams to operate with greater efficiency while maintaining the consultative approach that defines Clear Technologies’ client relationships.
With an enterprise sales background, Gonzalez brings cross-industry perspective to technology solution selling. His expertise in Visual One Intelligence—a SaaS platform delivering data-driven insights—positions Clear Technologies to help clients optimize operations and drive digital transformation initiatives.
“The IT channel’s role is evolving from distribution to strategic consultation,” Gonzalez noted. “Organizations don’t need more vendors—they need partners who can translate complex technology into competitive advantage. That’s where we add value, and that’s where I focus my teams.”
Under Gonzalez’s leadership, Clear Technologies continues executing its dual-growth strategy: expanding cloud footprint across automation, FinOps, storage, and observability solutions while maintaining strong relationships in traditional compute and storage infrastructure. This balanced approach capitalizes on emerging opportunities without abandoning the foundation that supports long-term client partnerships.
Gonzalez’s leadership philosophy, shaped by his educational background at the University of North Texas, emphasizes mentorship and team development. His coaching-first approach has proven particularly effective in developing high-performing outbound sales teams capable of navigating complex enterprise sales cycles.
About Clear Technologies
Clear Technologies partners with enterprise organizations to architect and deploy customized storage, server, and security solutions that transform operational efficiency into competitive advantage. Backed by a team of subject matter experts and over three decades of infrastructure experience, the company delivers comprehensive managed services aligned to both strategic initiatives and tactical project objectives.
Visual One Intelligence™, Clear Technologies’ proprietary platform, empowers executive teams to uncover critical performance insights, optimize storage economics, and demonstrate measurable return on technology investments. This data-driven approach, combined with a premier portfolio of infrastructure tools and strategic vendor relationships, positions Clear Technologies as the partner of choice for organizations navigating complex digital transformation mandates.
From legacy infrastructure optimization to emerging cloud and automation strategies, Clear Technologies translates technical complexity into business outcomes. For more information, visit www.cleartechnologies.net.
Media Contact: Meredith Wardell Clear Technologies mwardell@cleartechnologies.net www.cleartechnologies.net
A conversation with Otto Hillenbrand, IBM’s FinOps expert, reveals why most organizations are still in the “crawl phase” of financial operations and what it really takes to succeed—especially when partnering with trusted advisors like Clear Technologies.
After 30 years in enterprise technology, from Microsoft to Red Hat to his current role at IBM, Otto Hillenbrand has seen countless technology transformations. But when it comes to FinOps, he delivers a counterintuitive truth that many organizations need to hear: “The easiest part is almost the technology.”
This insight becomes particularly relevant when considering how organizations can successfully navigate FinOps transformation through strategic partnerships with experienced integrators who understand both the technical and cultural challenges ahead.
The $100 Million Foundation Built on VMware
What many don’t realize about Turbonomic’s success story is how focused their early approach was. From 2009 to 2019, the company did one thing exceptionally well: optimize VMware environments. That’s it. No public cloud, no multi-platform complexity—just VMware optimization for major banks, telcos, and healthcare providers.
The result? Over $100 million in revenue before they even began optimizing AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. This laser focus on building trust through proven results in a single environment laid the foundation for everything that followed.
The Crawl Phase Reality Check
Despite the growing buzz around FinOps, Otto delivers a sobering assessment: “We are in the crawl phase of FinOps.” He’s not referring to the industry’s technological capabilities—IBM sits in Gartner’s upper right quadrant for FinOps solutions. He’s talking about organizational maturity.
The pattern is consistent across enterprises: teams claim they’re “doing FinOps,” but when you dig deeper, you find engineering teams doing basic cloud cost optimization without the cross-functional collaboration that true FinOps requires. They’re optimizing cloud spend reactively rather than building the accountability and collaboration frameworks that define mature FinOps practices.
The $3 Million Mistake: When Teams Don’t Talk
Otto shares a cautionary tale that illustrates this challenge perfectly. A client’s team had spent months optimizing their cloud infrastructure, working closely with their cloud cost optimization specialists to configure instances and negotiate better rates. They had successfully saved $6 million on their public cloud spending.
