Month: January 2017

Unified Communications

Avaya looks to reduce debt burden and re-emerge stronger with Chapter 11 filing

January 19, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Avaya looks to reduce debt burden and re-emerge stronger with Chapter 11 filing
Avaya says that the sale of its Contact Center business is not being considered as a way to restructure its balance sheet, but that it is in discussions to possibly sell off other assets.

Storage

StorageCraft buys Exablox for creative synergies around DR and business continuity

January 19, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on StorageCraft buys Exablox for creative synergies around DR and business continuity
The acquisition follows a successful distribution agreement last October through which Exablox resold StorageCraft ShadowProtect software.

Virtualization

Dell collaborates with Citrix on new XenDesktop VXRail solution

January 18, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Dell collaborates with Citrix on new XenDesktop VXRail solution
The offering with Citrix provides the same capabilities of the latest version of a VMRail VMware solution announced at last year’s Dell EMC World, and gives Dell partners an offering for their Citrix focused customers.

Networking

Zyxel targets upgrades from 1GB with new 10G Uplink Layer 3 Managed Switches

January 18, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Zyxel targets upgrades from 1GB with new 10G Uplink Layer 3 Managed Switches
The new series, a complete redesign rather than an upgrade of the series it replaces, is also priced at around half what similar switches used to go for, which Zyxel thinks will help it with small business customers.

Data Centre

New Pivot3 Canada country manager Grant Aitken looks to raise company visibility

January 12, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on New Pivot3 Canada country manager Grant Aitken looks to raise company visibility
Pivot3’s hyper-converged Canadian business is much stronger today in the physical security space than in compute, and addressing that is one of ex-VMware Canadian country manager’s Aitken’s top priorities.

Podcasts

New Year’s Podcast Series: Mark Collins of Cisco Canada

January 12, 2017 Robert Dutt Comments Off on New Year’s Podcast Series: Mark Collins of Cisco Canada
Cisco Canada channel chief Mark Collins on the transformation nature of the channel game in 2016, and what solution providers can expect from Cisco in 2017.

Storage

IBM extends all-flash throughout DS8880 line

January 12, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on IBM extends all-flash throughout DS8880 line
IBM announces all-flash versions of its full DS8880 portfolio, but for the channel, impact is likely to be slight because compared to other IBM storage families, this one has a more limited partner presence.

Channel Programs

Invincea revamps partner philosophy and program around next-gen antivirus solution

January 12, 2017 Mark Cox 1
Invincea’s next-gen machine learning-based X by Invincea has been on the market for seven months, and now they have designed an appropriately named Next-Gen Partner Program to help partners sell it.

Small Business

HPE addition of scale-out capability to SMB StoreVirtual 3200 big deal for channel

January 11, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on HPE addition of scale-out capability to SMB StoreVirtual 3200 big deal for channel
HPE has announced the first major series of enhancements to the SMB-focused StoreVirtual 3200, which bring it up to the same capabilities of StoreVirtual systems higher in the market, and will make it much more attractive to partners.

Mobility

Arxan adds MAM capabilities, employee and B2B app capability, with Apperian acquisition

January 11, 2017 Mark Cox Comments Off on Arxan adds MAM capabilities, employee and B2B app capability, with Apperian acquisition
The coming together of two companies in the application security space with very different focus areas is expected to create significant synergies – and a broader channel focus on the Arxan side than in the past.