HPE’s emphasis on AI going forward was good news for Canonical, which is already strong in the area.
Red Hat Summit typically consists of many deeply technical announcements, and the company did not disappoint in that respect, but they also made several important channel announcements and dropped a couple big hints about what is coming for partners next.
The acquisition of Kubernetes management platform provider Rancher Labs in late 2020 marked a key step in the evolution of SUSE’s market strategy from selling their Linux OS to selling a full solution stack around it.
Teradici has supported Macs on their PCoIP for years, but support for their Cloud Access Software remote management solution is new, and will be available by the middle of the year.
Their free FreeNAS product has been consolidated within the TrueNAS portfolio as the entry level (and still free) TrueNAS Core, which consolidates two platforms into one and accelerates R&D accordingly.
Canonical continues its strategy within the last year of investing more to better manage relations with their high-value partners, by establishing a separate program for GSIs.
In addition to a new IT management and monitoring solution integration, IGEL is showcasing their new IGEL UD2 Universal Desktop endpoint solution and their IGEL OS 11.
IGEL believes that their new software licensing, on top of their strong momentum in the space, will soon make them the leader in the total number of thin client systems shipped –although only the hardware ones count in the analyst numbers.
IBM pledges that all aspects of their and Red Hat’s vendor and channel partnerships will continue, including their channel partnerships, and vendor relationships.
All-flash led NetApp’s climb back from the brink to profitability, and all-flash remains one of NetApp’s strategic priorities this year. However, while Joel Reich’s business unit delivers most NetApp revenue, its development priorities have transitioned to the new Cloud First approach
Canonical believes that bringing Trilio directly into Ubuntu will have a profound impact on OpenStack enterprise adoption, making OpenStack much more attractive to the private cloud market and allowing its cost advantages over Vmware to have more resonance.
SonicWall makes five major announcements, including a new firewall OS, a new firewall platform, a new family of Wave 2 access points, a new mobile access OS, and a cloud analytics application.
Adding Mac support to Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud should open markets for which Kaspersky Enterprise Support for Business was not a good fit.
Dell also announces a new Latitude VDI notebook, upgrading of its ThinOS 8.4 software, and new management software.
Xinuos, which purchased SCO’s UNIX server products, is now releasing an entirely new version of the OS, hoping that leveraging market conditions and fond memories of the legacy SCO product will lead non-legacy customers and partners to look past damage to the brand done by SCO’s management in its later years.
The new Dell networking OS is initially aimed only at large data centres, with the current campus OS6 and data centre OS9 continuing, but longer term, OS 10 will become the core system for all of Dell networking.
The Mississauga ON-based MDM vendor is already the leader in the commercial Android space, and expects that Android for Work will make Android mainstream in the enterprise, which is excellent news for them and their channel partners.
Pure sees OpenStack as providing a great services opportunity to help customers adapt OpenStack for private clouds, since it is necessary to help them adapt OpenStack to different customer circumstances.
Could bringing focus “Back on the Mac” spell opportunity for the company’s channel partners?
