VAR Dynamics completes a major restructuring with a name change to highlight the company’s focus on its platform rather than the services on top, and to illustrate that the company’s base has also moved beyond VARs to include other types of partners.
Gigamon enhances the security platform at the core of their growing security business, while continuing to increase and develop the security-focused part of their channel. They will also be implementing a Gigamon Professional Services program in Q2.
Lantronix says the cost to enterprise management of their wireless stacks, together with the greater difficulty of updating obsolete embedded technology, makes customers ready for a cutting edge 5G (802.11ac) Wi-Fi connectivity solution for the Internet of Things.
Risk intelligence solution Agiliance pulls an Oracle, rebranding itself after its RiskVision product. RiskVision has done most of its business direct in the past, but is aggressively looking to change that, looking to add VAR, solution provider and MSSP partners.
Mellanox thinks the Nutanix partnership can let Mellanox do for networking what Nutanix has already done for storage and compute – make it invisible. They also think it can grow their Ethernet switch business from the single digits to the neighborhood of their market leadership in Ethernet adapters.
The companies anticipate that the BlackBerry BES12 enterprise mobility management platform being tested and certified for Azure and available in Azure Marketplace will significantly increase its exposure and sales.
This platform, the CS-4000E, is a version of the CS-4000 the company has been selling to government customers, priced lower for the enterprise. Looking Glass has begun to recruit a channel, and sees the platform’s ability to cover the whole threat intelligence spectrum as a strong incent for partners.
The approved compatibility with Cisco allows any Cisco UCS server to be turned into the equivalent of a private Amazon S3 storage cloud, which is well suited for IoT requirements. More specific partner-focused announcements relating to this partnership are also coming.
The new HYBRID Sites complete the integration of ShoreTel’s cloud and on-prem solutions which began with the new ShoreTel Connect branding last year. They improve partners’ selling ability with the single solution, and its suitability for larger deployments.
Adding networking to the server, storage and virtualization capabilities of their HC3 solution gives Scale a complete bundle that responds to customer requests for such an addition.
Flash-focused Nimble Storage has announced its new Nimble AF-Series of All Flash arrays, a family of four models which adds predictive analytics. Nimble thinks it will position them better in the enterprise market.
The new Hitachi Unified Compute Platform 6000 for Predictive Analytics integrates SAP Predictive Analytics software, and while aimed mainly at telcos and media service providers, may have a broader audience than that.
The new NetScaler T1000 incorporates the ByteMobile optimization software within the NetScaler appliance for improved mobile traffic handling.
The new VMware Workspace ONE suite, and enhanced VMware Horizon VDI and Horizon Air solutions and VMware vRealize Suite 7 cloud management suite offer channel partners enhanced opportunities and the ability to gain deeper relationships with customers.
It’s a great deal for Ingram’s stockholders — which include many of their channel partners. But for their businesses, will it be business as usual.
VxRail has the same concept as last year’s unsuccessful EMC first foray into hyperconverged, but is designed to be much more flexible and modular, and benefits greatly from an improved software stack. It will also be available through all EMC partners, not just ones certified on VCE.
The aim of Cohesity, led by Nutanix’s original co-founder, is to disrupt the secondary storage market the same way Nutanix disrupted primary storage, and through a similar 100 per cent channel model.
Hitachi Data Systems continues to expand the functionality of its platform introduced in 2013 as a sync ‘n’ share variant of its Hitachi Content Platform with new and enhanced features.
IDDriven has designed a SaaS offering that is full featured while also simple to use, and which they will be selling through a channel that they are looking to grow.
Unitrends is implementing a program based on five stars, with partners earning credit for ranking based on sales, marketing, customer satisfaction, training and social media achievements, in a system that can let smaller partners and even influencers rise in the program.