Then their finance team went away for two weeks to renegotiate their Azure contract independently.
When the new contract went into effect, half of their $3 million in savings vanished in a single month. Why? Because the cloud optimization team and the finance team never completed their collaboration. The left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing, despite both teams working toward the same goal.
This story captures the fundamental challenge of FinOps: it’s not a technology problem, it’s a people and process problem.
The Hybrid Blind Spot
While organizations have made progress with cloud cost management, most are missing a massive piece of the puzzle: on-premises infrastructure. Otto regularly encounters FinOps teams who readily admit, “From a FinOps standpoint, we don’t think about on-prem.”
This creates a significant blind spot. Most enterprises will remain hybrid “for the rest of existence,” yet their FinOps practices are maturing only in the cloud while ignoring data center costs. Containers span both environments, but teams lack mechanisms to pull all those metrics together and understand the total value their infrastructure delivers.
IBM’s response has been to evolve tools like Cloudability beyond their cloud-centric origins to incorporate on-premises metrics, recognizing that true FinOps requires end-to-end visibility across hybrid environments.
Otto’s perspective, backed by three decades in enterprise technology, challenges conventional thinking about FinOps adoption challenges. “The interesting aspect is when you think about FinOps, the easiest part is almost the technology,” he explains.
The real challenge comes when finance teams start questioning engineering decisions that have gone unquestioned for years. It’s uncomfortable when someone starts asking, “Why are you doing that?” about technology choices that have become routine. But this discomfort is precisely what FinOps is designed to address through collaboration rather than confrontation.
Successful FinOps isn’t about finance telling engineering how to do their jobs. It’s about recognizing that “we’re all in the boat together” and building frameworks for accountability and collaboration across traditionally siloed teams.
The Executive Sponsor: The Make-or-Break Factor
After working with numerous FinOps implementations, Otto has identified the single common denominator among successful programs: a C-level executive sponsor who genuinely cares about the outcomes.
“I can think of three [advanced FinOps teams] off the top of my head,” Otto notes, “and they’ve all got one common denominator. The teams are all different in their structure to a certain degree, but they all have got a great executive sponsor, like a C-level executive that actually cares.”
This isn’t just about budget approval or organizational mandate. It’s about having someone at the executive level who will “go to the mat” for FinOps and drive the cultural changes necessary for success.
The Path Forward: Integrated Solutions Through Strategic Partnership
As FinOps matures, success requires more than individual tools—it demands integrated solutions that span the entire technology stack. IBM’s portfolio—spanning Turbonomic, Cloudability, KubeCost, and extending to Red Hat OpenShift, Terraform, and Ansible—addresses this integration challenge effectively.
But technology integration is only part of the solution. The more critical integration is organizational, which is where Clear Technologies’ partnership with IBM becomes invaluable. Through Clear’s Visual One platform integrated with IBM’s Cloudability, organizations can finally bridge the gap between ground-level technical metrics and high-level financial management.
As Otto notes, “Visual One is at that ground level pulling the detailed technical metrics, matching them with the financial data that’s going to roll up to the tools that are going to do the true financial management.” This integration creates the end-to-end visibility that hybrid organizations desperately need.
The partnership enables IBM to “meet you where you are in your cloud journey” with “a completely fully integrated approach as we go to market.” Rather than forcing organizations to adapt to rigid solutions, the Clear Technologies partnership allows for customized approaches that address each client’s unique hybrid infrastructure reality.
The Partnership Imperative: Why Cultural Transformation Requires Trusted Advisors
FinOps represents more than a new set of tools or practices—it’s a fundamental cultural shift within organizations. The $3 million mistake illustrates why organizations need experienced partners who can navigate these complex transformations successfully.
This is precisely why IBM values partnerships with organizations like Clear Technologies. As Otto explains, “The ability for you to be able to work with these clients day in and day out, they trust you… Going to FinOps, it’s a cultural shift within an organization. And you need to have Clear standing with the customer to help them along that path.”
