Sometime in the first quarter, is that true?
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Regarding the Microsoft partnership, it was always a one-sided relationship that favored Microsoft. It’s sad to know that the tiny handouts Microsoft provided somehow blew up into some grand gesture and our execs believed it. We literally paid Microsoft millions for trade shows and commissions to have near zero “true co-led” or “Microsoft led” deals for us.
The biggest charlatan are the BD folks creating a false narrative about the relationship. Microsoft never, ever liked Riverbed since we started optimizing SMB1 and MAPI, we made them look second rate and probably made customers question Microsoft investments in their core offerings. Who knows, if riverbed never existed, I wonder if SMB2/3 would’ve ever came to market.
I would expect Riverbed marketing/brand to be in here trying to dispel any of this, they are desperate to put on a good face. Sadly, I think Riverbed crossed the river, never to return to the side of positive growth or technology leadership. The 2x2 strategy is now a 1x1 - No mkt for appliances (SteelHead), no SD-WAN partner (Versa never took the bait). Client Accelerator and NPM are the 2 squares left, and neither has much usefulness. MSFT partnership is a facade - no one at MSFT will sell it (hello, buy O365, and buy Riverbed, you will need Client Accelerator to get acceptable performance from O365). You can monitor the performance with a limited set of functions in a single tennant cloud product from Riverbed to prove O365 isn't working well. I'm sorry - don't walk away, run - save yourself. Leadership will be paid the same whether you are there or not, don't be misled. TB needs every penny to pay off debt of Riverbed before it disappears.
More cuts are inevitable based on the 30% + drop in revenues and no consistent strategy or real focus. C Level leadership is dancing to whatever tune the TB folks tell them to dance to. There won't be many of us left when Broadcom buys us and lets over 2/3 of the employees go. It's just a matter of time.
Expanding channels, hiring more sales people, and promoting people are all exercises in futility. This reflects the strategic limits of our leaders and are serving themselves. IMO, anyone leaving isn’t going to hurt our leader’s goals since their plans DO NOT include you or the customer.
Negative YoY growth, lowered sales targets, and bad sales reps all equals to some type of layoff. Channels simply services as a way for riverbed to hire LESS people in exchange for the VAR sales footprint. This is DUMB because no relevant VAR wants to sell Riverbed.
Good luck Riverbed leaders, your strategies are pedestrian and immature.
It is clear that Riverbed needs a new structure. Riverbed is currently hiring a lot of people in channel. Riverbed needs a diversification of different and new partners. Many sales people sit back and wait for orders to come in. Where is the will to do more? There are a plenty of sales people which do not perform. Riverbed is preparing for the year 2020 and this needs a change maybe also a few cuts. But this is not new. Many other companies feel the same way. The pandemic certainly contributes to this.
Riverbed EOL comes close
That’s the only bonus we can count on.
Any info would be great.