Discover the Ins and Outs of 2020’s Threat Landscape
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/discover-the-ins-and-outs-of-2020s-threat-landscape/

Partners should think out of the box and help customers assess the true threat landscape.

It’s clear that cybersecurity has become an imperative for channel partners to sell, but it’s evolving so quickly that it can be difficult for technology service providers’ knowledge base to keep up.

Sometimes we need to go back to basics, especially in a sector that’s constantly changing. And that involves taking a look at what encompasses the “threat landscape.”

Center for Threat Intelligence’s Janet Lawless

During her presentation, “What the Heck Is a Threat Landscape?” on March 11, part of the security conference track at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Janet Lawless, CEO and founder of the Center for Threat Intelligence, will offer a primer on what threat landscape means in a 2020 context. She’ll walk attendees through what to pay attention to, what threats partners absolutely must address with their customers and – most importantly – exactly how to approach modernizing cybersecurity strategies in today’s technology channel.

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Lawless provides a sneak peak of the information she plans to share with attendees.

Channel Futures: How has the threat landscape evolved and what’s changing in 2020?

Janet Lawless: Threats have become more sophisticated, incorporating holistic strategies and tactics that often include a combination of cyber, physical, technical and human components. While financial and personal gain have generally ranked high in regards to motivations, the changing geopolitical landscape, including economic sanctions, has nation-state actors focusing their vast resources on financial targets. In addition, nation-states and other criminal groups will continue to focus on the theft of intellectual property to enhance business and financial gain.

CF: What are partners most commonly missing and not paying attention to in the current threat landscape?

JL: Most companies focus their budgets and resources on attempting to stop and/or limit cybersecurity breaches. Millions of dollars are spent on software and hardware products. These products are needed and provide necessary measures for addressing cybersecurity. Clients are often so concerned about a network breach that they fail to see critical signposts of potential attacks using other methods such as insiders and physical tactics, etc. Partners need to address the business goals and risks of an organization in order to promote a goal of holistic security to address the changing threat landscape. They need threat intelligence.

CF: How should the current and future threat landscape be shaping partners’ cybersecurity strategies?

JL: Partners should think out of the box and help customers assess the true threat landscape by offering threat intelligence services. These should include an organization-wide threat intelligence assessment that includes an analysis of adversarial focus, strategies and tactics, and other key components to get a true picture of the actual threat risk, and who is likely to be targeting them. A threat intelligence framework can help build a comprehensive program and help companies get ahead of the game. A high-level overview of Center for Threat Intelligence’s threat-intelligence framework will be presented during the session.

CF: Is the threat landscape a gauge for what’s working and not working in cybersecurity?

JL: Yes. Once again, adversaries are sophisticated and clever. If you are a target, they will send in insiders, hack technology and find a way into your networks. Threat intelligence focuses on building strategies, awareness and processes that stop the bad guys before they achieve a hold in organizations. We train people on cybersecurity awareness, and yet companies are still in the news for breaches. In order to win the cyber war, we need to implement threat intelligence strategies to keep our clients protected.

CF: What do you hope attendees can learn and make use of from your session?

JL: Understand that security is not just about cyber. As I have mentioned, our adversaries are well funded, clever and using tactics that are well developed and, sadly, work well. Attendees should think about a more holistic approach to cybersecurity and corporate security by incorporating threat-intelligence strategies to proactively prevent attacks before they happen. Importantly, attendees should realize that a small four-person company with leading-edge intellectual property is just as likely to be a target as a multibillion-dollar organization.

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February 14, 2020 at 09:09PM

Google Photos Leak Poses Enterprise Threats
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/google-photos-leak-poses-enterprise-threats/

MSSPs need to secure mobile image data to mitigate security and compliance risks for affected companies.

A recent Google Photos data leak underscores the fact that any company is subject to technical issues, software glitches and employee mistakes.

Some users were surprised to learn that despite proactively taking strong security measures across its product lines, Google slips up too. Most recently, the search giant managed to make errors in Google Photos where it exported some user videos to other, unrelated users’ archives for no apparent reason. While this mishap may inconvenience or even embarrass some affected users, there is additional threat potential for affected businesses as well.

Inkscreen’s Josh Bohls

“Every day, businesses and public-sector organizations capture photos, audio, video, scanned documents and mixed media content gathered on mobile devices to conduct business — much of it captured on employee devices with little or no organizational governance over content or security and compliance protections,” said Josh Bohls, Founder at Inkscreen, an enterprise mobile content management provider.

“Google’s lapse in sending individuals’ photos to other users sheds new light on this lack of protection and perilous compliance risk,” Bohls added.

Google said the problem sprang from a technical issue that affected the “Download your data” export service in Google Photos from Nov. 21-25. The tech giant informed users who had requested the service during that time that the resulting download may have been “incomplete” but also likely contained “videos that are not yours.” The suggested actions to take was to delete the previously downloaded data and download the content again.

The company said that less than 0.01% of Photos users were affected and none of Google’s other products was affected.

MSSPs should strongly consider providing the means to protect enterprise image data taken or stored on employee privately owned phones as strongly as other apps and data are. To grasp both the opportunity and the dangers, it’s important for MSSPs to fully understand the security risks visual data uniquely poses to a variety of businesses.

“Whether the content is captured by insurance adjusters, health care professionals, critical infrastructure administrators, financial services liaisons or any number of similar professionals while performing routine line-of-business activities, the fact is that such potentially sensitive content could easily be inadvertently released in this Google privacy breach … or another breach down the road,” said Bohls.

“IT, security, compliance and C-suite executives – whether with law firms, health care providers, insurance companies, or other regulated industries – need to wake up to this problem, evaluate secure content capture solutions for mobile users, and better protect and manage this content,” Bohls added.

Panorays’ Elad Shapira

While users should demand better security from companies like Google, it’s important to realize that given the complexities of businesses today, leaks will continue to happen as often through human error as technical vulnerabilities.

Take for example, an incident in December, when consulting firm IMGE accidentally exposed the names, phone numbers, home and email addresses of more than 6,000 Boeing staff. In that data snafu, too, an enterprise and its employees were exposed because of a third-party cloud misconfiguration.

“To help deter such data leaks, organizations must thoroughly assess and continuously monitor the security of their third parties and to be vigilant about how data is stored,” said Elad Shapira, Head of Research at Panorays.

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February 14, 2020 at 09:09PM

Amazon Gets Its Wish: Federal Judge Says Microsoft Has to Halt JEDI Work
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/amazon-gets-its-wish-federal-judge-says-microsoft-has-to-halt-jedi-work/

One analyst calls Amazon’s legal fight for the coveted cloud computing project “a completely understandable move.”

Microsoft earlier this week was slated to start work on the giant Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing project at the U.S. Department of Defense but, on Thursday, a federal judge put the kibosh on those plans.

The move, which is temporary, came two days after Microsoft was supposed to take the initial steps on JEDI implementation. However, legal tactics from its biggest competitor, Amazon Web Services, which expected to take home the JEDI contract, interfered with those plans.

AWS filed its much-expected lawsuit not long after the DoD awarded JEDI – which could be worth up to $10 billion – to Microsoft Azure. AWS contends President Trump’s longstanding beef with Amazon founder and The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos directly led to Microsoft landing JEDI. In fact, the company wants to depose the president. Whether that effort will be successful remains unknown.

Futurum Research’s Shelly Kramer

Meantime, the federally imposed work stoppage comes as little surprise to Shelly Kramer, founding partner and principal analyst at Futurum Research.

“This isn’t about capabilities, it’s about a presumption of fair and equitable processes in the vetting and selection of candidates in a government bidding process,” she wrote in a Feb. 13 blog. “Ask Oracle and IBM how they feel about this — they have all the feelings on this front.”

Indeed, the whole JEDI process has been fraught with disagreements and lawsuits. Kramer, for her part, suspected all along that Microsoft would end up with the contract, “largely not because of the company’s qualifications, but because the current administration has made no secret of its animosity toward Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.”

That’s not to say, she added, that Microsoft hasn’t proven itself. In fact, it’s important to note that Microsoft Azure has an extensive track record within the federal government and recently secured certification to allow it to store classified data in the cloud.

“I believe Microsoft is both prepared and capable of doing exactly what it is the DoD seeks with regard to the consolidation of its cloud services with one vendor,” Kramer wrote. “Bottom line, both Amazon and Microsoft are fully capable of undertaking this project and delivering stellar results.”

Beth Kindig

Not all industry analysts have been convinced by Amazon’s argument. At least one, Beth Kindig, has said Microsoft Azure is the superior choice when it comes to cloud security and working with the government.

Meantime, both Microsoft and the DoD are expressing frustration over the temporary halt on Azure’s JEDI implementation.

Here’s Microsoft’s official statement, given to CNBC: “While we are disappointed with the additional delay we believe that we will ultimately be able to move forward with the work to make sure those who serve our country can access the new technology they urgently require. We have confidence in the Department of Defense, and we believe the facts will show they ran a detailed, thorough and fair process in determining the needs of the warfighter were best met by Microsoft.”

The Department of Defense told CNBC it’s disappointed in the ruling and believes the actions tied…

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February 14, 2020 at 11:04PM

Flashpoint Vet Takes Leadership Role at Terbium Labs
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/flashpoint-vet-takes-leadership-role-at-terbium-labs/

Terbium Labs’ new CRO will drive the company’s next phase of growth.

Terbium Labs’ Ayesha Prakash

Flashpoint vet Ayesha Prakash has joined Terbium Labs, a digital risk protection company, as its chief revenue officer.

Prakash was Flashpoint‘s head of worldwide channels and partnerships. She built and then spearheaded the 150% year-over-year growth of the organization’s SPARK Partner Alliance program.

Part of her role at Terbium Labs will be encouraging closer collaboration with the company’s technical, marketing and sales personnel to help grow business with partners. She also is building specialization within the partner organizations to better solve problems for more partners, teams, and in more use cases.

“As I witnessed in previous roles, channel partners are always searching for solutions to reduce third-party risk for their customers and their own organization,” Prakash tells Channel Futures. “I’m excited by this opportunity to expand the offerings in the channel to include a seamless approach to monitoring and detecting their most sensitive information – all without exposing that data to any further digital risk. By focusing on building our partners of MSPs and MSSPs, Terbium Labs has the opportunity to focus on our core differentiator – our patented digital fingerprinting technology.”

Prakash has with more than 15 years of experience across IT and cybersecurity industries, and was named a Channel Partners Top Gun 51, which recognizes a new generation of channel executives, those who build and execute programs in a way that drives partner, customer and supplier success.

“Ayesha’s successes in driving business development, channel expansion and strategic partnerships makes her the perfect candidate to lead Terbium Labs along our next phase of growth,” said Patrick Clawson, Terbium Labs” CEO. “We are so thrilled to welcome Ayesha to Terbium Labs and know that she’ll make an incredible impact on our organization.”

Matchlight, Terbium Lab’s digital risk protection (DRP) platform, features continuous digital asset monitoring, analytics, and intelligence, to identify and minimize the impact of exposed data across the internet – whether it’s the open, deep or dark web.

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February 14, 2020 at 11:04PM

Q&A: Digging Into the Channel Significance of the AppScale-Packet News
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/qa-digging-into-the-channel-significance-of-the-appscale-packet-news/

AppScale CEO Woody Rollins talks importance of hybrid cloud, AWS compatibility and channel plans.

As more enterprises seek to avoid cloud vendor lock-in through hybrid options, providers are innovating and accommodating.

