Microsoft

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.