Samantha Ciaccia, Channel Engagement Manager at Datto Inc., was honored as a Cloud Girls Rising Star in the first annual Cloud Girls Rising “Women to Watch” Awards on March 17 at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.
The Cloud Girl Rising award was created to honor women in the telecom and IT channel who have shown leadership and innovation in the emerging cloud space as well as to inspire more women to step forward and follow their example. The award was given to one Trailblazer and one Rising Star.
Ciaccia, the 2016 Cloud Girls Rising Star, helps Datto partners go to market by engaging different aspects of Datto’s business including marketing, partner programs, sales, and business development. She has been named to the 2014 & 2015 “CRN Women of the Channel” list, the 2015 CRN “Up and Comers” list, the 2014 MSPmentor 250: Top People in Managed Services, and most recently, a recipient of the 2015 CompTIA Channel Changers award. She is the vice chair for the CompTIA Cloud Community as well as one of the Champions to start the CompTIA Future Leaders Community.
Learn more about Ciaccia in this excerpt from her award-winning application, written by Rob Rae, vice president of business development for Datto.
Give one example of how you have innovated in the cloud space and shunned the status quo.
Datto is a disruptor of technology. We have a unique value proposition that focuses on assisting the solution provider (the channel) in finding new and creative ways to position their offerings. Samantha has both created and assisted in creating various tools in 2015 to help solution providers communicate that value proposition. Among them was an RTO/RPO calculator. A simple tool that allows a solution provider to demonstrate the real cost of downtime in less than 30 seconds. The tool has been used by over 2,000 solution providers in sales situations since its creation and is among the top 10 tools downloaded from CompTIA’s site today.
How have you created a corporate vision for cloud services in your organization?
What makes Datto and Samantha so unique when it comes to vision is that we are a millennial company. Our CEO and founder was on Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2015. Samantha is a millennial. What we have discovered is that one of the main reasons we are considered a disruptor in the technology space is as a result of “next generation” thinking. Samantha has been accredited with a number of millennial awards and has presented on millennial topic’s as a result. She was named a Top 10 Woman to watch by CRN and a major part in not only being a member of but the creation of a Future Leaders committee within CompTIA.
How have you lead by example? What have you done to inspire employees and team members to take risks and move ahead with cloud services?
DattoCon is an annual event held in Q2 for the last four years. Samantha is the project leader for DattoCon. The event brings together channel providers into one venue for 2.5 days of learning and education around not only growing their business continuity sales but their businesses as a whole. As the project owner, she is responsible for designing and implementing content. DattoCon 16 will host over 700 solution providers (as the event has been growing over the years) and is becoming one of the largest events in the MSP space.
How have you evangelized cloud learning? Have you mentored other women in the Channel above, below and at your level?
On top of her responsibilities within Datto, for which she co-runs the Women of Datto group, Samantha has been identified by both CompTIA and CRN as a Future Leader. Add in her Woman of the Channel status and awards, she has had numerous occasions to promote not only the cloud but the advancement of young women in cloud technology. Samantha more recently was the keynote speaker for the Women of the Channel meeting by the HTG Group as well as the facilitator of CRN’s Women of the Channel panel in New York in December. The panel consisted of very senior executive women from Oracle and Fortinet, among others.