Data Centre
Why hyperconverged won’t slow down in 2019: Dell EMC
Chad Dunn, who runs HCI product management at Dell EMC, thinks the stars are aligned for hyperconverged to continue its breakneck growth rates this year
hybrid cloud
Cloud
Dell EMC upgrades Isilon, Unity elements of storage portfolio
Dell EMC unveils a new Isilon scale-out system, the F810, which has built in data compression capabilities. They have also enhanced their Unity platform with the OE 4.5 software release.
Backup
Veeam expands incents, marketing resources and learning management for North American channel partners
Veeam global channel chief James Mundle talks with ChannelBuzz about what partners can expect from the changes to the program.
Data Centre
Pivot3 creates new U.S. sales head position to expand leadership team
While undergoing the hiring process for a new head of sales that landed Rance Poehler, Pivot3 found they also liked the skillset of Dan Flood, so they made an additional hire, and created the position of VP of U.S. sales for him, as part of a more aggressive strategy to expand in the enterprise.
Cloud
Armughan Ahmad to drive digital transformation as Canadian Managing Partner of digital and technology solutions at KPMG in Canada
Dell EMC and HP alumnus Armughan Ahmad talks about his move to KPMG in Canada, and how he intends to accelerate their digital transformation business, which will include increasing the work KPMG does with the IT channel.
Cloud
Innovative cloud service startup Sonrai Security sees strong channel play as they emerge from stealth
Sonrai also has a strong Canadian connection, with one of the two founders and the company’s engineering based in Fredericton N.B., as was the case with their previous company, Q1 Labs.
Managed Services
Kaseya CEO Voccola discusses IT Glue strategy going forward
Kaseya’s CEO detailed that the IT Glue acquisition actually took place two years ao, and has been kept under wraps. He also indicated what will happen with IT Glue now that the acquisition has been formally announced, and dropped some hints about what is next on the acquisition front.
Cloud
Mitel looks to expand Master Agent channel as part of global UCaaS drive
A new Master Agent agreement with TradeWinds Brokerage establishes Mitel’s first Master Agent in ANZ, where their UCaaS business is already strong. It leverages a U.S. relationship which is part of a growing Master Agent channel in that market.
Cloud
HPE SMB leader Tim Peters lays out the business unit strategy, with storage being the next target
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.
Cloud
HPE extends hybrid cloud composable strategy with HPE Composable Cloud
The big announcement is that the composable capabilities of HPE Synergy has now been extended to rack server environments, but there are several other related goodies, including the expansion of the InfoSight predictive analytics from HPE Nimble beyond storage to all of the infrastructure.
Cloud
Pure Storage unveils first Cloud Data Services, which will run in AWS Cloud
The new services are designed to have mission-critical capability, and to give Pure Storage a unified hybrid architecture capability that counters competitor cloud-centric strategies. While these are optimized for AWS, services for the Azure cloud are planned for the future.
Solution Provider News
Toronto-headquartered Converge Technology Solutions launches on TSXV Exchange with ambitious strategy
Converge has acquired five solution providers over the last year, including Ottawa’s Northern Micro, and three in the U.S. They have secured a listing on the Toronto Venture Exchange through amalgamation with a shell company, and have an ambitious plan to expand, which includes many more acquisitions.
Backup
Rubrik enhances hybrid cloud capabilities with Andes 5.0 platform release
Enhancements in Rubrik’s latest release include certification for SAP HANA, instant recovery capabilities for Oracle database instant recovery and improved Microsoft Office 365 protection on the Rubrik Polaris SaaS platform.
Cloud
Address scary change with fearless, optimistic change: Dell Technologies
Pivotal executive and proud tech geek Chad Sakac gave the keynote at the Dell Technologies Forum in Toronto on Tuesday, deconstructing the present process of technological change, and counselling customers on a strategy of how to address scary change that transcended the Dell companies, which involves embracing change in their companies and providing ways to encourage it from the bottom up.
Cloud
IBM looks to preserve and enhance Red Hat commitment to channel going forward
IBM pledges that all aspects of their and Red Hat’s vendor and channel partnerships will continue, including their channel partnerships, and vendor relationships.
Networking
TP-Link launches Omada OC200 cloud controller for decentralized wireless operations
TP-Link adds a new cloud controller to the Omada line they introduced almost a year ago. Aimed at SMBs, the Omada family is a hybrid cloud platform to manage decentralized wireless networks.
Storage
NetApp extends data fabric with DevOps announcements
NetApp made a flurry of announcements on Wednesday at Insight extending their data fabric, with special relevance to developers and architects, emphasizing their cloud-first focus, and articulating their hybrid and multi-cloud proposition.
Cloud
Major new Azure integration highlights NetApp cloud announcements
NetApp is touting the new Azure NetApp Files as a huge extension of their Microsoft relationship, which gives them a level of integration with their Azure cloud that Microsoft has not done before with anyone. Other announcements include the General Availability of NetApp Cloud Insights, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, and new ONTAP support for NetApp HCI.
Networking
HPE unveils new SMB hybrid cloud solutions around new ProLiant Gen 10 ML30 and DL20 servers
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.
Backup
Arcserve unveils integrated cloud-native solution set with Business Continuity Cloud
Arcserve combines four of its solutions into a single cloud offering that on-prem customers cam still use, but will also give them hybrid and full cloud options.