The Voyager Focus UC becomes the top of the line model in Plantronics’ noise cancelling office products line. It also features Dynamic Mute Alert feature, which senses and alerts users when they are trying to talk when muted.
AVG’s SMB-focused business unit has added so many new sales and support staff they outgrew their old offices, and they are still in aggressive growth mode, recruiting new partners to sell their managed services.
The Canadian cloud-based network management software provider has modified its software to produce a version for the MSP market that has some pluses it believes are missing from the market now. The plan is to sell it direct for a while to establish proof of concept while they work on building a proper channel program.
The Juniper spinoff launches its first partner program, to which old Juniper partners have to apply, and says that it has some unique differentiating factors.
Microsoft’s announcement that it will set up data centres in Toronto and Quebec City is big news for Microsoft, for the provinces and cities involved – and for Microsoft partners.
Dell is looking to define itself as being able to work with the operational technology (OT) necessary for the Internet of Things as well as IT, with the new gateway product customized for the purpose to do both.
In a trio of announcements, Pure announces its next-gen array, which features its first custom built hardware, as well as Pure1, an integrated cloud-based management and support offering, and Evergreen Storage, which is both a vision and a new upgrade model.
Lookout’s enterprise offering, which leverages the data set from its 70 million consumer customers, will be sold entirely through channel partners, and entirely through distribution, which in North America will be Ingram Micro.
Dell’s proactive support services have been a big hit in the channel, but this particular product is designed as a retail play, rather than for solution providers.
CompTIA data indicate that customer knowledge of managed services is up significantly over last year, and that emphasis on cost saving is no longer their main concern. This should impact the way that MSPs sell their offerings.
Dell’s Data Center Solutions group was created to optimize Dell’s working relationship with its large hyperscale customers, but today, partly as a result of Dell going private, DCS is working with a broader range of customers to design customized solutions that meet their needs.
The announcement at Computex Taipei 2015 is intended to be SanDisk’s coming out party for the large Taiwanese ODM market, with a product that will sell mainly through the ODMs, but will have some channel pockets.
Dell’s hardware designers explain their original mandate, to turn Dell from a follower to a leader in product innovation, and discuss their design philosophy and principles that underlay the large degree of success they have in this area now compared to a decade ago.
Esna will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avaya, with Avaya ‘planning to adopt’ Esna’s over 200 active channel partners. Avaya also said the deal will provide existing Avaya partners with significant new opportunities.
Virtustream will form the basis of EMC’s managed cloud services business, and will be sold both direct and through service provider and integrator partners.
The changes reflect the wireless networking vendor’s transition in the last several years from a direct seller to a company that sells entirely through the channel, where the internal sales force now works to drum up business for partners.
Dell becomes the first vendor to offer a hyper-converged end-to-end VDI appliance for EVO:RAIL, which becomes its fifth different VDI appliance in five months, as the company intensifies its emphasis on the space
The deal takes a previous partnering relationship one step further, expands Powerland’s presence in Saskatchewan, and gives them complete control of FACT’s comparatively large pool of technical people, who complement Powerland’s previous shortage of feet on the street in Saskatchewan.
The company has put measures in place to drive North American server sales through the channel, and while it is still a distant fourth in server revenues, they are eager to make up ground this year.
Former Brocade executive Mihir H. Shah tells ChannelBuzz why he thinks Drobo remains a valuable commodity in a world of ever more complex storage solutions, what he sees as new opportunities for the company, and his view of how it will go to market going forward.
