Month: February 2018

Big Data

Splunk announces enhanced partner benefits at Global Partner Summit

February 28, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Splunk announces enhanced partner benefits at Global Partner Summit
Last year’s refocus on the channel saw Splunk more than double the size of their partner base. This year they are looking to drive further by enhancing the existing partner tracks and formalizing two new ones.

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Networking

Fortinet adds 11 new vendor partners to Fabric-Ready program in embrace of co-opetition strategy

February 28, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Fortinet adds 11 new vendor partners to Fabric-Ready program in embrace of co-opetition strategy
Fortinet now has 42 strategic vendor partnerships, which include many direct competitors, and these relationships are critical to their Security Fabric strategy.

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Mobility

New Catalyst hyper-customization platform in Zoho CRM release likely to interest partners

February 28, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on New Catalyst hyper-customization platform in Zoho CRM release likely to interest partners
Zoho CRM also enhances its Zia conversational AI for sales teams, with a voice capability, as well as other improvements its predictive AI and lead enrichment.

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Networking

Fortinet Security Fabric enhancements include first steps towards vision of intent-based network security

February 27, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Fortinet Security Fabric enhancements include first steps towards vision of intent-based network security
At their Fortinet Accelerate 2018 event in Las Vegas, Fortinet outlined their strategic vision to deal with the challenges of digital transformation, including rudimentary tagging which will – eventually – let customers set policies for new items on the network using business language.

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Sponsored Content

Employee Appreciation Day: 6 reasons why good tech is vital to showing employees you care

February 27, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Employee Appreciation Day: 6 reasons why good tech is vital to showing employees you care
Most employees think that being valued and recognized by their employer is critical, and technology is an important part of showing that appreciation.

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Cloud

OpsRamp launches smaller Unified Service Intelligence solution to attract new customers

February 27, 2018 Mark Cox 1
Unified Service Intelligence is a less complex version of the core OpsRamp solution, will play in the midmarket as well as the enterprise, and is intended mainly to expose new prospects to the platform.

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Ed Galasso, general manager of Tech Data Canada
Distribution

New Year’s Podcast Series: Ed Galasso of Tech Data Canada

February 23, 2018 Robert Dutt Comments Off on New Year’s Podcast Series: Ed Galasso of Tech Data Canada
New Tech Data Canada leader Ed Galasso discusses a momentous 2017, including his new role atop the distributor and the Avnet Technology Solutions purchase, and previews 2018.

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Backup

Expansion of Infinidat partnership to sales portents new focus in Commvault strategic alliances

February 23, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Expansion of Infinidat partnership to sales portents new focus in Commvault strategic alliances
Commvault also announces Andy Vandeveld, most recently at Veeam, as Vice President of Worldwide Alliances, in a move that signals an increased focus on strategic alliances as a route to market rather than just technology integrations.

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Managed Services

RapidFire Tools increasing effort in Canadian market

February 23, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on RapidFire Tools increasing effort in Canadian market
Network assessment tool maker RapidFire already does a good business in Canada, but thinks the Canadian market can be developed much more fully, and is making a major Northern push in 2018.

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Cloud

Inside Sage Business Cloud strategy [Podcast]

February 22, 2018 Robert Dutt Comments Off on Inside Sage Business Cloud strategy [Podcast]
Sage Canada managing director Paul Struthers discusses the company’s cloudy past, present, and future, and how its newly-unified Business Cloud will play for partners.

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Cloud

HyperGrid pivots to ‘software-defined cloud’ vision as they release new version of HyperCloud platform

February 22, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on HyperGrid pivots to ‘software-defined cloud’ vision as they release new version of HyperCloud platform
HyperGrid’s new version of HyperCloud adds new capabilities and services around workload placement, improves multi-tenancy further, and now provides support for Kubernetes as well as Docker.

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Training

Dell EMC announces four new ‘transformational’ certifications

February 22, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Dell EMC announces four new ‘transformational’ certifications
Two of the new certifications, which also add a new Master level to the Dell EMC Proven Professional program, are available now, with the others coming in April and June. While partners will be eligible to complete them when they roll out, they will not immediately become part of the company’s partner program.

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Managed Services

OPAQ adds Palo Alto Networks as key partner on midmarket-focused security-as-a-service platform

February 22, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on OPAQ adds Palo Alto Networks as key partner on midmarket-focused security-as-a-service platform
Palo Alto Networks next-gen firewall offerings are now available as a service on OPAQ’s platform, in one of only two strategic relationships that OPAQ has.

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Cloud

ITaaS software maker Nerdio signs with SherWeb in their first global distribution deal

February 22, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on ITaaS software maker Nerdio signs with SherWeb in their first global distribution deal
Nerdio’s focus is on their Nerdio for Azure offering, which led them to work with cloud and Microsoft- focused SherWeb.

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Mobility

Riverbed enhances SteelConnect SD-WAN with Xirrus integration, AWS and Azure direct connectivity

February 21, 2018 Mark Cox 1
A third enhancement, new SteelConnect support for LTE uplinks, is more of a niche feature in North America except in remote regions, although it is still sometimes used as a backup system.

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Data Centre

Pivot3 expands Zerto, VMware partnerships around increased enterprise use cases

February 21, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Pivot3 expands Zerto, VMware partnerships around increased enterprise use cases
The introduction of their Acuity platform last year has deepened Pivot3 presence in the enterprise, which has in turn led them to strengthen their technology partnerships which address this space.

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Podcasts

New Year’s Podcast Series: Jim Chalmers of ESET Canada

February 20, 2018 Robert Dutt Comments Off on New Year’s Podcast Series: Jim Chalmers of ESET Canada
ESET Canada channel chief on a big year for ransomware, and for his company, as well as forecasts for what’s to come in 2018.

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Cloud

Is 2018 the year for Desktops-as-a-Service?

February 20, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Is 2018 the year for Desktops-as-a-Service?
A solution provider panel at the recent IGEL customer event discussed the evolution of the DaaS market and what they see as the opportunities – and pitfalls – for the channel.

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Cloud

Tech Data looks to grow Oracle business by adding Oracle universal cloud credits to StreamOne

February 16, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Tech Data looks to grow Oracle business by adding Oracle universal cloud credits to StreamOne
Oracle introduced universal cloud credits for their IaaS and PaaS services last fall to both assist on-prem customers transition to the cloud and expand their market. Tech Data making the credits available on their StreamOne marketplace is designed to help here, and is likely to add new partners to Oracle’s channel.

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Channel Programs

Ivanti adds integrated MSP track to Ivanti Partner Program

February 15, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Ivanti adds integrated MSP track to Ivanti Partner Program
Ivanti also completes the integration of their partner program, adding partners from the Shavlik and RES Software programs into the mix, and brings additional resources on board to work with partners.

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