SMB

Partnerships

Hitachi Vantara, Cisco extend partnership around converged infrastructure

March 7, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Hitachi Vantara, Cisco extend partnership around converged infrastructure
The new Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure will go to market through a select number of channel partners, building on the channel focus of the recent VSP Pro solutions.

Printing and Imaging

Strategic partnering, new technologies dominate blueprint on roadmap Konica Minolta lays out for dealers

March 6, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Strategic partnering, new technologies dominate blueprint on roadmap Konica Minolta lays out for dealers
Konica Minolta also provided an update on the state of the Canadian services business, where IT Weapons was acquired three years ago to serve as a bridgehead into the Canadian market.

Security

Avast Business launches enterprise-class secure web gateway for SMBs

March 4, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Avast Business launches enterprise-class secure web gateway for SMBs
Avast adds a new capability to its CloudCare platform that provides turnkey and policy-based protection against malicious websites, downloads, and locations.

Cloud

Intermedia adds free Envision analytics for partners to Unite platform

March 4, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Intermedia adds free Envision analytics for partners to Unite platform
Envision provides a Partner Dashboard showing all customers, and a QoS Dashboard that drills down into a single customer, with more analytics dashboards on the roadmap.

Security

Proofpoint emphasizes usability, visibility enhancements in SMB-focused Essentials solution

February 27, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Proofpoint emphasizes usability, visibility enhancements in SMB-focused Essentials solution
Proofpoint’s historical focus has been higher upmarket, but Essentials, which came originally from a 2013 acquisition, and has been substantially rebuilt from the ground up with an SMB focus, is a key part of their strategy as well.

Managed Services

IaaS provider OrionVM adds UTM provider WatchGuard to their cloud platform

February 26, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on IaaS provider OrionVM adds UTM provider WatchGuard to their cloud platform
OrionVM, which only sells through channel partners, continues to build out what they regard as a highly sophisticated platform, which can compete effectively against the large hyperscalers on margin because all the elements of their stack are built internally rather than licensed.

Managed Services

Netsurion introduces EventTracker EDR and joint unified SIEM-EDR managed service for SMBs

February 20, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Netsurion introduces EventTracker EDR and joint unified SIEM-EDR managed service for SMBs
Netsurion thinks a good part of the SMB and SME market is ripe for EDR security protection, and that their offering, designed for SMBs, will make their MSP partners managed security experts in the eyes of their customers.

Backup

New Axcient CEO David Bennett lays out his long-term vision to make Axcient a long-term leader

February 14, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on New Axcient CEO David Bennett lays out his long-term vision to make Axcient a long-term leader
Bennett, who had been the Chief Revenue Officer at Webroot, talks with ChannelBuzz about his coming to Axcient, the ideas that will guide his strategy, and how he plans to take the MSP-focused data protection vendor to new heights.

Managed Services

Lenovo enters consumption-based IaaS market with partner-friendly TruScale Infrastructure Services

February 13, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Lenovo enters consumption-based IaaS market with partner-friendly TruScale Infrastructure Services
Lenovo is a relative newcomer to a market that rival OEMs Dell Technologies and HPE have been in for multiple years, but Lenovo thinks they have something to offer customers – and partners – that their competitors do not.

Partnerships

Avast looks to Barracuda strategic partnership as first step in collaborations with RMM vendors

February 4, 2019 Mark Cox Comments Off on Avast looks to Barracuda strategic partnership as first step in collaborations with RMM vendors
Barracuda will also resell Avast’s anti-virus solutions to their MSPs, which is a major extension of Avast’s go-to-market, and one they are looking to replicate with other RMMs. They are also planning a major solution announcement around RSA a month from now.