Microsoft

Cloud

Microsoft announces expansion of  Open Data Initiative with Adobe and SAP

March 27, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Microsoft announces expansion of  Open Data Initiative with Adobe and SAP
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appeared at the Adobe Insight event to highlight the extended initiative, which also saw a demo of how Unilever uses ODI to help reduce their plastic packaging.

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Cloud

Adobe doubles down on account-based experiences with extended Microsoft partnership

March 27, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Adobe doubles down on account-based experiences with extended Microsoft partnership
Adobe also announced a brand new partnership with ServiceNow which the companies say will lead to significant advances in the integration of customer experience data.

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Cloud

Cloud software suite provider Zoho looks to add to differentiated value – and values

March 26, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Cloud software suite provider Zoho looks to add to differentiated value – and values
Zoho, which has expanded its CRM application into a suite of over 40 applications that sells for $30 per user per month, is proud of some elements of their business and product set that they acknowledge are somewhat offbeat.

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Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Canada integrator partners evolving to meet needs of changing AI market

March 25, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Microsoft Canada integrator partners evolving to meet needs of changing AI market
Systems integrators Adastra, Lixar and Shalom, all of whom had a major presence at Microsoft’s recent forum around AI, talked with ChannelBuzz at the event about what they are doing to be successful in the space.

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Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Canada highlights Canadian AI initiatives at Future Now 2019 event

March 22, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Microsoft Canada highlights Canadian AI initiatives at Future Now 2019 event
Microsoft holds this annual event both to demonstrate Microsoft’s position on the cutting edge of new technology, and to inspire customers and prospects in attendance with examples of how Canadians have had strong results putting these concepts into practice.

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Partnerships

Plantronics rebrands as Poly, unveils new product and strategic initiatives

March 22, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Plantronics rebrands as Poly, unveils new product and strategic initiatives
Poly is designed to provide a new joint identity for the Plantronics-Polycom combination. In addition to new pipeline product announced at Enterprise Connect this week, the company also emphasized new and expanded strategic partnerships which have more joint offerings on the way.

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Managed Services

RMM/PSA provider Atera upgrades performance and release time with move to Microsoft Azure Service Fabric

March 15, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on RMM/PSA provider Atera upgrades performance and release time with move to Microsoft Azure Service Fabric
Atera reworked their own platform to a microservices architecture to take advantage of the new platform, which also greatly improves their ability to work with Big Data.

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Cloud

Pickit image service moves into channel with Ingram Micro bundle around Office 365 sales

March 12, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Pickit image service moves into channel with Ingram Micro bundle around Office 365 sales
Office 365 itself is a notoriously low margin offering, and adding Pickit to it, in what should be a low-touch transaction, can double those margins.

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Printing and Imaging

Konica Minolta reboots Workplace Hub as workplace of future focus, with new dealer resources

March 8, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Konica Minolta reboots Workplace Hub as workplace of future focus, with new dealer resources
Konica Minolta’s Workplace Hub has been on the market for over a year, but the company thinks that what it sees as a ‘next-gen’ product is now ready for prime time with their dealer channel, and so they featured it heavily at their Dealer Conference.

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Virtualization

IGEL states intention to be number one in endpoint management space in 24 months

February 6, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on IGEL states intention to be number one in endpoint management space in 24 months
IGEL North America CEO Jed Ayres stated what the company sees as its advantages in the current market, and also announced further signs of their growth, including the hiring of Steve Bell as their first VP of Global OEM Sales.

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Internet of Things

Cradlepoint, Microsoft partner on Internet of Things networking collaboration with Azure IoT Central

January 30, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Cradlepoint, Microsoft partner on Internet of Things networking collaboration with Azure IoT Central
The Internet of Things is already about half of Cradlepoint’s business, and this integration, which makes it relatively easy for customers to design IoT applications, will boost that – as well as opportunities for channel partners.

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Backup

Veeam adds new Cloud Tier, enhances Cloud Mobility and DataLabs in new Availability Suite release

January 22, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Veeam adds new Cloud Tier, enhances Cloud Mobility and DataLabs in new Availability Suite release
In addition to the flood of news around Availability Suite 9.5 Update 4, Veeam also announced Veeam Availability for AWS, Veeam Availability Console V3, and a new licensing option with one license for any workload.

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Big Data

WANDisco adds multi-cloud capability to platform with blockchain technology

January 16, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on WANDisco adds multi-cloud capability to platform with blockchain technology
WANDisco has developed and patented DConE, its own blockchain technology that they can use today to keep data consistent across multiple clouds, and which they plan to be able to eventually use to manage distributed blockchain environments as well.

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Computers

Lenovo adds more consumer flair, security to ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Yoga commercial devices

January 8, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Lenovo adds more consumer flair, security to ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Yoga commercial devices
Lenovo traditionally makes channel-focused product announcements at CES as well as consumer product, and this year they announced significant refreshes of their flagship commercial devices.

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Virtualization

NComputing looks to drive North American business in 2019 on both enterprise and SME fronts

January 7, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on NComputing looks to drive North American business in 2019 on both enterprise and SME fronts
At Citrix Summit this week, NComputing will be displaying a new device, the RX-HDX+, to strengthen their enterprise platform, and is looking to make major gains this year in the enterprise, with strategic partner Citrix, as well as in the SME space, with an aggressive push of their Verde offering into the MSP market.

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Cloud

Vena Solutions deepens Ad Hoc Analysis in quarterly release with intuitive and insightful analysis theme

December 13, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Vena Solutions deepens Ad Hoc Analysis in quarterly release with intuitive and insightful analysis theme
Other enhancements reflect top priority being given to mobile optimization and to bringing more of a consumer software experience into FP&A software.

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Cloud

HPE SMB leader Tim Peters lays out the business unit strategy, with storage being the next target

November 29, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on 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.

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Cloud

Liquidware expands Stratusphere capabilities and adds consumption-based pricing option as Desktop-as-a-Service market escalates

November 20, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on Liquidware expands Stratusphere capabilities and adds consumption-based pricing option as Desktop-as-a-Service market escalates
Microsoft shipping their turnkey Windows Virtual Desktop in the spring, where Liquidware is a go-to-market partner, is likely to increase partner opportunities around services.

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Cloud

CloudJumper strengthens integration with Microsoft on multiple fronts

November 12, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on CloudJumper strengthens integration with Microsoft on multiple fronts
CloudJumper announces that their Cloud Workspace Management Suite in now available on the Azure Marketplace. They also spotlighted their integration with Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop at the IT Nation Connect event, and created a new position of VP Strategic Alliances, where the management of the Microsoft relationship is a critical element.

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Storage

NetApp extends data fabric with DevOps announcements

October 24, 2018 Mark Cox Comments Off on 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.

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