Retrospect, which started out as Dantz and whose products have been around for 30 years, will be paired with Drobo, as both are heavily focused on the sub-150 seat market.
The new portfolio is targeted at the sub-100 market, although it can scale higher than that, and will go to market solely through channel partners.
The SMB space was a hard sell for partners with virtualized Powered by IP Office, but the company thinks this next-gen rebranded play that runs on the Google cloud will be a popular partner offering.
HPE enhances six of their SMB solutions, to provide more customer choice and provide additional performance and capacity.
While the preview of Lenovo’s foldable PC was the big ‘wow’ factor at the Lenovo Accelerate event, the launch of the new ThinkBooks is really the big news for partners this year.
netTALK, which has been in the consumer phone market for years, enters the commercial market, and is looking for both Master Agents and VARs to sell it.
Kaspersky has sold the cloud version of their SMB endpoint offering mainly through traditional partners, and not MSPs, but would like to attract MSPs to sell the product going forward.
Avast adds a new capability to its CloudCare platform that provides turnkey and policy-based protection against malicious websites, downloads, and locations.
Netgear is highlighting the Orbi Pro Mesh Wi-Fi Ceiling satellite, which has received a CES Innovation Award nomination, but the announcement includes multiple products for the channel SMB space.
Untangle recently announced their inaugural “Voice of the Channel” survey to determine the state and desires of their small business customers, as well as the priorities of their partners.
Malwarebytes announces a new partnership with Bask Technology, which both highlights their endpoint protection product, and is part of the company’s plan to significantly expand their presence in the SMB space going forward.
HPE made a big play in 2018 around servers in the SMB space, followed up by solutions related to hybrid cloud. While those will continue in 2019, the company is also looking to roll out similar initiatives around simplification around storage and hyper-converged solutions for SMBs.
The new solutions include the last two HPE ProLiant servers to be refreshed with Gen 10 technology, as well as software developed in collaboration with Microsoft, which includes new HPE Rapid Setup Software that HPE says will slash partner install times by up to 70 per cent.
Square has built a big business around providing support to microsellers who were too small to interest credit card companies, or who found their services too expensive. While this market is still their core, they have moved upmarket as well, with larger sellers, assisted by strategic partnerships with companies like SAP. The new channel program is designed to support partners in this upmarket transition.
Linksys believes that the Linksys Cloud Manager, aimed at the sub-100 market, will be highly disruptive in the small business space. The cloud launch is also being accompanied by a channel push in Canada, which will see product authorized for the first time.
This is Version 6 of the low end of the Kaspersky business portfolio, which extends the use of functionality like System Watcher, makes improvements to the management console and the alerting system, and adds a search capability to find third party software that is in need of updates.
The “Driven” program for Cisco Meraki is the first program D&H has offered specifically for Cisco Meraki, and includes measures to make it easier for small VARs to become certified on Meraki, and make more money once they are.
D&H Canada head Greg Tobin reviews what worked well for the distributor in 2017, and offers some previews for the year ahead.
Salesforce adds a second Essentials cloud, and improves the original introduced last fall, although at this point in time, Essentials is still a marginal channel play, since the focus has been on improving the offering rather than broadening the go-to-market.
Ooma’s CEO Eric Stang discusses the implications of the deal with ChannelBuzz, including the likely impact on both the Ooma and Voxter solution provider channels.