When engineering and finance teams inevitably clash over changing processes, organizations need mediators who understand both sides. Clear Technologies’ role becomes crucial in helping clients make hard business decisions when different departments have competing priorities and perspectives.
FinOps represents more than a new set of tools or practices—it’s a fundamental cultural shift within organizations. As Otto puts it, “Going to FinOps, it’s a cultural shift within an organization.”
FinOps transformation requires trusted partners who can serve as mediators when teams with different perspectives need to find common ground. It requires executive sponsorship that goes beyond lip service to genuine commitment. And it requires moving beyond the “crawl phase” mentality to embrace the collaboration and accountability that mature FinOps demands.
The organizations that succeed will be those that recognize FinOps as fundamentally a people and process challenge, with technology serving as the enabling foundation. Through strategic partnerships like the one between IBM and Clear Technologies, organizations can access both the integrated technology stack and the cultural guidance necessary to navigate this transformation successfully.
For those still thinking of FinOps as primarily a cloud cost management exercise, the message is clear: the real opportunity—and the real work—lies in building the organizational capabilities and partnerships that make lasting transformation possible.
Otto Hillenbrand leads IBM’s automation portfolio focusing on Turbonomic, Cloudability, and KubeCost solutions. With 30 years of enterprise technology experience spanning Microsoft, Red Hat, Salesforce, and IBM, he works with organizations navigating the complex intersection of financial operations, automation, and hybrid cloud environments.
Collaboration combines AI expertise with IT solutions to deliver custom applications and expedite AI initiatives.
[ADDISON, TEXAS] – June 26, 2025 – Alloterra Labs, a leader in AI strategy, consulting and implementation, today announced a strategic partnership with Clear Technologies, a trusted provider of IT expertise for over three decades. The partnership expands Clear Technologies capabilities and provides Clear Technologies the power to leverage Alloterra Labs’ accelerators to help organizations rapidly implement AI initiatives through cost-effective solutions.
The partnership unites Alloterra Labs’ specialized AI consulting services with Clear Technologies’ extensive IT expertise, creating a powerful alliance designed to revolutionize how companies approach AI and De-Risk their AI transformation. Clients of both companies will benefit from accelerated time-to-market and more economical implementation of their AI strategies.
“For over 30 years, Clear Technologies has been providing valuable expertise and IT support for their customers,” said Tom Leary, Director of Sales & Partnerships at Alloterra Labs. “Alloterra Labs is excited and optimistic about the possibilities this partnership can bring to deliver AI-powered applications to Clear Technologies clients.”
Mark Reynolds, VP of Sales at Clear Technologies, added, “In the new AI world, customers are looking for expertise and guidance. We are incredibly excited to form this partnership with Alloterra Labs. With their experience and knowledge, and Clear Technologies support, our customers are in good hands as they navigate the transition to AI.”
This collaboration comes at a pivotal time as organizations across industries seek to harness the transformative potential of artificial intelligence while navigating its complexities. The Alloterra Labs and Clear Technologies partnership addresses this need by offering comprehensive support from strategy development through implementation and ongoing optimization.
About Alloterra Labs
Alloterra Labs specializes in AI strategy and consulting services, helping organizations leverage artificial intelligence to drive innovation and competitive advantage. For more information, visit www.alloterralabs.com.
About Clear Technologies
Clear Technologies partners with enterprise organizations to deliver customized storage, server, and security solutions that drive operational efficiency. With a team of subject matter experts, Clear Technologies provides a comprehensive suite of managed services tailored to both long and short-term project objectives. Visual One Intelligence™, our custom-built platform empowers enterprises to uncover performance insights, streamline storage management, and maximize return on investment. With over three decades of industry experience and a premier portfolio of infrastructure tools and services, Clear Technologies is the preferred partner for organizations navigating digital transformation. For more information, visit www.cleartechnologies.net.
ADDISON, TEXAS, May 28, 2025— Clear Technologies announced today that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has recognized Clear Technologies on the 2025 CRN Solution Provider 500 list.