The latest such news this week comes from AppScale Systems and Packet.

First, though, some background. AppScale is an Amazon Web Services-compatible IaaS platform. It is basically the former Eucalyptus — “same code, same people,” AppScale says on its blog — after a years-long M&A saga that involved Hewlett Packard. Eventually, the inventors of Eucalyptus got their product back and have rebranded it as AppScale.

Packet, meanwhile, specializes in public cloud data centers and bare-metal automation. Together, AppScale and Packet are enabling enterprises to deploy AWS workloads on Packet’s bare-metal servers without modifying those workloads. The companies say this allows for use cases including development and testing, placing computation close to data, and moving workloads to the appropriate platform based on current application requirements.

AppScale’s Woody Rollins

Channel Futures wanted to know what this all means for the channel and get a better feel for AppScale’s plans for its indirect partners. In this edited Q&A, AppScale CEO Woody Rollins explains.

Channel Futures: Talk about what the Packet deal means for channel partners. What’s the significance for them and their ability to build their businesses?

Woody Rollins: Today, almost 60% of enterprises are driving a hybrid cloud strategy that aligns application requirements and platform capabilities. Many of these enterprises want to leverage their existing AWS investments and embrace a single AWS development and deployment paradigm across hybrid cloud environments (Gartner sees 20% of enterprise customers deploying an AWS hybrid cloud by 2022).

The AppScale-Packet solution, which allows deployment of AWS workloads on Packet’s bare-metal servers, is a significant growth opportunity for partners as enterprises look to deploy AWS hybrid environments; and at the same time, fulfill key business objectives: vendor independence, data control and cost effectiveness. The complexities of hybrid cloud deployments will push the majority of enterprises to enlist partners to help with the assessment, migration and management of these AWS public/non-public environments.

Partners who have invested in AWS expertise, hybrid cloud professional services, and who can deliver attractive solution options that address unique enterprise requirements should see strong demand as the market for hybrid cloud solutions based on the public cloud market leader accelerate.

CF: Can you provide a concrete example of what the AppScale-Packet partnership might look like to a partner? In other words, what kind of client would a partner target with this combined capability and what specific business-outcome value would the partner bring to the table?

WR: AppScale and Packet are looking for partners that offer a full range of hybrid cloud services (assessment, migration, management) that complement the joint AWS-compatible infrastructure as a service platform offering. Partners can target a wide variety of enterprise customers who have embraced the AWS public cloud, intend to deploy a hybrid cloud solution based on AWS technology, and who find themselves looking for a solution that maintains business flexibility, allows for control of business-critical data and ensures cost objectives are met.

Today, partners can start by helping enterprises with…

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February 14, 2020 at 11:53PM

Ingram Micro Shuffles Executives to Build More Solutions, Attract New Partners
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/ingram-micro-shuffles-executives-to-build-more-solutions-attract-new-partners/

Ingram Micro accelerating growth in Australia and New Zealand.

A trio of appointments are underway within Ingram Micro’s global technology solutions team to accelerate sales and enhance partner support in the United States, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Tim Ament, senior vice president of advanced solutions for the U.S. team, has been promoted to senior vice president and chief country executive for Ingram Micro’s Australia and New Zealand business. He will report to Diego Utge, executive vice president and group president Asia Pacific. His new position is effective March 1 and he is moving to Australia.

Ingram Micro’s Tim Ament

“There’s so much energy around the growth potential of advanced technologies and cloud solutions for partners outside of North America — I’m excited to team up with our leaders, associates, partners and vendors in Australia and New Zealand to bring these established and emerging technology solutions to markets, and work together to continue our growth across our commercial business, as well as our commerce and life-cycle services,” he said. “Globally, we are focused on the experience everyone has with Ingram Micro — partners, providers, customers and our associates. And I am excited to see first hand the potential in Australia and New Zealand, and what we can do together to build even more sustainable value for businesses with technology.”

Over the next few weeks, Ament will transition the leadership of Ingram Micro’s advanced solutions teams to Eric Kohl, vice president of security and data center software, and Jeff Yelton, who has been promoted to vice president of infrastructure and specialty technologies.

In this expanded role, Kohl will continue to oversee Ingram Micro’s networking and security business unit, cloud harmonics and emerging vendors in those categories. He also will take on responsibility for the IBM, data center software and infrastructure, and Promark business units within Ingram Micro.

In addition, Kohl will be responsible for Ingram Micro’s U.S. software business, as well as its U.S. cloud portfolio, working in collaboration with the Ingram Micro Cloud team, as a strategic growth opportunity for partners building out their security and data center practices.

Ingram Micro’s Eric Kohl

“Security runs deep across the solutions landscape, and I am excited to expand my leadership role so we can support more partners in delivering security solutions via edge, cloud or hybrid network technologies,” Kohl said. “Every business within Ingram Micro shares the commitment to being indispensable to our channel partners. One of the foundational ways we do this is by aligning our efforts, and enabling our channel partners to do more to protect and serve the businesses that count on them.”

In this new role, Yelton will oversee Ingram Micro’s Cisco, HPE, and Integrated Solutions business units, in addition to the specialty technology business unit and digital transformation team. He also will have responsibility for growing Ingram Micro’s U.S. cloud IaaS business, in collaboration with the Ingram Micro Cloud team.

“Digital transformation is being implemented by every major company and they need trusted experts who can serve as guides on where to invest, what to automate and how technology can be used to accelerate business processes and customer experiences,” Yelton said. “I’m thrilled to be able to work with our Cisco, HPE and Integrated Solutions teams, in collaboration with our specialty and digital transformation teams to pull new solutions together that work in harmony with the way our partners need to support their end business customers.”

Also, on the Ingram Micro Cloud side of the business, Renee Bergeron is leaving to pursue another opportunity and Tim FitzGerald is stepping in in the interim to lead the APAC and Americas efforts for cloud. He’s been focused on the Americas to date.

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February 15, 2020 at 12:53AM

Q&A: Digging Into the Channel Significance of the AppScale-Packet News
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/qa-digging-into-the-channel-significance-of-the-appscale-packet-news-2/

AppScale CEO Woody Rollins talks importance of hybrid cloud, AWS compatibility and channel plans.

As more enterprises seek to avoid cloud vendor lock-in through hybrid options, providers are innovating and accommodating.

The latest such news this week comes from AppScale Systems and Packet.

First, though, some background. AppScale is an Amazon Web Services-compatible IaaS platform. It is basically the former Eucalyptus — “same code, same people,” AppScale says on its blog — after a years-long M&A saga that involved Hewlett Packard. Eventually, the inventors of Eucalyptus got their product back and have rebranded it as AppScale.

Packet, meanwhile, specializes in public cloud data centers and bare-metal automation. Together, AppScale and Packet are enabling enterprises to deploy AWS workloads on Packet’s bare-metal servers without modifying those workloads. The companies say this allows for use cases including development and testing, placing computation close to data, and moving workloads to the appropriate platform based on current application requirements.

AppScale’s Woody Rollins

Channel Futures wanted to know what this all means for the channel and get a better feel for AppScale’s plans for its indirect partners. In this edited Q&A, AppScale CEO Woody Rollins explains.

Channel Futures: Talk about what the Packet deal means for channel partners. What’s the significance for them and their ability to build their businesses?

Woody Rollins: Today, almost 60% of enterprises are driving a hybrid cloud strategy that aligns application requirements and platform capabilities. Many of these enterprises want to leverage their existing AWS investments and embrace a single AWS development and deployment paradigm across hybrid cloud environments (Gartner sees 20% of enterprise customers deploying an AWS hybrid cloud by 2022).

The AppScale-Packet solution, which allows deployment of AWS workloads on Packet’s bare-metal servers, is a significant growth opportunity for partners as enterprises look to deploy AWS hybrid environments; and at the same time, fulfill key business objectives: vendor independence, data control and cost effectiveness. The complexities of hybrid cloud deployments will push the majority of enterprises to enlist partners to help with the assessment, migration and management of these AWS public/non-public environments.

Partners who have invested in AWS expertise, hybrid cloud professional services, and who can deliver attractive solution options that address unique enterprise requirements should see strong demand as the market for hybrid cloud solutions based on the public cloud market leader accelerate.

CF: Can you provide a concrete example of what the AppScale-Packet partnership might look like to a partner? In other words, what kind of client would a partner target with this combined capability and what specific business-outcome value would the partner bring to the table?

WR: AppScale and Packet are looking for partners that offer a full range of hybrid cloud services (assessment, migration, management) that complement the joint AWS-compatible infrastructure as a service platform offering. Partners can target a wide variety of enterprise customers who have embraced the AWS public cloud, intend to deploy a hybrid cloud solution based on AWS technology, and who find themselves looking for a solution that maintains business flexibility, allows for control of business-critical data and ensures cost objectives are met.

Today, partners can start by helping enterprises with…

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February 15, 2020 at 01:55AM

Centrify Chooses Tenable Vet to Lead Global Channel
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/centrify-chooses-tenable-vet-to-lead-global-channel/

Centrify’s new channel chief brings more than 30 years of enterprise channel, sales and marketing experience.

Centrify, a provider of privileged access management (PAM), has hired Chris Peterson, previously with Tenable, as its vice president of worldwide channels and alliances.

In this role, Peterson will be responsible for leading all aspects the company’s global channels and alliances, with an emphasis on partner alignment, demand creation and gaining customers.

Centrify’s Chris Peterson

“Our partners are essential to helping customers understand best practices for least privilege solutions, and how to best secure and manage their infrastructure as they go through cloud transformations,” Peterson said. “I’m excited to join the Centrify team and optimize our partner ecosystem so we can more effectively communicate the value of an identity-centric approach to PAM. That starts with providing a choice of solutions and deployment options to our customers, as well as a best-in-class selection of channel partners, technology partners and global systems integrators to reach and positively impact the enterprise and key vertical markets.”

Peterson brings more than 30 years of enterprise channel, sales and marketing experience to Centrify. He most recently was vice president of global channels at Tenable, where he designed, built and executed a channel and MSSP program. Before that, he was vice president of worldwide sales at Niara, which was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). He also held senior channel and sales leadership positions at Sourcefire, ArcSight and McAfee.

“Chris is the perfect channel executive to help Centrify transform into a channel-first market leader where he can repeat his success driving companies like ours to their next stage of scale,” said Howard Greenfield, Centrify’s chief revenue officer. “The combination of demand for privilege management in the market, our innovative technology and our partners will provide extreme value for our customers.”

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February 15, 2020 at 03:50AM

MSP 501 Profile Podcast: Marco Technologies on the Shifting IT Skill Set and Sustaining Security Talent
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/msp-501-profile-podcast-marco-technologies-on-the-shifting-it-skill-set-and-sustaining-security-talent/

501-er Marco Technologies talks about the scary threat landscape and the shortage of talented security professionals.

Company Name: Marco Technologies

Company MSP 501 Rank: 14 

Chief Information Security Officer: Mike Burgard

Headquartered: St. Cloud, MN

Primary Services:

Business IT Services

Copiers

Cloud Services

Phone Systems

Carrier Services

Managed IT

Managed Print

Printers

Audio Systems

Hosted Services

Video Systems

Document Management

Twitter: @MarcoTechnology

When talking to CISOs, it’s not uncommon for the subject of the security shortage to come up. That is, the scarily small number of qualified security experts out there these days, and the high price tag they come with when they do pop their heads up. As the demand for security talent increases while the supply lags behind, the outlook for finding talented security professionals will become even more challenging and expensive.

