SMB

Security

ESET looks to new Toronto office to drive Canadian business

August 21, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on ESET looks to new Toronto office to drive Canadian business
Iva Peric-Lightfoot, a longtime Symantec veteran who was most recently in charge of Canadian distribution for ESET’s Canadian retail distributor, becomes ESET’s first Canadian country manager.

Data Centre

Lenovo expands hyperconverged portfolio with SimpliVity alliance

August 20, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Lenovo expands hyperconverged portfolio with SimpliVity alliance
Lenovo announces its second hyperconverged partnership this week, which like the first is focused primarily on the SMB space, where Lenovo is initially focusing with its hyperconverged strategy.

Networking

DataMAPt looking to recruit channel for low-cost cloud network monitoring service

August 5, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on DataMAPt looking to recruit channel for low-cost cloud network monitoring service
DataMAPt is looking to recruit primarily VAR partners, is focused mainly on the SMB space, and pledged rock bottom pricing to partners and commitment to a channel model.

Distribution

Quick Heal distribution deals have heavy Canadian flavour

August 4, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Quick Heal distribution deals have heavy Canadian flavour
Three distribution partners have been announced, two of whom are based in Quebec, although they have resellers across Canada and in the U.S. as well. All are focused security specialists, rather than broadline distributors.

Cloud

Sage restates commitment to small business

July 29, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Sage restates commitment to small business
Sage emphasized that even as it moves its technology forward, it will not forget the SMB customers who built up its business. Sage also is making an effort to pick up new customers among millennials, and to increase its presence in the U.S.

Cloud

CloudBerry Backup extends support to Mac OS and Linux

July 23, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on CloudBerry Backup extends support to Mac OS and Linux
CloudBerry, which works mainly through MSPs and backs customers up to their choice of public cloud, will initially only have Mac and Linux backup for Amazon S3, but that will be expanded in later releases.

Cloud

New Arcserve Cloud caps frenetic year since company’s independence from CA

July 14, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on New Arcserve Cloud caps frenetic year since company’s independence from CA
The cloud itself comes from a partner, which does have a Canadian data centre capacity. It is first available as an integration with Arcserve’s UDP appliance and is likely to have special appeal to MSPs, including those not presently offering managed services.

Channel Programs

Quick Heal introduces loyalty program for enlisting successful channel partners

June 30, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Quick Heal introduces loyalty program for enlisting successful channel partners
The Quick Rewards program, which begins in Q3, gives partners who refer other partners to Quick Heal a reward of six per cent of their sales for the first year and four per cent for the second – giving Quick Heal a cost-effective way of enlarging their channel.

Channel Programs

Unitrends looks to recruit smaller VARs with move to 100 per cent channel model

June 19, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Unitrends looks to recruit smaller VARs with move to 100 per cent channel model
Unitrends only added a channel component to their business in 2013, and now are dispensing with direct entirely to give partners the confidence their vendor won’t poach deals from them, which will in turn encourage them to invest more in Unitrends.

Servers

Hungry Lenovo ramping up server channel efforts in drive for top spot

May 21, 2015 Mark Cox Comments Off on Hungry Lenovo ramping up server channel efforts in drive for top spot
The company has put measures in place to drive North American server sales through the channel, and while it is still a distant fourth in server revenues, they are eager to make up ground this year.