CRN’s annual Solution Provider 500 list recognizes North America’s largest solution providers by revenue and serves as a prominent benchmark of leading IT services companies. With a combined revenue of $548.9 billion, the companies on the list are key influencers propelling growth in the IT industry and the global technology channel.
“Being recognized on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list validates our three-decade commitment to delivering innovative technology solutions that truly impact our clients’ success,” said Phil Godwin, President & COO of Clear Technologies. “This recognition reflects not only our team’s expertise and dedication, but also the trust our enterprise partners place in us to navigate their most critical digital transformation challenges. As we continue to evolve our Visual One Intelligence™ platform and expand our managed services offerings, we remain focused on driving measurable results and operational excellence for every organization we serve.”
“The Solution Provider 500 list spotlights the technology integrators, managed service providers, value-added resellers and IT consulting firms who bring in the most revenue by leading the way in business and service innovation,” said Jennifer Follett, VP, U.S. Content, and Executive Editor, CRN, The Channel Company. “Recognition is reserved for companies demonstrating an unwavering commitment to business agility and sustained growth through rapidly changing industry needs and technology advancements. Congratulations go to each company for earning a well-deserved spot on the Solution Provider 500.”
The full Solution Provider 500 list will be available online at www.CRN.com/SP500, beginning May 27 and a sampling of the list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine.
About Clear Technologies
Clear Technologies partners with enterprise organizations to deliver customized storage, server, and security solutions that drive operational efficiency. With a team of subject matter experts, Clear Technologies provides a comprehensive suite of managed services tailored to both long and short-term project objectives. Visual One Intelligence™, our custom-built platform empowers enterprises to uncover performance insights, streamline storage management, and maximize return on investment. With over three decades of industry experience and a premier portfolio of infrastructure tools and services, Clear Technologies is the preferred partner for organizations navigating digital transformation. For more information, visit www.cleartechnologies.net.
About The Channel Company:
The Channel Company (TCC) is the global leader in channel growth for the world’s top technology brands. We accelerate success across strategic channels for tech vendors, solution providers, and end users with premier media brands, integrated marketing and event services, strategic consulting, and exclusive market and audience insights. TCC is a portfolio company of investment funds managed by EagleTree Capital, a New York City-based private equity firm. For more information, visit thechannelco.com.
In a recent conversation with Sam Werner, Vice President of Product Management for IBM Storage, we gained valuable insights into the current trends and innovations reshaping enterprise storage solutions. Sam, whose expertise spans over two decades in the storage industry, shared his perspective on how IBM is addressing key challenges while preparing businesses for an AI-driven future.
One of the most striking observations Sam made was that despite significant technological advancements, many organizations are still managing storage the same way they did 20 years ago. This outdated approach poses significant challenges for IT teams already stretched thin by increasing demands and shrinking resources.
“When you think about a server failing, usually your application just fails over to the next server and nobody even knows. But if the storage fails, all your applications go down,” Sam explained, highlighting the critical nature of storage infrastructure reliability.
Modernizing Storage Operations with AI
IBM’s response to these challenges focuses on two main approaches: modernization of existing infrastructure and complete transformation for future needs.
The IBM Flash System Grid represents a significant leap forward in storage management. This solution incorporates built-in AI that analyzes workloads and intelligently determines optimal placement across a fleet of Flash systems.
“What we’re trying to do is eliminate the need for all that skill and put the skill in the storage array,” Sam noted. The system makes recommendations for workload placement—whether to a lower-cost system to save money or to a higher-performance system for better utilization—and can execute the move with “absolute complete transparency to the application, while maintaining DR, maintaining snapshots for protection.”
This approach reminds me of what Turbonomic (now an IBM company) did for VMware environments years ago, but applied to storage infrastructure.
For organizations looking to further reduce their management burden, IBM recently announced Storage Ceph as a Service. This managed service delivers a complete infrastructure solution—including rack, servers, networking, and software-defined storage—directly to a customer’s data center.