So, how can MSPs help clients address this shifting skill set and subsequent shortage? That is a question our featured 501er this week, Marco Technologies, No. 14 on our list, seeks to answer.

We sat down with Mike Burgard, chief information security officer at Marco, to discuss security talent being so expensive these days and what small to midsize MSPs can do about it.

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February 15, 2020 at 03:50AM

Datera Data Services Platform Gains Veeam Ready Certification
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/datera-data-services-platform-gains-veeam-ready-certification/

The certification means it will be easier for partners and customers to use the products together.

Software-defined storage vendor Datera’s data services platform now has Veeam Ready certification, which better integrates the products and makes them easier for channel partners and customers to solve business data storage and backup problems.

Datera‘s autonomous block software-defined storage (SDS) platform, will now enable Veeam customers to back up Tier 1 primary data in VMware environments running on Datera primary storage to another Datera cluster under the partnership, the company said.

Chris Cummings, Datera’s chief marketing officer, told Channel Futures that the Veeam Ready certification will help channel partners make more successful services pitches to customers who need reliable backup and disaster recovery within their storage systems.

Datera’s Chris Cummings

“Enterprises are looking for new ways to deliver the agility and automation their customers need for their enterprise clouds, but they also want the highest levels of data availability and protection,” said Cummings. “With this new designation, the channel can harness Datera’s autonomous data-management platform to deliver enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure and protect their data with Veeam’s proven protection capabilities.”

Datera customers have been asking for these kinds of tighter collaborations with Veeam services as they’ve actively been incorporating their existing virtualized applications into their enterprise cloud deployments, said Cummings.

“Channel partners similarly are looking to round out Datera deployments, which typically include software and hardware for primary data with a robust protection package. Now they have it.”

By bringing together both products for partners and customers, Datera and Veeam are providing a software foundation for Tier 1 workloads in enterprise clouds that require the highest levels of protection, explained Cummings.

“Both companies are committed to unifying the underlying hardware across multiple vendors, storage media types and generations, providing a holistic approach that helps customers address common infrastructure challenges and solidifies the channel’s position as a long-term trusted adviser.”

The new offering can be purchased from any HPE channel partner through SKUs on their HPE price lists, and HPE will provide enterprise-class support to ensure customer success, enabling partners to build an annuity stream of revenue as their customer’s data environment grows, said Cummings.

Eric Slack, an IT analyst with Evaluator Group, said that the collaboration between the two companies will be helpful for channel partners and customers.

Evaluator Group’s Eric Slack

“Veeam is ubiquitous,” said Slack. “This gives enterprises a scale-out repository for Veeam backups on site, which is made more useful because it supports block and object protocols. For partners this is an entrance into these organizations to show the Datera solution.”

The certification is particularly valuable for partners because of Veeam’s large ecosystem, plus the strength of Datera, said Slack.

“Channel partners should have it on their line cards,” he said.

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February 16, 2020 at 01:53AM

Cybersecurity Roundup: Tightening Up Election Security
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cybersecurity-roundup-tightening-up-election-security/

Election security offers big opportunities for MSSPs.

What better time to discuss election security, or the lack thereof, than President’s Day?

Problems with the Iowa Democratic Caucus and a bipartisan Senate Intelligence report confirming Russian interference in the 2016 election are raising concerns about the security and accuracy of upcoming primary and general elections.

So what needs to be done by who to secure upcoming elections? To find out more, we spoke with David Mason, director of channel partner success at SiteLock.

Channel Futures: What aren’t those holding elections doing what they should be doing to ensure optimum cybersecurity? And what aren’t candidates doing that they should be doing?

David Mason: Those who are holding elections are running on a tight budget, which limits the amount of resources they can allocate toward increasing cybersecurity measures. Hackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, so those holding elections need to do more to ensure optimum cybersecurity to protect voter information and guarantee accurate election results. This can be achieved by choosing an MSSP that offers a wide range of security solutions and the right level of expertise to help build out a package tailored to the customers budget and specific security needs.

SiteLock’s David Mason

When it comes to candidates, they should not only partner with security experts to ensure their campaign is protected from hackers, but also ensure that cybersecurity is a part of their platform. Once in office, these elected officials can make sure we implement the necessary policies to increase innovation and funding to guarantee future elections are not affected by malicious actors. One of the best ways a candidate can achieve this is by partnering with a trusted MSSP that can not only audit existing security practices, but also provide clear guidance on how to build a comprehensive and bulletproof security strategy.

CF: How can MSSPs and other cybersecurity providers help ensure secure elections?

DM: To ensure elections remain safe, MSSPs and other cybersecurity providers must first ensure they have a … comprehensive portfolio of security solutions to meet the specific security needs of these clients including endpoint, website and email security solutions at a variety of price points. If they have these solutions available, they could consider volunteering these services or offering them at a discounted rate that election organizers can afford. By expanding these offerings to election officials and polling places, MSSPs and cybersecurity providers can ensure safe elections while further reinforcing their reputation in the community as a trusted security advisor and resource.

CF: Is the shortage of cybersecurity talent impacting elections? If so, what can be done about that?

DM: The shortage of cybersecurity talent is impacting the entire industry and is sure to affect elections. Because cybersecurity professionals are high in demand, they can be selective about what companies and projects they work for. If elections are unable to offer these professionals the compensation they require, it will be difficult to …

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February 17, 2020 at 04:52PM

Commvault EMEA Chief Demands More Diversity in Channel Organization
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/commvault-emea-chief-demands-more-diversity-in-channel-organization/

A more inclusive workforce isn’t the only change being considered at Commvault.

Commvault’s new vice president and general manager for EMEA says one of his first acts within the role will be driving greater diversity within the vendor’s channel organization.

Marco Fanizzi says diversity “is critical” for Commvault to reflect its channel partners’ business.

Commvault’s Marco Fanizzi

“We must be representative of the diversity of our channel partners – and the customers those partners serve – within our own teams in order to understand, advise and relate to them in a constructive way,” he told Channel Futures. “A team that is genuinely representative has better alignment and engagement, while also benefitting the wider cultural fabric of Commvault as an organisation and the industry as a whole.”

A more inclusive workforce isn’t the only change being considered at Commvault. The data protection, backup and recovery firm unveiled a new look and strategy back in October at Commvault Go, promising a greater focus on innovation under CEO Sanjay Mirchandani, who replaced 20-year veteran Bob Hammer last year.

Commvault’s big announcement was Metallic, the company’s first SaaS offering. Targeted at firms of 500-2500 employees, it offers customers core, Office 365 and endpoint backup and recovery, and can be purchased on an annual or monthly subscription basis.

The company also highlighted its acquisition of software-defined storage specialist, Hedvig.

While Metallic is still only available in the U.S., Fanizzi said that, “as a priority, we are actively developing our EMEA sales capability for Hedvig, appointing specific teams with expertise and background in technical and solution implementation. These specialists will be working directly with our key partners to increase the level of strategic commercial and technical engagements we can drive together.”

At Commvault Go, incoming channel chief Mercer Rowe also promised more consistency in its channel engagement in response to partner feedback. He said his priority was to introduce “simplicity, predictability and profitability” to the partner program.

Fanizzi confirms this will continue to the case in EMEA.

“My main priority for the channel program in EMEA is ensuring simplicity while making our offerings profitable and beneficial for our partners,” said Fanizzi. “Credibility with our partner ecosystem is based on maintaining and consistently supporting the great existing programs we have in place.”

Prior to joining Commvault, Fanizzi held multiple positions at Dell Technologies, most recently as VP and managing director for Italy.

In a statement, Commvault chief revenue officer Riccardo Di Blasio said he was “confident that Marco’s extensive experience – especially in the financial and enterprise sectors across Europe – will rapidly accelerate the expansion our already growing EMEA business.”

The appointment coincides with the appointment of Callum Eade as vice president of APJ. It also follows a host of additions in recent months, including former EMC executive David Boyle as vice president of sales for the Americas, and Rowe, who joined from VMWare to drive Commvault’s worldwide channel strategy.

via Blog https://mymarketlogic.com/blog
February 18, 2020 at 10:07PM

Teradici Extends Thin Clients to Microsoft Azure Stack with PCoIP Ultra
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/teradici-extends-thin-clients-to-microsoft-azure-stack-with-pcoip-ultra/

Teradici says it is the first to boost virtual client access to Azure Stack.

Teradici’s virtual desktop software now can connect to dedicated on-premises cloud instances with support for Microsoft Azure Stack.

A new release of Teradici Cloud Access Software, introduced last week, is the first thin client certified for appliances based on Microsoft’s Azure Stack platform, according to Teradici. Azure Stack appliances are integrated servers, storage and network systems co-engineered by Microsoft and OEM partners such as Cisco, Dell EMC, HPE and Lenovo. The solutions allow organizations to distribute workloads between the public cloud and on-premises data centers.

Teradici Cloud Access already supports the Microsoft Azure public cloud. By certifying the software to work with Azure Stack as well, partners can deploy remote desktop client services in hybrid cloud environments, including disconnected, or occasionally connected scenarios.

Teradici’s Ziad Lammam

“It’s the next step up if you’re looking to deploy the equivalent of Azure in a disconnected environment or anywhere that has like regulatory requirements for the user data, or just anyone that wants the benefits of cloud on prem,” said Ziad Lammam, Teradici’s VP of product management.

Initially, Teradici Cloud Access is available in the Azure Marketplace with Azure Stack HCI, offered in the form of scalable appliances offered by Microsoft’s OEM partners. It will also work with Microsoft’s Azure Stack Hub, the company’s new set of Azure services such as VMs, web apps, SQL Server and MySQL Server databases that partners can offer as managed services.

Based on Teradici’s new PC over IP (PCoIP) Ultra protocol, its Cloud Access delivers remote Windows and Linux desktop services from Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and VMware cloud services. PCoIP Ultra is an alternative to virtual client protocols such as Citrix HDX, VMware Blast and Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Similar to those protocols, PCoIP encrypts and uses compression to transmit pixels of the desktop experience to virtual clients from various software solutions, on-premises and cloud VDI platforms and endpoint hardware.

Among those using or evaluating Teradici’s Cloud Access with Azure Stack are enterprises in the oil and gas industry, manufacturers and financial services firms, Lammam said. Azure Stack also is attractive to large U.S. federal agencies mandated to move to cloud-based platforms, he said.

Terardici’s Cloud Access with PCoIP Ultra connected to Azure Stack aims to address high-performance virtual clients in private cloud scenarios, Lamman added.

“It’s suited for high -erformance use cases where customers need to run pretty big workloads and high computer GPU requirements,” he said. “But at the same time, some of the sectors aren’t quite ready to plunge into public cloud.”

PCoIP Ultra is an upgraded version of Teradici’s PCoIP protocol that the company launched last year with new hardware acceleration capability for GPUs and multicloud support. Coinciding with that rollout, AMD, Microsoft and Teradici said they had begun working together to provide full GPU access to the new Azure NVv4 instance with the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 accelerator and 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor.

Teradici’s PCoIP Ultra will also work with new thin client hardware announced earlier this month by Igel. The new Igel UD3 endpoint for cloud workspace environments is based on AMD’s Ryzen Embedded R1505G system-on-chip (SoC) client. It’s the first new hardware in its line of Universal Desktop endpoints launched recently by Igel, which has become better known lately for its Igel OS software.

