Managed Services
New Canadian HP Security Operations Centre to strengthen HP’s competitive position
HP’s first Canadian SOC will overcome objections about a lack of Canadian delivery from some customers, notably in the federal government.
Articles by Mark Cox
Big Data
Big Data big deal in Canada?
Thursday’s Microsoft Big Data event featured a panel of Canadian service providers and customers, who offered some interesting insights about the state of Big Data in Canada.
Big Data
Microsoft doubling down on Big Data
Microsoft says its recent focus on and investments in the Big Data space have made it a key player. That carries with it new partner opportunities, even for smaller ones with a focused vertical strategy.
Channel Programs
Sage to give partners customer feedback data to strengthen customer relationships
Like the Sage Advisor Dashboard introduced last year, the new Sage Net Promotor Score Program makes data Sage has collected from customers available to partners to help them improve customer satisfaction, and their business.
Distribution
StorMagic signs on Arrow to distribute its ROBO-focused virtual storage solution in North America
StorMagic is looking to re-engage with the channel and build up a strong channel business for its sophisticated solution aimed and priced for SMBs and ROBO environments, which will include more strong Canadian partners.
Storage
Scality simplifies RING 5.0 software installation to facilitate channel installs
A reseller agreement announced last fall with HP led Scality to greatly simplify their software installation, which had previously required Scality to be involved because of the complexity.
Storage
Rubrik looks to redefine backup with converged scale-out platform with Apple-like experience
Rubrik sees itself as a threat to every backup vendor, with an offering that will focus on the mid-market at first, and will be sold 100 per cent through the channel.
Big Data
EMC Federation Business Data Lake to be strong play for top partners
The Federation Business Data Lake greatly expands EMC’s converged Big Data offerings, and while only EMC’s more sophisticated partners will likely be able to sell it, it will be available to them.
Channel Programs
Nimble adds net-new benefits to partners with first formal partner program
The three new partner tiers all have revenue and certification requirements, and most partners will not qualify, but all partners, including those not in a tier, will receive the benefits Nimble has been providing until now, as all the new benefits to the tiers are net-new.
Channel Communities
CompTIA to unveil new ultra-simple business model assessment tool
Unlike previous CompTIA tools in this area, this one is focused on business models rather than financials, and is designed to be extremely simple to use
Big Data
Splunk signs first North America distribution deal with Arrow
Splunk Light, a new product which is focused on the needs of mid-market companies, smaller than most of Splunk’s traditional customers, will require new partners focused on that area to sell it.
Hardware
Huawei, DataCore partner on hyper-converged solutions
The DataCore-Huawei offerings are targeted at larger customers than the midmarket and lower end of the enterprise where other hyperconverged vendors have been most successful to date.
Storage
Nutanix unveils rigorous multi-hypervisor hyper-converged certification program
Nutanix aims to create the equivalent of a Cisco CCIE certification for the hyperconverged world, that will establish its thought leadership, with a demanding certification program that tests the ability to design solutions on multiple hypervisors.
Storage
Condusiv releases first fragmentation prevention solution for SANs
Condusiv’s Diskeeper 15 Server is the first fragmentation protection for SAN storage connected to physical servers. It prevents fragmentation in real time at the logical disk layer, increasing IO density so more data can be processed.
Storage
Much larger drive capacity highlights enhanced Drobo top-of-the-line release
Drobo’s BeyondRAID technology also gets a boost, so that when you add a new drive it will configure the RAID array 800 per cent faster than before.
Channel Programs
Equinix adds new global partner program in move to channel-friendly model
Equinix expects that the new program, designed to end channel conflict and properly reward partners, will attract new partners and significantly raise channel revenues.
Big Data
Qumulo breaks stealth with data-aware scale-out NAS
Qumulo’s software, sold as 1U appliance nodes, integrates real-time data analytics directly into storage, to make data and storage resources much more visible. They sell only through the channel.
Cloud
AppRiver growing channel in Canada
The email and network security provider company has over 100 partners in Canada, a tenth of whom joined in the past year.
Unified Communications
Enhanced Scopia video conferencing room systems highlight Avaya Engagement Solution refresh
The mid-sized XT4300 room system will be a stronger channel play than most of the Scopia lineup.
Virtualization
3D apps, desktop Linux support among VMware Horizon 6 innovations
VMware still trails Citrix in the virtual desktop space, and is trying to make up ground by emphasizing some of the new and enhanced features that are unique to Horizon 6.