IBM handles all aspects of management, from deployment to capacity planning and code updates, while providing users with a cloud-like portal for self-provisioning block and object storage. According to Sam, “We give you that in your data center. You don’t have to manage the hardware, the lifecycle of the software.”
This service comes with both performance and capacity tiers, allowing customers to balance performance needs with cost-optimization, all while removing the operational burden from internal teams already challenged to “do 10% more with 10% less every year.”
Beyond just modernizing existing storage, Sam highlighted IBM’s focus on supporting organizations transitioning from traditional VM infrastructures to containerized environments.
“As your application teams want to move beyond traditional VM infrastructure, because it’s still too slow and rigid, they want more of a cloud-native architecture,” Sam explained. To address this need, IBM developed Fusion and Fusion HCI, engineered infrastructure designed specifically for containerized and virtual machine workloads beyond VMware.
With OpenShift as the foundation, Fusion HCI provides a “build once, deploy anywhere” platform that supports both newly developed containerized applications and existing VMs through OpenShift virtualization. This offers an ideal path for organizations seeking alternatives to VMware while maintaining on-premises control.
Sam shared a compelling example of a financial services company that deployed OpenShift as their strategic platform alongside their existing VMware environment. Starting with Fusion HCI for its “turnkey bare metal capability,” they eventually migrated mission-critical workloads and have expanded to 29 HCI systems.
A key advantage of Fusion HCI is its comprehensive approach, with day zero, one, and two operations all engineered into a single solution. “We’ve already figured out the size of the servers, the amount of memory, the number of processor cores, the amount of storage. We have the backup software built in. We provide DR capability, high availability,” Sam emphasized. This eliminates the need for specialized OpenShift expertise and simplifies ongoing management of the software stack.
Looking ahead, Sam expressed excitement about AI becoming embedded into everyday applications. “What’s really exciting to me is how I believe all of this AI, not the big training clusters, but it’s actually becoming part of all of your applications and you’re going to be doing inferencing on so many things.”
This trend will make GPUs a common part of infrastructure, with platforms like IBM Fusion well-positioned to support these AI applications. The Watson X portfolio has been fully tested on this platform, providing a seamless path for organizations looking to implement AI capabilities.
More broadly, Sam emphasized IBM’s vision of “embedding AI into everything we do so that the platforms themselves do all the heavy lifting.” This platform approach allows customers to consume services while AI handles complex management tasks behind the scenes, freeing IT talent to focus on innovation rather than maintenance.
Our discussion concluded with reflections on the valuable partnership between IBM and Clear Technologies in helping customers navigate this complex landscape. Sam highlighted how Clear helps clients understand the TCO implications of modernization and transformation, while providing expert guidance on hardware selection.
He specifically mentioned IBM’s new C200 storage platform with QLC-based flash storage, which offers a lower cost point for many workloads. However, Sam emphasized that customers still need expert partners to determine the right mix of technologies for their specific needs: “You need an expert partner that really understands where do I need TLC and where do I need QLC and where do I need spinning disks still?”
Conclusion
As businesses face increasing pressures to modernize their infrastructure while simultaneously preparing for an AI-driven future, IBM’s comprehensive approach to storage innovation provides multiple paths forward. Whether through AI-powered management of existing arrays, fully managed on-premises cloud experiences, or purpose-built platforms for containerized applications, IBM is addressing both the immediate challenges and future requirements of enterprise storage.
By embedding AI throughout their portfolio and simplifying the consumption model, IBM is enabling organizations to redirect their focus from infrastructure management to business innovation—a critical capability in today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape.
In today’s complex cloud landscape, managing costs effectively isn’t just about monitoring dashboards – it’s about implementing intelligent automation that works for your business.
At Clear Technologies, we specialize in turning cloud cost challenges into opportunities through advanced automation solutions.
Beyond Basic Cost Visibility
If you’re like most organizations we work with, you’re managing multiple cloud providers, containerized workloads, and shared resources across teams. Getting clear visibility into these costs can be challenging, but that’s where our automation expertise comes in. We’ve developed sophisticated tools that consolidate and normalize your cloud spending data, providing real-time insights without the manual effort.