“A couple of our friends in the industry have been spreading rumors that Igel is getting out of the hardware business because we are so software-focused, but that’s not true at all,” said Dan O’Farrell, Igel’s senior director of product marketing. “We’ve got a large install that base wants us to keep producing great endpoints, and that what we will keep doing.”

While Igel has enabled PCoIP Ultra support in other providers’ hardware, UD3 is the company’s first client with Teradici’s newest device acceleration software. Igel said UD 3 is also will offer optional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support for the first time. The new client will also support dual 4K displays, USB-C and traditional USB-A ports. Igel’s new UD3 clients are set for release in May.

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February 18, 2020 at 10:07PM

Dell ‘Excited’ About Partners Selling New PowerEdge, Analytics for the Edge
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/dell-excited-about-partners-selling-new-poweredge-analytics-for-the-edge/

Three-quarters of all data will be created outside the data center by 2022.

As more data gets processed at the edge, and outside of the data center, Dell Technologies on Tuesday announced a new edge portfolio including PowerEdge servers, analytics, and new security and control capabilities.

The new products and services address the compute, network and storage needs within the edge. They include the PowerEdge XE2420, new Data Center Micro 415, and an updated PowerEdge XR2.

Dell’s Matt Baker

“We see the edge as one part of a broader system and a system that’s defined by constraints that make it a little more difficult to deliver than a traditional unrestrained or clean data center,” said Matt Baker, senior vice president, strategy and planning at Dell Technologies.

The PowerEdge XE2420 is designed for harsh environments and dimensionally constrained environments. The XE2420 is a compact, high-performance server for edge deployments, that delivers the performance, availability and security required for telecommunications customers who are building out edge networks required for the 5G implementation, for example.

It’s a low-latency, two-socket system that accommodates up to four accelerators and 92TB of storage per server. The new device has Network Equipment-Building System certification with extended operating temperature tolerance.

In cases where customers need to deploy solutions in environments where no facility exists, the Dell EMC Modular Data Center Micro 415 (MDC Micro) is designed to fit the bill.

“These are modular data centers that are quite small – the size of a refrigerator for example – that allow us to build a controlled environment out into the harshest places in the world,” said Baker.

The updated version of the PowerEdge XR2 is a more ruggedized device with more GPUs.

Dell also announced two new offerings for edge analytics, designed to work cooperatively with one another. They are the Dell EMC Streaming Data Platform and the Dell EMC HPC Ready Architecture for AI and Data Analytics.

The Dell EMC Streaming Data Platform is designed to take real-time streaming data from the edge, process and analyze the data and return real-time insights. The enterprise-ready platform delivers a single solution for all customers’ data, whether streaming or not, that provides auto-scaling ingestion, tiered storage with historical recall on-demand and unified analytics for both real-time and historical business insights.

“This is something that our customers have been looking for and complements the Dell EMC storage portfolio quite well, particularly our Isilon unstructured portfolio where much of this new class of real-time data is landing,” said Baker.

The Dell EMC HPC Ready Architecture for AI and Data Analytics is designed for many AI and data analytics frameworks.

“It’s important to observe that this is an end-to-end system, and in order to develop a real-time inferencing application, it typically requires that you train it against a large set of data. This is designed to complement and be deployed, not physically alongside, but logically alongside the Streaming Data Platform,” said Baker.

Designed to provide security and control to the edge, the vendor also introduced the Dell EMC iDRAC9 Datacenter, a new Dell remote access controller that adds streaming data-analytics capabilities critical for understanding edge operations to all Dell EMC PowerEdge servers.

iDRAC 9 Datacenter helps customers meet the requirements for deploying, securing and operating edge environments. iDRAC 9 Datacenter helps with data security, edge management and control. It provides remote and automated data security with centralized key management, automated SSL certificate renewal, and real-time FIOS scanning for malicious firmware. There are capabilities around zero-touch configuration and simple, two-factor authentication, among other features. Additionally, there’s full-access management from core to edge for comprehensive control.

Initially availability for the Dell EMC PowerEdge XE2420 will begin in the second quarter; the Dell EMC Modular Data Center Micro is expected to be available beginning in the second half of 2020; and the Dell EMC iDRAC9 Datacenter and the Dell EMC Streaming Data Platform are available globally today.

The new offers will be available to partners, who Baker said critical to delivering edge solutions to customers.

“In many cases, when you find yourself in edge environments, you’re going from a relatively unconstrained and, in many ways, a vanilla environment – it’s standard racks, a big building somewhere – and increasingly, edge environments are really reflective of the core business of the customer. In many cases, our channel partners specialize in that business. So, we’re excited about the role that channel partners can play in helping us build and deliver edge solutions designed for their customer,” he said.

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February 19, 2020 at 01:50AM

Dell Offloads RSA Cybersecurity Business, But Sale Price Surprises Many
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/dell-offloads-rsa-cybersecurity-business-but-sale-price-surprises-many/

The acquisition is expected to close in the next six to nine months.

Dell Technologies on Tuesday confirmed it’s selling its RSA cybersecurity business to a consortium led by Symphony Technology Group (STG), Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and AlpInvest Partners, for more than $2 billion in cash.

Speculation intensified last month that Dell was looking to offload RSA, which it gained through its acquisition of EMC in 2016. The transaction, which includes the purchase of RSA Archer, RSA NetWitness Platform, RSA SecurID, RSA Fraud and Risk Intelligence, and RSA Conference, is expected to close this summer or fall.

Omdia’s Eric Parizo

Eric Parizo, senior analyst at Omdia, tells us what happens next is unclear as STG is a “somewhat unknown entity, and this is certainly its biggest play in cybersecurity to date, but it doesn’t have a history of long-term holdings.” He expects a relatively short period in which Symphony “right-sizes” the business, and then flips it to one or more other buyers.

“I’ve long believed that RSA may be worth more if it were broken up than sold as a whole,” he said. “Its various product lines are hardly complementary, and its product lines may be more valuable individually to other vendors already competing in those segments. For instance, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a deep-pocketed vendor like Cisco eventually try to pick up NetWitness, given Cisco’s longstanding and successful technology partnership with RSA and its strong need for a ‘front end’ for its SecOps ambitions. And of course the RSA Conference events and brand remain hugely valuable.”

Dell’s Jeff Clarke

“In determining the best long-term future for RSA, we sought a partner that was enthusiastic about RSA’s mission, committed to its customer and partner base, and interested in maximizing the power of RSA’s talent, experience and tremendous growth potential,” wrote Jeff Clarke, Dell Technologies’ COO and vice chairman, in a blog, “We believe STG will be the right custodian to achieve these goals. RSA, including RSA Conference, is invaluable to our customers and the security community at large — and with that in mind we will work to ensure a seamless transition.”

Parizo said the move is hardly a surprise, as RSA has been rumored to be on the block for years now.

“At various points it seemed as if there were reasonably good opportunities to integrate RSA technologies with those of the broader EMC/Dell product portfolio, such as RSA SecurID and other IAM tools with Dell’s Quest Identity Manager, or RSA NetWitness or its endpoint security capabilities with technology from VMware,” he said. “However, last year when VMware acquired Carbon Black to serve as the technological centerpiece of its new cybersecurity group, it became clear that RSA was a non-starter within Dell and VMware, and a sale of RSA was inevitable.”

There are some surprises about the announced deal, Parizo said. Some may have expected a higher price tag, but considering RSA has “essentially treaded water for the past decade, and that EMC acquired RSA for approximately $2.1 billion in 2006, the clear message is that RSA has gained no value in the past 13 years,” he said.

“That is a brutal reality for all involved,” he said. “The companies also announced an unusually long closing period of six to nine months. This is likely due to RSA’s heavy involvement with the U.S. government and the scrutiny the deal may receive, but this also increases the slight possibility that the deal may be modified in some form before it closes.”

More than 12,500 customers use RSA to enable their digital transformation, address increasingly advanced cyberthreats and adapt to more complex digital regulations.

“As one of the world’s elite security brands, RSA represents a great opportunity for solving some of the rapidly developing customer challenges that go along with digital transformation,” said William Chisholm, STG managing partner. “We are excited and fully committed to maximizing the power of RSA’s talent, expertise and tremendous growth potential, and continuing RSA’s strategy to serve customers with a holistic approach to managing their digital risk.”

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February 19, 2020 at 02:58AM

Veeam Delivers NAS Backup Capabilities in Veeam Availability Suite v10
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/veeam-delivers-nas-backup-capabilities-in-veeam-availability-suite-v10/

Also new to version 10 is integrated ransomware protection from Amazon S3 Object Lock, which protects backups.

New network-attached storage (NAS) backup capabilities and improved ransomware protection are now built into the latest version of Veeam Availability Suite v10, giving businesses a deeper data backup and data management toolbox for protecting their IT operations.

The new version of Veeam Availability Suite now incorporates Amazon S3 Object Lock, which dramatically improves the protection of data backups by locking them tightly so they can’t be deleted by cyber criminals as part of ransomware attacks, the company said.

Rick Vanover, Veeam’s senior director of product strategy, told Channel Futures that the broadened features in the latest version will expand the ability of channel partners to go into any customer IT environment and better serve their needs.

Veeam’s Rick Vanover

“The NAS backup capabilities will resonate with partners,” said Vanover. “This is something our customers have been asking about for years. This has also been raised at our partner meetings. This is continual progress through the feedback of our partner community.”

The inclusion of the new Amazon S3 Object Lock capabilities means that partners can help their customers be even more resilient against ransomware, said Vanover.

“This is something that is an immediate value-add for resellers and partners. It means customers can put their backups in the cloud and then lock them so they cannot be deleted” by attackers, he said. “It’s one of those technologies that isn’t necessarily new, but it requires an ISV like Veeam to be very specific on how we have implemented that technology.”

The updated suite also includes multi-VM instant recovery capabilities to automate disaster recovery, widened platform extensibility, data mining through APIs and more than 150 other enhancements for users.

Dante Orsini, the senior vice president of business development for Iland Cloud, a cloud service provider and Veeam channel partner, said this Veeam suite update provides a wide range of incremental improvements for customers, but the new NAS backup capabilities are the biggest advancement.

Iland Cloud’s Dante Orsini

“As ransomware gets more and more complex, some of these things are not only targeting backups but also backup copying jobs,” said Orsini. “So the S3 Object Lock feature is a very big deal. If you’re running on an S3 compatible object store, you can take advantage of that, which is the gold standard of protection.”

Making the S3 Object Lock coverage even more effective, he said, is that Veeam customers can use it alongside Veeam’s Cloud Connect offering, making the combination even more powerful for users’ data backups.

With the addition of NAS backup capabilities, Veeam backup can now protect data on a wide range of systems, including NAS, virtual, physical, Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor (AHV), Hyper-V, public cloud and more.

“It’s one piece of software that can do it all,” said Orsini. “That’s why it’s so valuable to the channel. The big thing, from the channel perspective, is that it allows a partner to work with a customer regardless of where the customer’s data resides, including on premises, hybrid, off premises or public cloud. It’s just very flexible to use.”

Steven Hill, an IT analyst with 451 Research, told Channel Futures that the version 10 of the Veeam suite offers a laundry list of enhancements and features, many of which are in response to the evolving industry focus on business continuity (BC), disaster recovery (DR) and system availability.

“This is part of the continued evolution from traditional backup to dynamic, hybrid disaster recovery, and BC/DR is an increasingly complex formula because today’s IT has a much larger list of moving parts,” said Hill. “The challenge for data-protection vendors lies in combining backup with the growing need for protecting both data and workloads and reducing the risk and impact of downtime.”

