Channel Madness Rookies Look Strong In Round 2

First-time competitors from Nutanix, Scale Computing, WatchGuard and Palo Alto Networks have come out of the gate with solid game plans in Round 2 of CRN Channel Madness.

We’re more than one day into Round 2 of the 2021 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs, and a number of chiefs have come out strong with commanding leads.

Three tournament rookies are looking good early, including Nutanix’s Christian Alvarez, who’s ahead with 84 percent of the vote in his matchup with Shannon Sbar of Schneider Electric, who’s got 16 percent, as well as Scale Computing’s Scott Mann, who’s sitting pretty with 87 percent vs. Intel’s Jason Kimrey, who’s at 13 percent.

Meanwhile, WatchGuard’s Michelle Welch looks dominant with 65 percent in her bout against Zscaler’s Todd Meister, who’s at 35 percent, and Karl Soderlund is out in front with 63 percent in his matchup with Check Point’s Frank Rauch, who’s at 37 percent.

Here’s a look at the results so far:

Infrastructure

Shannon Sbar, Schneider Electric, 16 vs. Christian Alvarez, Nutanix, 84

Rob Rae, Datto, 9 vs. Curtiz Gangi, Eaton, 91

Hardware

Rob Cato, Lenovo, 41 vs. Donna Grothjan, Aruba, an HPE company, 59

Jason Kimrey, Intel, 13 vs. Scott Mann, Scale Computing 87

Cloud

Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft, 29 vs. Eric Martorano, Nextiva, 71

Carolee Gearhart, Google Cloud, 14 vs. Kevin Rooney, Veeam Software, 86

Security

Todd Meister, Zscaler, 35 vs. Michelle Welch, WatchGuard Technologies, 65

Frank Rauch, Check Point Software Technologies, 37 vs. Karl Soderlund, Palo Alto Networks, 63

Voting in Round 2 will remain open until Tuesday, March 30 at noon ET. Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!