Automation That Delivers Results
Our approach to automation goes beyond simple scripting. We deliver comprehensive solutions that:
Transform how you manage cloud resources through intelligent, real-time optimization Automatically identify and remediate resource waste across your entire cloud infrastructure Provide actionable insights that bridge the gap between technical and financial teams Create customized reporting that serves both operational and strategic decision-making
Building Cross-Team Collaboration
At Clear Technologies, we understand that effective FinOps isn’t just about tools – it’s about bringing teams together. Our automation solutions are designed to serve as a common ground where IT, finance, and DevOps can collaborate effectively. By providing tailored interfaces and workflows for each team, we ensure everyone has the information they need in a format that makes sense for their role.
The Clear Technologies Difference
Our specialization in automation sets us apart in the FinOps space. We focus on:
Creating custom workflows aligned with your business objectives
Implementing predictive optimization that prevents cost overruns
Ensuring resource utilization matches actual demand
Simplifying complex cloud cost management through intelligent automation
We have the automation expertise to help you succeed.
Taking the Next Step
Cloud financial management doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With Clear Technologies as your automation partner, you can transform your FinOps practice into a streamlined, efficient operation that delivers real value to your organization.
We invite you to explore how our automation solutions can benefit your organization. Our team of specialists is ready to demonstrate how targeted automation can optimize your cloud costs while improving operational efficiency.
Ready to Optimize Your Cloud Costs?
Contact Clear Technologies today to learn more about our automation solutions. Let’s discuss how we can help you achieve your FinOps goals through intelligent, purpose-built automation that drives real results.
The future of FinOps is automated, and Clear Technologies is here to help you lead the way. Connect with us to start your journey toward more efficient cloud cost management.
The enterprise virtualization landscape is experiencing a seismic shift. Following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, organizations are reassessing their virtualization strategies, prompting a closer look at alternatives that promise both cost efficiency and operational continuity. A recent conversation between Phil Godwin of Clear Technologies and George Crump of VergeIO illuminates the evolving market dynamics and emerging solutions.
The impact of Broadcom’s VMware acquisition has created three distinct customer segments in the market. Some organizations face immediate pressure from dramatic price increases ranging from 50% to 500%, driving urgent exploration of alternatives. Others, protected by existing Enterprise License Agreements (ELAs), are taking a more measured approach to planning their transition. A third segment remains cautious, concerned about disrupting deeply integrated VMware-dependent processes that power their operations.
This segmentation reflects a broader industry challenge: how to balance the need for cost optimization with operational stability. Organizations must navigate this transition while maintaining business continuity, a challenge that requires careful consideration of both technical and operational factors.
The Evolution of Virtualization Alternatives
The market response to this situation has been notable, with numerous vendors positioning themselves as VMware alternatives. These solutions broadly fall into two categories: container-based platforms like OpenShift and Kubernetes, and traditional virtualization approaches built on KVM technology. Each approach presents distinct considerations for enterprises.
Container-based solutions offer modern architecture but require significant operational changes. Traditional virtualization alternatives promise familiar paradigms but vary significantly in maturity and integration depth. This diversity of options highlights a critical industry trend: the move away from single-vendor dependency toward a more diverse, flexible infrastructure approach.
A key industry challenge emerging from this situation is the need for practical migration paths. Organizations need solutions that can preserve existing operational processes while enabling modernization. This has led to the development of sophisticated migration tools and methodologies that focus on maintaining operational continuity during transitions.
The industry is seeing a preference for graduated approaches to migration, often described as “crawl, walk, run” methodologies. This approach allows organizations to begin their transition with new workloads while maintaining existing environments, providing a practical path forward without forcing an immediate complete migration.
Perhaps the most significant industry trend emerging from this market shift is the integration of artificial intelligence into infrastructure management. This development addresses two critical industry challenges: the persistent IT skills shortage and the increasing complexity of infrastructure management.