For vendors like Veeam, taking the complexity out of adopting hybrid infrastructure while continuing to expand their platforms to leverage new capabilities, meet shifting customer requirements and insure industry compliance will be critically important, said Hill.

“In the past, backup was the only tool we had for BC/DR, but today there’s a growing focus on system availability as well as data protection,” he said. “Today’s business is increasingly dependent on IT systems and the application migration, instant recovery and ransomware protection capabilities that are part of the Veeam Availability Suite v10. They are major tools for protecting against some of the most common causes of system outages.”

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February 19, 2020 at 02:58AM

Cisco Projection: 10% of Mobile Connections Supported by 5G by 2023
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cisco-projection-10-of-mobile-connections-supported-by-5g-by-2023/

And M2M is on its way to accounting for half of mobile devices and connections.

5G and M2M communication are driving a wave of mobility growth, according to Cisco.

Cisco’s Annual Internet Report forecasts that 5G will account for 10.6% of all mobile connections by 2023. And of the approximate 30 billion devices and connections Cisco says will exist in 2023, 45% will be mobile. Smartphones will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7%, but M2M connections will grow faster to 14.7 billion in 2023. That’s 50% of the world’s connected devices and connections — up from 33% in 2018.

Consumer will account for more devices and connections (74%) than the business segment, but the latter will grow at a 12% CAGR compared to consumer’s 9.1%.

Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report 2018-2023

“What we are seeing from our research is a continuous rise in internet users, devices, connections, and more demand on the network than we could have imagined,” said Roland Acra, Cisco’s senior vice president and chief technology officer. “The insights and knowledge gained by our Annual Internet Report are helping global businesses, governments and service providers prepare and secure networks for the ongoing growth in connections and applications.”

The study said consumers, SMBs and enterprises increasingly rely on mobile applications, as evidenced by the prediction that there will be 299.1 billion downloaded mobile apps by 2023.

Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report 2018-2023

“For the past 50 years, each decade introduced a new mobile technology with cutting-edge innovations,” the study’s authors wrote. “Mobile bandwidth requirements have evolved from voice calls and texting to ultra-high-definition (UHD) video and a variety of augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) applications. Consumers and business users worldwide continue to create new demands and expectations for mobile networking.”

Cisco’s report also focused on increasing internet speeds. An average 5G connection will connect at a speed of 575 megabits per second, according to the study. Cisco projected connection speeds in general to increase significantly from 2018-2023, with mobile connections going from 13 Mbps to 44 Mbps, Wi-Fi connections going from 30 Mbps to 92 Mbps and broadband speeds going from 46 Mbps to 110 Mbps.

Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report 2018-2023

The study also projected the number Wi-Fi hotspots to grow by a rate of four from 169 million in 2018 to 628 million in 2023. Wi-Fi and cybersecurity – in addition to mobility – were prominent themes in the study. View Cisco’s website for a list of links and resources pertaining to its recent report.

Check out the #CiscoAnnualInternetReport to see how broadband speeds will be bigger, better, faster in the years to come. https://t.co/tBNZhxba9p#InternetForTheFuture pic.twitter.com/Zt3udtUK5U

— Cisco (@Cisco) February 18, 2020

 

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February 19, 2020 at 05:05AM

Google Unveils Anthos-Ready Data Storage Packages from Dell, HPE, More
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/google-unveils-anthos-ready-data-storage-packages-from-dell-hpe-more/

The first Anthos Ready Storage offerings are available immediately for on-premises use.

Google is making its Google Anthos hybrid and multicloud application platform easier to use by offering up a selection of vendors that have created Anthos-ready data storage systems for customers seeking prequalified products for their data-storage infrastructures.

The first Anthos Ready Storage offerings are available immediately for on-premises use from partners including Dell EMC, HPE, NetApp, Portworx, Pure Storage and Robin.io, according to a Feb. 18 Google Cloud Blog by Rayn Veerubhotla, director of partnerships for Google Cloud, and by Manu Batra, a Google Cloud product manager. More products and services will be added in the future as more vendors participate.

All qualified Anthos Ready Storage products recognize partner product packages that meet a core set of requirements to run optimally with Anthos running on premises, according to Google, while also helping organizations select storage products that can work with Anthos.

The Anthos Ready Storage partners have met multiple criteria for the products, such as demonstrated core Kubernetes functionality including dynamic provisioning of volumes via open and portable Kubernetes-native storage APIs; the ability to automatically manage storage across cluster scale-up and scale-down scenarios; and a simplified deployment experience using Kubernetes practices.

Anthos launched last June as an open application platform that can be used to build and manage applications across all types of environments and infrastructure – specifically for hybrid and multicloud environments – using containers and Kubernetes. Anthos enables users to modernize existing applications and build new ones, which can be run securely anywhere. Built on several Google-created open source technologies, such as Kubernetes, Istio, and Knative, Anthos enables consistency between on-premises and cloud environments and helps accelerate application development, according to Google.

Google Cloud’s Manu Batra

“To date, we have seen an extremely enthusiastic response from customers and partners to run key workloads on the Anthos platform,” Batra told Channel Futures. “As customers leverage Anthos in new and exciting ways, one of the key requests is for recommendations on storage infrastructure.”

That’s how the Anthos Ready Storage initiative got started, said Batra. The qualification process and criteria for the program validates partner CSI drivers for critical storage functions such as dynamic functionality and scale up-scale down scenarios with Anthos, which are critical containerized stateful workloads, he explained.

“Customers who are leveraging Anthos on premises can now select these storage solutions that are deployed with Anthos to better manage their data across hybrid and multicloud environments,” he said.

The key components of Anthos are Google-managed Kubernetes, service mesh, a marketplace for applications and configuration management, all of which can run on premises and on Google Cloud, said Batra. Anthos, which is centrally managed from Google Cloud, also can be used to manage clusters and services on other cloud platforms. Applications that run on Anthos can be deployed, operated and moved seamlessly across environments without the need for code changes, he said.

As customers continued to ask for storage for their Anthos projects, Google worked with several storage partners to make it happen, said Batra.

“We are constantly talking to our customers and learning about their evolving needs,” he said. “As customers are looking to deploy stateful applications and data infrastructure has become a critical requirement, we will continue to innovate to meet their requirements.”

The new Google Anthos storage qualification program should be helpful for channel partners and for their customers, several IT analysts told Channel Futures.

“Google has an impressive list of vendors initially supporting Anthos Ready Storage,” said Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT. “In addition, the company’s pledge that Anthos will support customers’ workloads running on other public clouds is more evidence – if any were needed – that hybrid multicloud is the approach preferred by enterprises and other cloud customers.”

Successful cloud providers are adapting their platforms to run wherever customers are conducting their business, as shown in this move by Google, said King.

“This announcement suggests that despite any short term challenges – including the recently announced reorganization of its cloud group – Google is doing what it takes to give customers what they want and require,” said King.

Viewpoint Research’s Cyndi Privett

Another analyst, Cyndi Privett of Viewpoint Research, said the Google move serves partners well.

“These collaborations maximize choice for channel partners wanting to serve their customers operating both on premises and off,” she said. “It’s particularly compelling for solution providers that have been developing container-based applications as part of their overall solution.”

Greg Schulz, principal analyst with StorageIO, called the Anthos storage qualification program a huge opportunity for the channel.

“It’s a big move for Google filling out the whole Anthos program, which is kind of far-reaching,” said Schulz. “They are showing they are realizing that there is more to cloud storage than just blob and object storage, which is good. It’s a strong game out at the edge, where the data is being generated and preprocessed. It’s big for Google, also realizing they were one of the early principals in the whole container game.”

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February 19, 2020 at 05:05AM

Cyberthreats to Watch out for in 2020
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cyberthreats-to-watch-out-for-in-2020/

Familiar and emerging cyberthreats will pose continuing challenges in the year ahead.

Cybercrime continues to increase, and cybercriminals persist in developing new and more insidious approaches to escalate their success rate at compromising business networks and stealing credentials, data and cash. These attacks are becoming more sophisticated, highly targeted and increasingly costly.

The emerging attack techniques being used by cyber criminals are designed to evade traditional email security, including gateways and spam filters. More often than not, the attacks originate from high-reputation domains or already-compromised email accounts, and don’t necessarily include malicious links or attachments. Because most traditional email security techniques rely on domain reputation and email credentials, the attacks are more likely to be successful.

In a new e-book, Protecting Your Business From Cyberthreats in 2020, Barracuda outlines these emerging security vulnerabilities along with strategies to protect your network, applications and data. The e-book analyzes proprietary research conducted during the past 12 months to provide an outlook of top potential cybersecurity threats for 2020 and practical solutions that businesses can use to help defend themselves.

Phishing Gets Personal

Phishing has been a persistent threat, and these types of attacks continue to evolve. In traditional phishing, emails are sent to large numbers of recipients, with just a small percentage of victims responding.

Spear phishing attacks, however, are targeted and personalized. Victims are researched by cybercriminals, who sometimes impersonate a coworker or trusted business. In either case, the attackers are generally trying to obtain login credentials or financial information.

With credential theft, the attackers can launch an account takeover, which has been identified as one of the fastest-growing email security threats. In these attacks, cybercriminals impersonate trusted brands and use social engineering and phishing tactics to steal login credentials and access accounts. Once an account is compromised, hackers can then launch other types of attacks. According to Barracuda’s research:

An analysis of account-takeover attacks found that 29% of organizations had their Office 365 accounts compromised in March 2019. More than 1.5 million malicious and spam emails were sent from the hacked Office 365 accounts in that one month. With more than half of all global businesses already using Office 365 and adoption continuing to increase, hackers want to take over accounts because they serve as a gateway to an organization and its data — a lucrative payoff for the criminals.

 Identifying and removing these email threats is often a manual process, which means that response times lag behind the ability of the attacks to spread across organizations and to other networks.

Malware Becomes Modular

Like phishing, malware attacks have evolved considerably. Malware is typically hidden in a document attached to an email. Once opened, it is automatically installed and then updated continuously to fool users and security services.

There has been a substantial increase in these attacks. Barracuda’s data from April 2019 indicated that 48% of all malicious files detected in the previous 12 months were documents. More than 300,000 unique malicious documents were identified.

Modular malware attacks are also increasing, and these attacks are even more complicated and dangerous than document-based malware. Modular malware can selectively launch different payloads and functionality, depending on the target and the goal of the attack. This approach has been used in banking Trojans and info stealers.

Ransomware Attacks on the Rise

Ransomware has grown into one of the biggest security challenges, and is increasingly difficult to combat. These attacks lock down systems or encrypt data. The attackers then blackmail the company or user into paying them to unlock those systems. Ransomware attacks have targeted individual computers, companies, hospitals, cities and other organizations.

Like malware, these attacks originate with malicious email files, and small and midsize businesses have proven particularly vulnerable because

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February 19, 2020 at 05:05AM

Teradici Extends Cloud Access Software to Microsoft Azure Stack with PCoIP Ultra
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/teradici-extends-cloud-access-software-to-microsoft-azure-stack-with-pcoip-ultra/

Teradici says it is the first to boost virtual client access to Azure Stack.

Teradici’s virtual desktop software now can connect to dedicated on-premises cloud instances with support for Microsoft Azure Stack.

A new release of Teradici Cloud Access Software is the first third-party desktop solution certified for appliances based on Microsoft’s Azure Stack platform, according to Teradici. Azure Stack appliances are integrated servers, storage and network systems co-engineered by Microsoft and OEM partners such as Cisco, Dell EMC, HPE and Lenovo. The solutions allow organizations to distribute workloads between the public cloud and on-premises data centers.

