Employee Spotlight: Q&A with Paul Horn, Senior Director of Global Microsoft Partnership at Nasuni

Nasuni sat down with Paul Horn, Senior Director of Global Microsoft Partnership, to talk about his progression within the company and what drives him day-to-day.

Paul’s resume reads like a true who’s who of the tech world. Over his 25 year career, he’s worked at IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Seagate, and finally Microsoft, from where he came to Nasuni nearly six years ago. Today, he is Senior Director of Global Microsoft Partnership, leading on all aspects of that relationship and responsible for its continued success.

Q: You’ve been with Nasuni since 2019. Can you think back and talk us through what first drew you to the company?

Relationships are always what define my career moves. I had a good friend who was at Nasuni at the time. They told me about an opening on the team they thought I’d be a good fit for. Joining from Microsoft gave me a very unique perspective on Nasuni because I wasn’t just on the outside looking in. Microsoft is Nasuni’s largest partner, which means there was a lot of information within Microsoft on Nasuni. So before taking the role, I had the opportunity to speak with people inside of Microsoft and ask them about their experiences with Nasuni. And everything I heard was overwhelmingly positive.

Another pull was the fact that at Microsoft I was managing anywhere from five to eight different partners similar to Nasuni, but at Nasuni I saw an opportunity to make a partnership my own, to own it globally and drive it the way I thought it should be driven to maximize our success with Microsoft. The rest is history.

Q: Can you tell us about your path at Nasuni that led to your current role?

I’m the Global Microsoft Lead, so I’m a Senior Director within Nasuni, but I’ve had some interesting roles along the way. As I mentioned, I was originally brought in to run the Microsoft partnership. Two and a half years into that role, I was asked to step up and lead our entire cloud partner team. That meant managing the team of people that called on Google, AWS, and Microsoft, along with sales resources. I had nine people working for me for about two years.

And then, after we made some organizational changes last year, I found an opportunity to really invest in taking the Microsoft partnership from where it was to where it needs to be. That’s when I shifted into this role, which enabled me to dedicate my knowledge of how Nasuni works on the inside to the Microsoft partnership. It’s been a unique ride!

Q: And what does taking the Microsoft partnership to “where it needs to be” look like?

A year ago we were on the precipice of an AI revolution, but now we’re squarely in the middle of it. We need to take the necessary steps to continue to leverage AI technologies and bring greater value to our customer base. We’ll continue to innovate to set ourselves above other companies that are trying to do similar things.

In the past, we’ve really focused on the Azure Storage piece of the partnership. One of my goals over the past year has been to expand the aperture of the partnership and to understand where we can do more across other areas with Microsoft, especially around AI. That’s where we’re trying to take the relationship.

Q: How do you approach working with a hyperscaler partner like Microsoft?

I look at the partnership from so many different angles. Microsoft is actually an end-user of ours because they own one of our largest customers, a professional social media platform.

I also view Microsoft as a partner. We go out and we sell with Microsoft all over the place, and we engage with Microsoft. That’s everything from sales, marketing, business development, relationship development, and also product and engineering. It’s an all-encompassing view.

We are also a customer of Microsoft’s. We use the Office Suite, we use Azure, we use all kinds of different packages that Microsoft provides. It’s a truly multifaceted relationship and I have oversight across all of those and support every facet of the relationship with Microsoft.

Q: How do you navigate the different strands of that relationship?

The beautiful part about it is that no two days are the same. It’s always something different. It’s just a matter of making sure that we’re walking in prepared to engage actively with all aspects of the Microsoft partnership — and then putting the necessary hat on. One day I might be a champion for Microsoft, another I may have to play a little hard ball with them, but whichever hat I’m wearing, I’m always asking myself two key questions: “What are we doing together today?” and “What do we need to traverse together to get to where we want to be tomorrow?”

Q: Nasuni is a very high growth company and growing rapidly. What excites you most about what the future could look like being at the heart of that?

What excites me is the fact that we are bringing something that is truly changing the way customers think about how they are deploying the cloud. AI technology is really at the end of the journey. But to get there, you’ve got to modernize your infrastructure and create those foundational components of your environment and storage. Only then will you be able to take your data and transform it into information. Because there is a difference between the two: data just sits there, but if you can take that data and use it to make meaningful decisions across your business, then it becomes information. I’m most excited to help customers get more value out of their information.

AI technologies could really change the game across so many more industries than just our own. Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, and we have a real opportunity to do the same with Nasuni.

Q: What are a few highlights of your time at Nasuni across projects, innovations, or products?

One of the things that I’m most proud of is the growth that we’ve had to get the Microsoft relationship to where it is today. But it’s not been without some growing pains. Take our first Azure marketplace transaction, for example. It was a complex two million dollar deal in the middle of COVID, December 2020. But we powered through it, we got the job done, and we got that customer deployed. I am super proud that we were able to get over that hurdle and get one in the door. And since then, we’ve secured hundreds of customers and hundreds of deals in Azure Marketplace. We’re in a great place right now and I’m proud of the work the team has done to get there.

Q: Can you tell me something outside of your life at Nasuni that readers may not guess about you?

One of the things I’m most proud about is being Scout Leader for my son’s troop. I’m very active in scouting and over the years I’ve actually honed my leadership skills through different training sessions I’ve done with scouting. I’m an Eagle Scout myself so I went through the program as a youth and now I have the opportunity to support my son and other kids through the scouting program. That’s a big part of my life outside of work. I’m a fan of “work hard, play hard”.

Q: What kind of company is Nasuni for somebody looking to progress their career?

Nasuni has always prided themselves on providing growth opportunities for everyone at the company — everything from basic skills to leadership development. I’ve had the pleasure of being promoted at Nasuni and it’s a great feeling. It’s a recognition of support and faith from leadership in your ability to go out and deliver results.

For people who are earlier in their career looking to find that next thing, we’ve got some phenomenal career opportunities at Nasuni across our sales organization for advancement into everything from a sales development role to a field facing role. Nasuni gives everybody an opportunity to shine, no matter their background. And once you’ve proven yourself in a role, you really can ask “What do I want to do next?” That’s exciting to see.

If you’d like to learn more about career opportunities at Nasuni? Check out our recent job listings here.