AI integration is manifesting in several ways:
– Automated workload deployment and optimization
– Intelligent system analytics and monitoring
– Natural language interfaces for system diagnostics
These developments suggest a future where infrastructure management becomes more accessible and intelligent, potentially reducing the operational complexity that has historically characterized enterprise virtualization.
Looking Ahead: Industry Implications
The current market dynamics in enterprise virtualization point to several important industry trends:
1. The end of single-vendor dominance in virtualization, leading to more diverse and competitive solutions
2. A growing emphasis on operational continuity during technology transitions
3. The increasing role of AI in infrastructure management
4. A shift toward more flexible and cost-effective licensing models
These trends suggest a fundamental transformation in how organizations approach infrastructure virtualization. The focus is moving from pure technical capability to broader considerations of operational efficiency, cost management, and future scalability.
For industry professionals and organizations navigating these changes, the key lessons are clear: maintain flexibility in infrastructure strategy, prioritize operational continuity in transition planning, and prepare for an increasingly AI-integrated infrastructure future.
This period of market disruption, while challenging, presents an opportunity for organizations to reassess and modernize their infrastructure approach. The emergence of viable alternatives and new technological capabilities suggests that the future of enterprise virtualization will be more diverse, flexible, and intelligent than ever before.
Clear Technologies is proud to announce our recognition on the list of 2024 Top Workplaces by Dallas Morning News.
This prestigious award reflects our ongoing commitment to fostering an exceptional workplace culture and employee experience.
The Top Workplaces program, based on employee feedback, evaluates companies on key aspects including company values, leadership effectiveness, employee engagement, and organizational health. This recognition validates our efforts to create an environment where innovation thrives and every team member can reach their full potential.
“This achievement belongs to every member of the Clear Technologies family,” said Phil Godwin, President & COO at Clear Technologies. “Our success stems from our people-first culture and our commitment to delivering exceptional technology solutions while maintaining a supportive, collaborative workplace.”
Key factors contributing to our recognition include:
Commitment to professional development and growth opportunities
Culture of innovation and collaboration
Strong focus on work-life balance
Emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion
As we continue to grow and evolve, this recognition reinforces our dedication to maintaining a workplace where talent, creativity, and personal growth flourish.
For more information about career opportunities at Clear Technologies, visit us on LinkedIn.
About Clear Technologies Clear Technologies is a leading technology solutions provider specializing in enterprise hybrid infrastructure products, security solutions, and IT consulting. Founded in 1993, we’ve established ourselves as a trusted partner for businesses seeking innovative technology solutions.
The President and COO of Clear Technologies and Visual One Intelligence, Phil Godwin, recently sat down with Jonathan Halstuch, CTO and co-founder of RackTop Systems, for an insightful conversation discussing valuable perspectives about the evolving landscape of data storage and cybersecurity. Their discussion revealed how organizations are adapting to increasingly sophisticated threats as the traditional separation between storage and security dissolves.
One of the most significant trends Halstuch identifies is the convergence of storage and security functions within organizations. Historically, these were siloed operations, with security teams operating independently from infrastructure and operations teams. However, just as CIO and CSO roles have become more interconnected, there’s a growing recognition that security is everyone’s responsibility.
Beyond Traditional Storage Solutions
When Godwin asked about what makes RackTop unique in the market, Halstuch explained their distinctive approach in an industry where many traditional storage vendors are retrofitting security features onto existing products. “What we’ve done is we’ve developed a product that’s cyber stored, our BrickStor Security Platform, which is a high-performance NAS with all three protocols – NFS, SMB, and S3.”
What sets RackTop apart is their data-centric zero-trust approach, evaluating trust for each file operation in real-time. Unlike traditional systems where permissions remain static until manually changed, BrickStor continuously monitors user behavior for potential threats. This dynamic approach allows the system to detect and respond to suspicious activities, such as:
– Potential insider threats attempting to steal data
– Compromised accounts showing unusual behavior
– Ransomware attacks trying to encrypt files
The Limitations of Traditional Security Measures
Halstuch challenged the common notion that backups are the best protection against ransomware. “It’s not a protection at all,” he argues. “In fact, it’s your last resort for recovery.” He pointed out that 92% of ransomware attacks involve data theft as their first step – something that neither backups nor immutable snapshots can prevent. The key is stopping attacks as they begin, not just preparing for recovery afterward.