Teradici Cloud Access already supports the Microsoft Azure public cloud. By certifying the software to work with Azure Stack as well, partners can deploy remote desktop client services in hybrid cloud environments, including disconnected, or occasionally connected scenarios.

Teradici’s Ziad Lammam

“It’s the next step up if you’re looking to deploy the equivalent of Azure in a disconnected environment or anywhere that has like regulatory requirements for the user data, or just anyone that wants the benefits of cloud on prem,” said Ziad Lammam, Teradici’s VP of product management.

Initially, Teradici Cloud Access is available in the Azure Marketplace with Azure Stack HCI, offered in the form of scalable appliances offered by Microsoft’s OEM partners. It will also work with Microsoft’s Azure Stack Hub, the company’s new set of Azure services such as VMs, web apps, SQL Server and MySQL Server databases that partners can offer as managed services.

Based on Teradici’s new PC over IP (PCoIP) Ultra protocol, its Cloud Access delivers remote Windows and Linux desktop services from Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and VMware cloud services. PCoIP Ultra is an alternative to virtual client protocols such as Citrix HDX, VMware Blast and Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Similar to those protocols, PCoIP encrypts and uses compression to transmit pixels of the desktop experience to virtual clients from various software solutions, on-premises and cloud VDI platforms and endpoint hardware.

Among those using or evaluating Teradici’s Cloud Access with Azure Stack are enterprises in the oil and gas industry, manufacturers and financial services firms, Lammam said. Azure Stack also is attractive to large U.S. federal agencies mandated to move to cloud-based platforms, he said.

Terardici’s Cloud Access with PCoIP Ultra connected to Azure Stack aims to address high-performance virtual clients in private cloud scenarios, Lamman added.

“It’s suited for high-performance use cases where customers need to run pretty big workloads with high compute or GPU requirements,” he said. “But at the same time, some of the sectors aren’t quite ready to plunge into public cloud.”

PCoIP Ultra is an upgraded version of Teradici’s PCoIP protocol that the company launched last year with new hardware acceleration capability for GPUs and multicloud support. Coinciding with that rollout, AMD, Microsoft and Teradici said they had begun working together to provide full GPU access to the new Azure NVv4 instance with the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 accelerator and 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor.

Teradici’s PCoIP Ultra will also work with new thin client hardware announced earlier this month by Igel. The new Igel UD3 endpoint for cloud workspace environments is based on AMD’s Ryzen Embedded R1505G system-on-chip (SoC) client. It’s the first new hardware in its line of Universal Desktop endpoints launched recently by Igel, which has become better known lately for its Igel OS software.

“A couple of our friends in the industry have been spreading rumors that Igel is getting out of the hardware business because we are so software-focused, but that’s not true at all,” said Dan O’Farrell, Igel’s senior director of product marketing. “We’ve got a large install that base wants us to keep producing great endpoints, and that what we will keep doing.”

While Igel has enabled PCoIP Ultra support in other providers’ hardware, UD3 is the company’s first client with Teradici’s newest device acceleration software. Igel said UD 3 is also will offer optional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support for the first time. The new client will also support dual 4K displays, USB-C and traditional USB-A ports. Igel’s new UD3 clients are set for release in May.

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February 19, 2020 at 09:51PM

Cohesity Expands Cisco, HPE-Backed Remote/Branch Office Solution
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cohesity-expands-cisco-hpe-backed-remote-branch-office-solution/

Cohesity announced a new appliance-based solution for distributed enterprise branch offices, targeting data at the edge.

Turning its attention to the expected growth of data at the edge – 30X from 2019-2025 according to Gartner – Cohesity on Wednesday announced a new appliance-based solution for remote office/branch office (ROBO) management solution that extends its current Cohesity DataPlatform Virtual Edition (VE). 

The new solution for ROBO combines Cohesity software with certified servers from Cisco and HPE, and is designed for distributed enterprises with many branch locations. This latest offer allows these businesses to remotely manage data through a single software-defined data management platform. 

Cohesity’s Raj Dutt

“We already have the Cohesity DataPlatform VE running in remote locations but we were getting – by we, I mean Cohesity, HPE and Cisco – requests from customers to have something which is more appliance-based, and we also heard the same thing echoed through the Gartner,” Raj Dutt, senior director, product marketing at Cohesity, told Channel Futures.

Dutt refers to the 30X data growth at the edge, where ROBO is a subset of that figure.

“This is interesting because it redefines how the enterprise workload data resides within the enterprise landscape,” he said.

Cohesity DataPlatform is a software solution that consolidates backups, file shares, object stores and data for dev/test and analytics on a web-scale data management platform. It runs on HPE, Cisco, Dell and Cohesity appliances. The Cohesity software offers the same capabilities in the public cloud. For ROBO, there’s a VE version that runs in VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, Nutanix AHV, and RHEL. 

“The VE version is flexible because it allows customers today to run 1TB-16TB, in 1TB increments. We’ve seen our customers run this VE in the same production environment in ROBO, sharing resources. It does require some level of technical expertise because you need to deploy a hypervisor to deploy and manage an environment like this,” said Dutt. 

The new ROBO appliance-based solution comes preloaded with Cohesity’s DataPlatform and DataProtect software – the same running in the core – and runs on HPE- and Cisco-certified servers. It comes in a 4TB and 8TB format that’s easy to deploy, reducing opex and eliminating the need to have hypervisor licenses at each of the remote locations, according to Dutt. 

“This solution will only be available to our HPE and Cisco partners,” he said.  

HPE has been a Cohesity partner for few years. In late 2018, HPE elevated its partnership with Cohesity – beyond a 2017 partnership where Cohesity joined the HPE Complete Program to deliver hyperconverged secondary storage solutions to enterprise customers – via an OEM agreement to offer a jointly certified solution available directly from HPE and partners, worldwide. Also, in June 2018, Cohesity closed a $250 million in Series D funding led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, including strategic investors HPE, Cisco Investments, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Sequoia Capital and others. That followed Series C funding in 2017, where Cohesity raised more than $90 million from multiple investors including HPE and Cisco Investments. 

HPE’s Stephen Bacon

“The momentum that we’ve seen [with Cohesity] has really started to build, especially over the last six months, with significant growth in the number of new logos which we’re securing together, as well as the amount of revenue we’re driving together,” Stephen Bacon, director, product management and partner engineering at HPE, told Channel Futures. 

The target market for the new Cohesity solution are large and distributed businesses with 50-100 or more locations. Target vertical markets include retail, chain restaurants, warehouse and distribution, pharmaceutical, global IT services and energy. 

Dutt notes that the benefit to partners is offering a differentiated enterprise-class solution, workload consolidation and integrated cybersecurity. Partners will be able to increase revenue by expanding their total addressable market, earn recurring revenue and offer value-added services. Cohesity will offer go-to-market enablement such as sales training, incentives and demand generation. 

The ROBO appliances will be available this spring.

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February 19, 2020 at 10:56PM

VMRay Targets MSSPs, VARs, Others with First Partner Program
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/vmray-targets-mssps-vars-others-with-first-partner-program/

Making it easy to do business with VMRay was a top priority.

VMRay, a Germany-based provider of automated malware analysis and detection solutions, has launched its first official partner program.

The new global partner program will be led by Zac Kenney, the company’s channel sales manager. VMRay’s go-to-market channel partners include VARs, MDRs, MSSPs, distribution and fulfillment partners across EMEA, APAC and the Americas that have expertise in both the public as well as the private sector.

Kenney tells us that while his company has worked with a handful of partners in the past, this launch marks VMRay’s commitment to building and developing a global channel program.

VMRay’s Zac Kenney

“Building a channel program is the obvious next step in the evolution of VMRay,” he said. “With the Series B funding last year it was clear that a channel program was needed to help the company meet its growth goals going forward. VMRay technology offers a truly unique solution for cybersecurity experts. We wanted to leverage the channel to get the message out as quickly as possible.”

With the program, partners gain access to the VMRay platform and its suite of interconnected malware analysis and threat detection solutions, including VMRay Analyze, VMRay Detector and VMRay Email Threat Defender.

“We spoke with the handful of partners who are currently working with VMRay to gather their feedback on what was working and what could be improved,” Kenney said. “I have 15-plus years of experience in channel sales. Leadership at VMRay has years of channel experience as well. We even brought in outside consultants to help us even further. We spent months developing a partner program that will benefit our channel partners and ultimately provide our customers with the solutions they need to protect their organizations.”

Making it easy to do business with VMRay was a top priority when developing the program, Kenney said.

“I joined VMRay as the first dedicated channel account manager at the company and we’re already developing plans to expand the team,” he said. “We’re developing systems and processes that will help support our partners in terms of training, sales enablement and marketing support. And we’re just getting started.”

“As malware has grown more sophisticated and pervasive, it’s more important than ever to be able to offer and integrate the best solutions in the market to our customers,” said Joon Pang, CEO for Coontec, a Seoul-based VAR. “VMRay has distinguished itself in the crowded threat detection market by being able to detect evasive malware through its unique hypervisor-based monitoring technology. We are confident that our customers will continue to see the immense value VMRay’s product portfolio provides to their security teams.”

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February 19, 2020 at 10:56PM

Google Cloud, VMware Cut Jobs
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/google-cloud-vmware-cut-jobs/

But this cloud news roundup features not-so-depressing news, too, from Oracle and MSP AllCloud.

The cloud industry is constantly changing and sometimes that means job losses; other times, it means new product introductions. This roundup covers both fronts as Google Cloud, VMware and AllCloud each make news this week for different reasons.

Layoffs Hit Cloud Sector

Some employees at Google Cloud and VMware are on the hunt for new jobs.

News broke this week that Google Cloud, despite its recent strong earnings performance, will cut about 50 jobs. Google will try to move the affected staff into other jobs at the company. Among the casualties is Tariq Shaukat, Google Cloud industry products and solutions president, according to reports of a leaked memo verifying his departure.

At least one analyst speculated, via Silicon Valley Business Journal, that Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, who’s been in charge for a year now, wants to concentrate on large enterprises. CNBC noted, too, that Google Cloud is looking to land more business in markets outside the United States.

Google Cloud’s growth will rely heavily on the indirect channel. In a Feb. 11 presentation to investment bank Goldman Sachs, Kurian discussed ways to broaden customer reach with the help of a range of partners, including MSPs, REITs, ISVs, VARs and more. He also highlighted how the channel buoyed Google Cloud in 2019 compared to 2018:

190% year-over-year increase in partner-influenced GCP revenue.

13x increase in new customers won by partners in the first half of 2019 over the first half of 2018.

85% year-over-year increase in Google Cloud partner-sourced deals.

300% year-over-year increase in the number of Google Cloud-certified partners.

When Channel Futures reached out to Google Cloud for comment on the layoffs, we received the same statement as other media:

“We recently communicated organizational changes to a handful of teams that will improve how we market, partner, and engage with customers in every industry around the globe. We made the difficult, but necessary decision to notify a small number of employees that their roles will be eliminated. We’re working with our internal mobility teams across the company to help those affected by this change, and hope to find them new roles within the company. We are grateful for everything they have accomplished and their commitment to Google Cloud.”

Meanwhile, cloud infrastructure provider VMware said in a late January regulatory filing with the state of California that it will again reduce its headcount — this after a significant round last month.

