Cloudera’s partner ecosystem delivers best-of-breed technology solutions to joint customers from the biggest names in the industry and is a core pillar of the company’s growth strategy.
Cloudera is committed to fostering collaboration with partners, growing relationships, and innovating for the future. To elevate Cloudera’s partner ecosystem, the company recently announced the promotion of Michelle Hoover to Senior Vice President of Global Alliances & Channels.
Michelle brings over 20 years of experience to her role, having managed software alliances and partners at many key industry organizations, including two years at Cloudera. Her extensive background includes management and executive positions at Confluent, Red Hat, and Oracle. Most recently, she was VP of Cloud & AI Ecosystem Partners at Cloudera. Michelle’s deep partnership expertise and strong relationships within the data and AI ecosystem make her a great leader of the Cloudera alliances and partner channels strategies.
Let’s get to know Cloudera’s newest SVP, Michelle Hoover.
Michelle, congratulations on your new position. What excites you most about your new role?
I’m truly excited to step into this position and work toward improving and growing our partner ecosystem because of the position Cloudera and our partners are in today and the opportunities that lie ahead.
Cloudera is the only true hybrid data platform that enables enterprises to analyze, control, and modernize data, analytics, and AI. Organizations recognize the value of hybrid data platforms that run anywhere and create true value for our customers.
But we don’t do this alone. We work closely with our partners to ensure that the treasure trove of data our customers hold can be easily managed into actionable insights no matter where the data resides. This positions the partner ecosystem well for the future by creating an incredible opportunity to generate services and grow with us.
What is your vision for the Cloudera partner ecosystem as you take on this role?
One of my goals is to build a robust system integrator partner business. Regional and global system integrators are critical to making decisions as we work with large enterprise customers who rely on them.
We must double down on our focus on that community of partners, along with independent software vendors, who are more important than ever to our customers with the advent of AI and new applications. It’s my objective to make sure those two communities of partners are successful with Cloudera. We can only be as successful as our partner ecosystem, so it is fundamental to our growth strategy to help partners excel with customers.
Our diverse partner set delivers the best portfolio of solutions to make it easy for customers to run their businesses in the cloud – whether that’s with AWS, Microsoft, or Google – or in a hybrid environment with Dell, IBM, and others. We want to help our customers leverage our partner ecosystem to make it easier to solve their problems and address their specific needs.
The key to partnerships is making sure it’s a win-win situation. How can our partners be successful and build a robust business around our customers? It’s important to explore new channels and routes to do that.
What makes Cloudera such a unique place to work?
The people are what really sets Cloudera apart. Everyone at Cloudera is passionate and engaged in collaboration across lines of business to deliver the most innovative world-class solutions for our customers in any environment.
That passion is something I have seen extend across the culture at Cloudera as well. Take, for example, our Cloudera Cares program. Employees in this program volunteer to help our surrounding communities through acts of service and give back to those in need. These initiatives embody the collective spirit of Cloudera employees worldwide. It’s a pillar of our company and builds a strong and rewarding culture that I’m proud to be a part of.
What advice would you give to partners when it comes to rapidly growing technologies such as AI?
My advice is to align with partners you can trust and know that it’s more important than ever to be able to trust your data.
Cloudera is uniquely positioned in that way. It offers technologies to help organizations trust their data, and it will continue to lead in strategic partnerships. We offer products and solutions to help bring AI models to your data versus bringing the data to the AI model.
When considering a partner vendor, remember that your customers innovate and take advantage of newer technologies, but you also need to know that the solutions you build and the vendors you partner with will be around for a long time.
Trust your data and trust the vendors you partner with to manage that data.
What advice would you give your younger self or young professionals today?
Early in my career, I was told that everyone you meet can help you in some way. There’s value in everybody.
It’s something that I believe is particularly relevant in my work in the partner space today. Just as every individual you meet or work with can help you, in the partner ecosystem, every partner has the potential to help you support your customers. Cloudera partners are important – both current partners and new partners that may emerge.
How do you like to spend your free time?
I love the outdoors, nature, competitive sports, like tennis, and spending time with my husband and two young adult kids. I’ve also been trying to take more opportunities to explore new areas of interest such as gardening and travel. My travel bucket list includes Australia and New Zealand, so I would love to visit soon.
Learn more about the Cloudera partner ecosystem.
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