Key Use Cases
Healthcare: With petabytes of medical images and sensitive patient data, healthcare organizations are prime targets for cyberattacks. Recent incidents like the Change Healthcare breach highlight the critical need for robust data protection in this sector.
State and Local Government: These organizations manage critical citizen services and data, making them attractive targets for both ransomware and data theft attacks.
Higher Education and Research: Recent false claims acts against institutions like Penn State and Georgia Tech have highlighted the need for better security measures in academic settings, particularly regarding NIST 800-171 standards for CMMC compliance.
Looking Ahead: AI and Data Operations
As the conversation turned to future developments, both leaders acknowledged the growing importance of AI in data operations. Godwin noted that while AI is a hot topic in every client conversation, organizations often struggle with the fundamental challenge of locating and organizing their data for AI applications. Halstuch agreed, explaining that RackTop is positioning itself to help customers leverage their data more effectively for AI workloads, whether it’s for retrieval augmentation generation (RAG) or machine learning applications.
The Partner Ecosystem
The discussion highlighted the strong partnership between Clear Technologies and RackTop Systems. Halstuch praised Clear Technologies’ Visual One platform as providing crucial insights into customer environments, enabling more effective solution delivery. “That’s why we like to work with Clear,” Halstuch noted. “The AI journey is going to be a long one… and to your point, the first thing is getting your hands around your data, organizing that, then the next thing is tagging and labeling it.”
As organizations continue to face new security challenges and explore AI opportunities, RackTop’s integrated approach to storage and security provides a foundation for secure, efficient data management. The company’s focus on real-time threat detection and prevention, combined with high-performance storage capabilities, positions it well for the future of enterprise data management.
Addison, Texas, May 29th, 2024 — Clear Technologies, trusted advisors in data management, IT managed services, and cyber security, today announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has ranked Clear Technologies on its 2024 Solution Provider 500 list.
CRN’s annual Solution Provider 500 recognizes North America’s largest solution providers by revenue and serves as a prominent benchmark of many of the channel’s most successful companies. This year’s list of companies represents combined revenue of more than $502.2 billion, and the honorees are among the top influencers driving momentum in the IT industry and the global technology supply chain.
“We’re honored to be recognized for the sixth consecutive year on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list. As a trusted IT Advisor for over 30 years, we remain committed to enhancing our service offerings to meet our customers’ evolving needs,” said Phil Godwin, President and COO of Clear Technologies. “I am excited to see how our team continues to grow and support customers on their IT optimization journey.”
“Ranking on CRN’s 2024 Solution Provider 500 recognizes the service innovations and market responsiveness of the list’s leading technology integrations, managed service providers, and IT consulting firms,” said Jennifer Follett, VP, U.S. Content, and Executive Editor, CRN, The Channel Company. “These companies have shown an unflagging commitment to business agility, continued growth, and future success through a period of rapid IT channel change, including the expansion of Everything as a Service and GenAI disruption. Our congratulations go to each company named to this year’s Solution Provider 500!”
CRN’s 2024 Solution Provider 500 list is available online at www.CRN.com/SP500 and a sampling from the list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine.
About Clear Technologies
Clear Technologies partners with enterprise organizations to deliver customized IT solutions designed to increase operational efficiency. Unlike other solution providers, Clear Technologies utilizes Visual One Intelligence® to help enterprises discover performance insights, simplify storage management processes, and increase ROI. With over 30 years of experience and a premier offering of cloud-based infrastructure and services, combined with Visual One Intelligence®, Clear Technologies is the preferred partner in digital transformation. www.cleartechnologies.net
About The Channel Company
The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end-users. Backed by more than 40 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com