Palo Alto Online reported last Friday that another wave of people – 211, to be exact – will get the axe; that number includes 10 executives in the internet of things and edge computing groups.

The layoffs will start in April. VMware attributes them to “regular workforce rebalancing,” according to reports.

—Channel Futures news editor Edward Gately contributed to the reporting on this article

Quick Note: Google Cloud Launches in Korea

In separate Google Cloud news, the company has debuted its …

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February 19, 2020 at 10:56PM

Video: Branch Network Management
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/video-branch-network-management/

See how Netsurion’s software-defined branch network management can power your secure and agile network for less.

Retailers are struggling to keep up with digital transformation needs while controlling cost and increasing profit margins. Netsurion delivers the only all-in-one network management, security, resilience, and compliance solution purposely built for multi-unit restaurant and retail brands. Trusted by nearly 20,000 locations, Netsurion helps you reduce IT cost and complexity, deploy new locations quickly, reduce security risks and ultimately give your business the digital launchpad needed for future growth and innovation.

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February 19, 2020 at 10:56PM

Ping Identity Enlists e92cloud in Hunt for Resellers
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/ping-identity-enlists-e92cloud-in-hunt-for-resellers/

Ping is taking on a two-tier distribution model as it expands into the midmarket.

Ping Identity, the identity and access management (IAM) vendor, has enlisted cybersecurity distributor e92cloud to help recruit resellers in the U.K. and Ireland.

The campaign is part of Ping’s efforts to expand into the lower enterprise market with its cloud-based identity security products and marks a shift from the vendor’s single-tiered distribution channel.

Ping Identity’s Mark Hambley

“We’ve been very much focused on that large enterprise space, but with the explosion of security requirements, there is an absolute need in that mid-tier, enterprise marketplace where resellers are focused,” Mark Hambley, EMEA alliances director at Ping Identity, exclusively told Channel Futures.

Over the past four years, Ping has increased channel revenue from about 30% to 80%, but the company still lacks a reseller base, said Hambley, who hopes e92cloud will help Ping recruit “20 or 30” new partners this year.

“Resellers are the most difficult to recruit in all honesty, because reseller organisations have multivendor products that they can sell to their customers, and so to get time with those people is quite difficult. But by using a distributor like e92, which does have a significant revenue with many of those reseller organisations, that gets you through the door and allows you to have those conversations.”

e92cloud will provide partners with a range of services including integrated marketing and demand generation, pre- and post-sale technical support, education and financing.

“What we weren’t looking for was a broadline distributor – the Tech Datas of this world – simply because we aren’t big enough for a broadline. Our revenues would hardly touch the sides inside one of those,” said Hambley. “So we were looking for a specialist cybersecurity-focused distributor, and e92 hit the mark.”

The firm cites a Grand View Research report saying the value of the IAM market will reach $24.12 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate of more than 13% over the forecast period, fuelled by the proliferation of cloud services and bring your own device (BYOD) within organizations.

Ping says that to ensure a smooth transition, existing partners can choose to retain a direct-touch relationship with the vendor or move to e92cloud; however, new channel benefits will be focused around delivery through e92cloud.

Ping has two categories of partner: preferred and registered. It does have an elite tier, but no partners have yet qualified.

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February 19, 2020 at 11:50PM

Proofpoint to Double UK Channel Numbers
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/proofpoint-to-double-uk-channel-numbers/

The last few years have seen Proofpoint transition from direct-only sales to 100% channel.

Cybersecurity vendor Proofpoint is looking to double the size of its U.K. channel over the next few months.

Speaking exclusively to Channel Futures, Keith Bird, VP EMEA at Proofpoint, says the firm wants to add another 40 or 50 new partners to its existing base of about 40.

Bird says he wants to sign up cybersecurity partners that “are serious about building a business with us because we’re only going to work with a certain number of partners long-term. This is an opportunity to really get in at the growth stage where we’re recruiting heavily.”

After this round of recruitment, he says, that’s it.

Proofpoint’s Keith Bird

“Once we’ve done that, we’re done.”

The last few years have seen Proofpoint transition from direct-only sales to a 100% channel organization, which included migrating all existing direct business to partners.

“We have now completely converted into a channel company, and all new business going forward goes through the channel,” said Bird, who explains the shift to a channel sales model reflects the company’s established position in the channel-centric U.K. and EMEA, alongside the recognition that it needed partners to scale the business.

“That was a big shift and a big commitment, [but] that’s why our channel partners are enjoying such large growth with us. We have 30 direct salespeople out there building demand across the enterprise and commercial business. And we’re going to be adding another 10 to that as well, to continue to drive more demand to the channel.

“If a partner hasn’t looked at us in the last two or three years, we’re very different company to the one we were,” he said.

Bird joined the company a year ago with the remit of driving the new channel-centric strategy and is adamant that a mix of direct and channel sales won’t work.

“You can’t do both; it has to be one or the other. You can’t cherry pick and say, ‘We’re going to deal direct in this area, and deal with the channel in this area.’ You have to do it 100% or not at all.”

The exec says Proofpoint wants partners to take advantage of the “shift from automated mass attacks to more targeted attacks, through the number one threat vector which is email.”

Proofpoint’s recent global State of the Phish report shows that nearly 90% of global organisations were targeted with business email compromise (BEC) and spear phishing attacks, reflecting cybercriminals’ focus on compromising individual end users.

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February 20, 2020 at 01:59AM

Webroot: ‘Tremendous’ Return Prompts Massive Jump in Phishing Attempts
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/webroot-tremendous-return-prompts-massive-jump-in-phishing-attempts/

Webroot expects Windows 7 malware to spike even further in 2020.

Webroot, an OpenText company, last year observed a staggering 640% increase in phishing attempts and a 125% increase in malware targeting Windows 7.

The 2020 Webroot Threat Report highlights not only the agility and innovation of cybercriminals who continue to seek out new ways to evade defenses, but also their commitment to long-established attack methods. The report analyzed samples from more than 37 billion URLs, 842 million domains, 4 billion IP addresses, 31 million active mobile apps and 36 billion file behavior records.

Webroot’s Tyler Moffitt

Tyler Moffitt, Webroot‘s security analyst, tells us the growth in phishing attempts can be attributed to how they deliver a “tremendous” return on investment for cybercriminals, and phishing attempts are easy and cheap to launch, yet continue to trick under-educated end users into downloading malware or sharing their credentials. Phishing is one of the most successful delivery methods for malware, he said.

“The growth in malware targeting Windows 7 can largely be attributed to how Microsoft announced in early 2019 they will be ending support — and therefore no longer patching vulnerabilities within — the operating system in January 2020,” he said. “Cybercriminals were likely aiming to capitalize on all the vulnerable businesses and consumers still using Windows 7 before many of them would presumably upgrade in January 2020. However, even now that support has ended and some businesses and consumers have upgraded, they haven’t been forced to, so there are still plenty of extremely vulnerable devices on Windows 7 — therefore, we expect Windows 7 malware to spike even further in 2020. There are currently over 200 million devices still running Windows 7 and it will only get easier for criminals to breach these machines.”

Cybercriminals also have been leveraging Netflix, Amazon and Target in their phishing attacks, aiming to exploit people’s tendency to reuse passwords to compromise other, more lucrative accounts like online banking, Moffitt said.

“Another surprising finding is a new trend with ransomware that if the victim has adequate backups that prevent paying the ransom, the attacker will extort the victim through the threat of breaching stolen data,” he said. “This is an additional squeeze on the victim because now that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is in full effect, victims all over the world would face ramifications of breaches like fines through the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and CCPA.”

Other notable findings:

One in four malicious URLs is hosted on an otherwise non-malicious domain.

Some 8.9 million URLs were found hosting a cryptojacking script.

The top sites impersonated by phishing sites or cybercriminals are Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google, PayPal and DropBox.

The top five kinds of websites impersonated by phishing sites are crypto exchanges (55%), gaming (50%), web email (40%), financial institutions (40%) and payment services (32%).

Some 93.6% of malware seen was unique to a single PC – the highest rate ever observed.

IP addresses associated with Windows exploits grew by 360%, with the majority of exploits targeting out-of-date operating systems.

“Organizations aren’t investing heavily enough in security awareness training, and they aren’t…

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February 20, 2020 at 03:50AM

SolarWinds Gets Nerdy, Adds Important Layer to Partner Success Programs
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/solarwinds-gets-nerdy-adds-important-layer-to-partner-success-programs/

The company announced the launch of the SolarWinds Head Nerds program, highlighting customer success and partnerships.

SolarWinds has gone full nerd. The IT management software company just announced the launch of the SolarWinds Head Nerds program, designed to build on its emphasis on customer success and partnership with such programs as the MSP Institute, MSP Advice Project and MSP Pulse.

These Head Nerds are in place to serve as SolarWinds MSP partner advocates for several key reasons: to help partners learn how to create and sell services, protect their customers, demonstrate value, and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving managed services space. Drilling down even more, Head Nerds deliver training, resources and consultative sessions to help MSPs understand and maximize the most important business growth areas including security, automation, and operations.

According to Mike Cullen, group vice president, partner success, SolarWinds MSP, the biggest challenge MSPs face is how to work on their business, instead of just working in it. This was the leading impetus for creating the Head Nerds program. 

SolarWinds MSP’s Mike Cullen

“We wanted to give MSPs the ability to work directly with some of the premier experts in the industry — to help them look at the big-picture potential that trends and technologies bring,” said Cullen. “Our Head Nerds give our partners direct access to the consulting and content they need to leverage key areas like security, automation, and operational efficiency to boost their bottom lines. This adds to our broader set of initiatives that have one singular objective: help fuel our customers’ success.”

The Head Nerds team is led by:

Marc-Andre Tanguay, Head Automation Nerd: A senior automation specialist, Tanguay brings extensive industry experience — having worked one-on-one with hundreds of MSPs, helping them create, optimize and employ some of the strongest automation processes in the industry. 

Gill Langston, Head Security Nerd: An expert who worked directly with MSPs for most of his career, Langston has an in-depth skill set in managed services and security, and focuses on helping MSPs take their security services to the next level.

Eric Harless, Head Backup Nerd: A leader in the data protection and disaster recovery markets, Harless puts his 25-plus years of experience to work helping MSPs understand how to turn backup into a competitive growth driver.

Eric Anthony, Head Operations Nerd: A former MSP, entrepreneurial leader and SaaS software expert, Anthony brings his unique perspective to help MSPs leverage the most innovative and efficient ways to run their businesses for bottom-line success.

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February 20, 2020 at 03:50AM

J2 Global, Bullish on Veeam, Seeks to Acquire Veeam Partners
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/j2-global-bullish-on-veeam-seeks-to-acquire-veeam-partners/

Expansion via acquisitions is J2 Global’s growth strategy to boost its Veeam services to customers.

As its Veeam backup and recovery backup business continues to grow with customers, Veeam channel partner J2 Global has been on a mission to acquire other Veeam services partners to further expand the company’s revenue and data backup operations.

For J2 Global, that acquisition strategy has been going on since last fall as the company continues to be in active conversations with several potential acquisition targets, Dan Timko, the chief strategy officer at J2 Global for its related OffsiteDataSync backup as a service business, told Channel Futures.

J2 Global’s Dan Timko

“If you look at the Veeam ecosystem, it was ripe for some rollup acquisitions,” including J2 Global’s acquisition of OffsiteDataSync itself in the third quarter of 2019, said Timko. “This was our strategy and the reason OffsiteDataSync was purchased in the first place. Our DNA is that of being a buyer.”

