IMN’s Cloud Service Provider CEO Panel

At The Provider Forum on Data Centers & Cloud Services Infrastructure (East), in Washington DC, on June 9, 2016, Digital Edge’s own, Michael Petrov participated as a panelist for the IMN’s Cloud Service Provider CEO Panel. Michael was proud to be joined by three other top CEO’s in the field, Peter Feldman, CEO of Datagryd, Yan Ness, CEO of Online Tech, and Steven Vincinaza, CEO of Cirrity. This high quality panel was moderated by Kemal Hawa, a Shareholder from Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

The audience was engaged and excited to hears this panels answers to questions like:

• “What are you doing to remain competitive in a market dominated by a few 800 pound gorillas? Are you specializing? Will there continue to be opportunities for mid-market providers? How do you see your business model evolving?”
• “Is a national scale needed today? How are you building out your ecosystem? What are your growth strategies? Where do you see untapped opportunities? What do you look for in a partner?”
• “How are end-user needs/expectations evolving? How are you meeting these? What does it take to stand out from the crowd in Cloud services marketing, sales and delivery today?”
• “Cyber security and risk management: How are you protecting your clients’ data? How are you managing these costs? What is the future of security in the Cloud?”

This panel was a big success! Great Job Mike!

Updated November 2026: the original post is kept above; the sections below add context for readers today.

The same questions, ten years on

The panel asked how mid-market providers compete with the largest clouds. The answer that emerged since is specialization: deep expertise in security, compliance and operations on top of AWS and Microsoft Azure, rather than competing on raw infrastructure. That is the path Digital Edge took, becoming an AWS Level 1 MSSP and building DefenseLine AI, its AI-native MDR.