Articles by Mark Cox

Big Data

MaintenanceNet acquisition means non-Cisco vendors likely leave

July 10, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on MaintenanceNet acquisition means non-Cisco vendors likely leave
Cisco acknowledges it acquired MaintenanceNet because it was uncomfortable with its longtime partner’s drive to sign on more OEM clients, and indicates that while Cisco doesn’t plan to fire those clients, it won’t have to.

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VMware Canada country manager Sean Forkan
Cloud

NetBackup 7.7 highlights broad refresh of Veritas portfolio

July 9, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on NetBackup 7.7 highlights broad refresh of Veritas portfolio
New products include Veritas Information Map, which is built on the company’s new Information Fabric, and Veritas Resiliency Platform, an IT service continuity solution. Veritas InfoScale is an enhancement and rebranding of the old Symantec Storage Foundations.

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Cloud

New Kaseya CEO Voccola pledges new customer commitment initiative

July 8, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on New Kaseya CEO Voccola pledges new customer commitment initiative
Fred Voccola who has an extensive background in software and IT infrastructure companies, is the new CEO, and he pledges commitment to both customers and channel partners, which will make Kaseya well-loved in the industry.

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Managed Services

Acronis unveils their next-gen data protection platform

July 8, 2015 Mark Cox 1
Acronis beefs up their data protection platform by enhancing its disaster recovery capability and file sync and share capabilities.

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Cloud

Scalar Decisions acquires Mainland Information Systems to create Canadian integration giant

July 7, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Scalar Decisions acquires Mainland Information Systems to create Canadian integration giant
Scalar becomes a $300 million dollar company through the deal, strengthens its presence in western Canada, and increases its scalability with the assets acquired. The Mainland brand will remain for the foreseeable future.

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Cloud

SAP makes new partner initiatives in Business ByDesign

July 7, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on SAP makes new partner initiatives in Business ByDesign
With a view to both expanding the number of skilled ByDesign people available to partners, and sharpening partners’ ability to use and extend the solution, SAP has launched several ByDesign initiatives, including a partner enablement portal and collaborative tool, and a certification program through Open SAP.

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Big Data

Canada needs to move beyond traditional IT: Dell

July 6, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Canada needs to move beyond traditional IT: Dell
Canadian organizations are not as far along the transition to the new IT as some in other countries, so Dell’s global strategy of forming deep ISV alliances to create Dell Blueprints to help customers make that transition seems particularly relevant here.

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Channel Communities

TreeHouse rebrands as Impartner, launches new, easier to onboard PRM solution

July 6, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on TreeHouse rebrands as Impartner, launches new, easier to onboard PRM solution
Impartner believes its new partner relationship management solution will revolutionize PRM the same way Salesforce revolutionized CRM. It is going to market in Europe through a channel sales model, and if that it successful, they will look at doing the same here.

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Channel Programs

Entry level-focused StorMagic launches first channel program

July 2, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Entry level-focused StorMagic launches first channel program
StorMagic has sold mainly direct since its founding in 2006, but is transitioning to a 100 per cent channels strategy, and to expand its base of quality partners has unveiled its first partner program.

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Cloud

Toronto’s Breqwatr taking appliance to simplify private cloud deployments through the channel

July 2, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Toronto’s Breqwatr taking appliance to simplify private cloud deployments through the channel
The Toronto startup is going to market through the channel out of the gate, and unusually for a startup, has been picked up by a major distributor. Arrow is handling their North American distribution.

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Printing and Imaging

Ricoh Canada buys western Canadian VAR Graycon to accelerate managed IT services business

June 30, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Ricoh Canada buys western Canadian VAR Graycon to accelerate managed IT services business
Ricoh, which is building up its services business to offset a decline in print volumes, sees Graycon as providing new capabilities for them in the west. The company also suggested they would be interested in a similar acquisition in the east.

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Channel Programs

Quick Heal introduces loyalty program for enlisting successful channel partners

June 30, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Quick Heal introduces loyalty program for enlisting successful channel partners
The Quick Rewards program, which begins in Q3, gives partners who refer other partners to Quick Heal a reward of six per cent of their sales for the first year and four per cent for the second – giving Quick Heal a cost-effective way of enlarging their channel.

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Data Capture/Point of Sale

ScanSource beefs up mobile POS portfolio with new Star Micronics partnership

June 30, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on ScanSource beefs up mobile POS portfolio with new Star Micronics partnership
Star’s strength in mobile printing in particular will enhance ScanSource’s ability to provide total POS and retail solutions to their reseller partners.

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Channel Programs

SolidFire adds specialization tiers to partner program

June 30, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on SolidFire adds specialization tiers to partner program
Four specializations are being announced, one of which is around OpenStack, which SolidFire believes is an industry first. .

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Software

Condusiv V-locity 6.0 DRAM read caching enhancements triple performance

June 29, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Condusiv V-locity 6.0 DRAM read caching enhancements triple performance
Condusiv engineers redid the DRAM read caching algorithm so that DRAM, which is small but very fast, focuses only the smallest, random I/O that causes the most problems.

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Computers

Acer brings first Chrome All-in-One desktop with touch display to Canada

June 26, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Acer brings first Chrome All-in-One desktop with touch display to Canada
Acer Chromebase DC221HQ series, which is coming to market in Canada through Acer’s commercial channel, has both touch and non-touch display options.

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Storage

Intronis stresses better user experience with Summer Release ‘15

June 26, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Intronis stresses better user experience with Summer Release ‘15
A new dashboard provides a macro-level view that did not exist before, and a new Executive Summary report generator provides customers with brandable and customizable snapshots which demonstrate the MSP’s value.

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VMware Canada country manager Sean Forkan
Storage

Veritas Canadian leadership team for post-Symantec divorce now in place

June 25, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Veritas Canadian leadership team for post-Symantec divorce now in place
Symantec’s Canadian GM, Sean Forkan, moves over to run Veritas in Canada – as well as the central U.S. Two other Symantec Canada execs join him in the move. All three are currently in their new roles, even though the two companies are still one. The new post-split leadership for Symantec in Canada has also been announced.

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Channel Programs

How to build a successful channel organization

June 25, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on How to build a successful channel organization
Dell’s channel chief offers some suggestions how companies can effectively build or improve their channel programs.

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Hardware

Paragon Software reworks tech license tool as multi-purpose utility for end users

June 24, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Paragon Software reworks tech license tool as multi-purpose utility for end users
The new IT Essentials Toolkit, which handles virtualization, disk management and system optimization for servers and workstations, is a product many Paragon partners use themselves, but now it is also packaged in a SKU they can sell to their own customers.

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