J2 Global, which in addition to its cloud backup business also owns a wide range of internet services companies, has made more than 180 business acquisitions since its founding, according to the company.

“We’ve been very open about wanting to acquire more Veeam partners, whether it be at Veeam partner advisory meetings or at other Veeam events,” said Timko. “We’re an active buyer. There are MSPs out there who are doing great things. And there are some companies out there who are finding that it’s no longer enough to do backup on their own, but that it’s better to work with a channel partner that is offering it.”

Those are some of the acquisition targets for J2 Global today, he said. “Maybe they have a small business with a chunk of revenue. That doesn’t mean it’s too late to partner with us. And we don’t have to buy a whole MSP. We can just buy a backup business the MSP has. The MSP will still have the customers, but they won’t have to continue to run the back end.”

For smaller MSPs, that would allow them to spend their time working where they should be working — as trusted advisers for their clients, said Timko.

This road map has been in the works since Timko started working for J2 last September, he said. “It was clear to me when I was brought on that this was part of the strategy,” he said. “Part of the reason I was brought on was that I’ve been in this specific data backup ecosystem for 10 years.”

The strategy was not influenced in any way by Veeam’s $5 billion acquisition by Insight Partners in January, but had been in the works long before that deal, said Timko.

The range of acquisition targets is wide, including large data backup companies to smaller mom and pop MSPs. “We try to identify who would be a fit and look at full acquisitions or at just carving out pieces. All of those options are on the table.”

J2 Global, with $1.4 billion in annual revenue, is also known as a digital media and shopping company, with brands like Mashable, IGN, PC Mag…

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February 20, 2020 at 04:52AM

MSPs Warned of Major Ransomware Threat to RMM Platforms
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/msps-warned-of-major-ransomware-threat-to-rmm-platforms/

Integrated solutions are the common type of platforms used by MSPs.

Asigra on Wednesday issued a warning to its global network of MSPs about a ransomware threat to remote monitoring and management (RMM) platforms that puts solution provider and end-customer applications and data at high risk.

When MSPs are utilizing their RMM platform with tightly integrated backup solutions, there is a single access point to dozens, hundreds or even thousands of organizations. Since the RMM platform is based on agents that are pushed out, the ransomware can potentially push out its malicious code to each of the MSP clients while neutering the backups. This makes MSPs a very lucrative target, according to Asigra.

Eran Farajun, Asigra‘s executive vice president, tells us this attack method is different from others targeting MSPs because it uses the MSP’s platforms with its multiple tools that are all pre-integrated to gain entry, and then uses the MSP as proxy to access many clients.

Asigra’s Eran Farajun

“It is different than attacking each application independently,” he said. “It is much more efficient. The tradeoff of ‘pre-integrated’ to save time and less vendor management has a cost of a higher risk.”

The hacker may send an urgent email or text that appears to come from someone’s direct manager or company executive. The email or text likely contains a link that downloads the ransomware or malware, or an attachment that’s infected with it. The email may emulate an alert email from the same RMM program or another that occurs all the time. Once the RMM platform is compromised, so is the integrated backup, and now the entire MSP client base is under dire threat, according to Asigra.

“Integrated solutions are the common type of platforms used by MSPs,” Farajun said. “Think Connectwise/Momentum, Autotask/Datto, Solarwinds, TigerPaw, Kaseya and Atera. They are very widely used; hence, the popularity of the attack vector and the risk to MSPs and their downstream customers, [and] perhaps the downside of working with another vendor. But MSP surveys show they prefer best-of-breed solutions for their customers.”

Protecting the MSP’s RMM platform against data is a simple, three-step process, according to Asigra.

First, train all employees to be aware of targeted phishing attacks, as this is the No. 1 channel by which ransomware enters the network.

Next, separate the data protection infrastructure/solutions from the RMM platform and avoid integrated solutions, which will make it more difficult to compromise.

And finally, use a backup solution that prevents ransomware or any malware from ever deleting the backup. Also make sure the backup software prevents a ransomware or malware infection by scanning both the backup and recovery streams.

“The density of high-value data in many RMM environments is too alluring for criminal hackers to avoid, making it incumbent upon the MSP to architect a bulletproof data recovery model,” Farajun said. “For the strongest protection, services professionals are advised to disentangle RMM and backup to ensure system recoverability.”

In addition, new research by BlackBerry Cylance finds cybercriminals increasingly focused on MSSPs as high-value targets in 2019.

In mid-2019, a new ransomware called Sodinokobi appeared in the wild, targeting businesses and causing mass disruption in some U.S. government agencies. Its deployment methods are noteworthy as the compromise occurred via targeted phishing attacks aimed at MSPs and MSSPs managing security within the target organization.

BlackBerry Cylance’s Eric Milam

Eric Milam, vice president of research operations at BlackBerry Cylance, tells us it’s much more efficient for a threat actor to attack the MSSP than individual customer targets since once the MSSP is breached, the hacker has access to the whole infrastructure including the MSSP’s customers proprietary data.

“The question is not what they are not doing; they can’t protect against zero-day vulnerabilities or disgruntled employees, but they can do better by employees’ awareness and training around phishing, email links and attachments, regular credentials audit, OS and application patching, better logging and monitoring,” he said. “This is a clear indication that threat actors are becoming more sophisticated since the expertise the MSSPs are providing to customers is computer security, so in theory it should be very hard to hack them.”

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February 20, 2020 at 05:53AM

Netwrix Sharpens Partner Strategy to Accelerate Sales
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/netwrix-sharpens-partner-strategy-to-accelerate-sales/

Partners can accelerate their sales cycle to generate more revenue faster.

Netwrix, the information security and governance software vendor, has unveiled a new partner strategy centered around faster demand generation and customer value, and increased transparency.

Ken Tripp, Netwrix’s director of channel accounts, tells us the strategy change isn’t specific to partners, but “it’s a refinement to our strategy to position ourselves more closely to whom we are and have been for the past many years — the easiest company to do business when it comes to data security.”

Netwrix’s Ken Tripp

“The partner strategy shift is just an amplification of the more general organizational shift,” he said. “As part of our ongoing efforts to better understand the market, we collect feedback from many sources. This includes our customers, our partners and even from those businesses who opted (mistakenly in my opinion) to choose solutions from other vendors. Undeniably, the most common attribute applied to Netwrix was easy: easy solutions [and] easy processes. Internally, we feel we can do better, but we wanted to capitalize on the perceptions we already have in the market.”

Partners can accelerate their sales cycle to generate more revenue faster. In particular, the in-browser demo of Netwrix Auditor and Netwrix Data Classification reduces the time they have to spend scheduling and conducting demos, according to the company.

The Netwrix partner portal offers partners access to all the sales, marketing and technical enablement tools they need to generate, track and close deals, the company said. In a few clicks, they can learn about Netwrix solutions, get visibility into their leads and deal registrations, or request sales and technical assistance.

Furthermore, partners and MSPs can shorten the onboarding process for their customers. In addition to its existing JumpStart services, Netwrix will begin offering a personalized set of documentation customized for each customer’s unique installation and use cases. And to ensure that organizations realize the full value of their Netwrix products, Netwrix has updated its video training courses.

“Look, security is hard,” Tripp said. “Generally speaking, it’s not an investment that is going to drive top-line revenue growth for businesses. Nonetheless, it’s an investment that must be made in today’s world. To that end, from admins to CISOs, they want easy solutions so that they can get back to supporting the business or agency in support of revenue or its mission. This differentiated messaging, personified in our easy products, sets us apart from other vendors who make onerous demands such as requiring a site visit to even evaluate the solution and a complete evaluation before discussing pricing. We want to give our partners a competitive edge through transparency to remove as much friction as possible in delivering powerful data security solutions to their customers.”

“We find the partnership between Netwrix and Freeit extremely valuable,” said Leslie Spinks, account executive at Freeit. “Working with the sales and executive teams reminds us every day of what a true partnership looks like. We all leverage each other’s strengths for the good of both organizations, and we also align in our mutual desire to put the customer first. It’s easy to position a solution that works, is easy to use and is a reasonable investment. Customers love it, and so do we.”

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February 20, 2020 at 05:53AM

Keyfactor Gets Serious About Channel with Partner Network
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/keyfactor-gets-serious-about-channel-with-partner-network/

The need for PKI and digital certificate management within organizations is growing.

Keyfactor, which secures digital identities, on Thursday rolled out its Keyfactor Partner Network, it’s new global partner program.

This is Keyfactor’s first partner program that has extended to solution providers (resellers, consultants and referral partners) and systems integrators. Its previous partner model was built on technology and alliance partners, including ISVs and other product integrations.

The company provides a public key infrastructure (PKI) as-a-service platform for certificate lifecycle automation and IoT device security.

BJ Ferguson, Keyfactor’s head of global channel sales and operations, tells us any selling his company did through partners was “purely opportunistic” and at the request of the customer when it came time to procure.

Keyfactor’s BJ Ferguson

“We’ve never really had a foundation for a formal program including simple partnership agreements, robust partner enablement (sales/technical), and a proper support system for our partners,” he said. “Keyfactor had primarily been a direct sales organization up to this point. The PKI and certificate life-cycle management market is a growing need for enterprises. We needed a way to scale our sales force and enter different markets throughout the world where our solutions are needed. Partners are a perfect way to do that in a quick and cost-effective manner.”

The program is a flat system with no tiering, offering a “very simple” entry point to begin offering Keyfactor products to their customers, Ferguson said.

“We have a simple agreement, an enablement program to get them up to speed quickly in both sales and technical aspects of what we do, and a support system behind our partners of every facet of our organization to make them successful,” he said. “The need for PKI and digital certificate management within organizations is growing exponentially. It seems that organizations (some fairly large) are getting into the news regularly with some sort of certificate related outage or breach, sometimes costing millions in repairs as well as brand reputation degradation. Enterprises need to scale and do so quickly to compete in today’s world. They need a certificate management solution that offers the same type of scale and speed to make them successful in their businesses as well. Keyfactor does that.”

“Now more than ever, enterprises need to assess their critical security infrastructures that manage and protect assets and customer information, especially as the industry prepares for the threat of quantum computing,” said Mark Cooper, president and founder of PKI Solutions, a Keyfactor partner. “The ability to quickly and easily partner with industry leaders, such as Keyfactor, enables us to quickly bring solutions to our customers. PKI Solutions is pleased to be part of the Keyfactor Partner Network where there is great synergy around securely managed public key infrastructures.”

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February 20, 2020 at 10:59PM

Druva Expands Partner Program Into Germany, Austria, Switzerland
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/druva-expands-partner-program-into-germany-austria-switzerland/

The cloud data backup and recovery vendor has also announced a new regional leader for its growing partner program.

Druva, the cloud data protection vendor, is now broadening its channel reach to Germany, Austria and Switzerland as it moves to grow its nascent global Druva Compass partner program, which the company launched last June.

The expansion into the DACH region of Europe, consisting of those countries, comes as the company grows the Compass program in Europe. Initially, Compass was available in only a few select European nations, Timm Hoyt, vice president of global partners and alliances for Druva, told Channel Futures.

As part of the expansion, the company has named Bernd Wachtler as its new regional leader of the channel program in DACH. Wachtler will work to grow the program and the Druva data backup business in the area. Druva’s cloud data protection products and services are used by business customers to protect and manage their data while migrating to the cloud and maintaining regulatory compliance.

The extension of Druva Compass in the region means that partners will gain access to enablement resources, accreditation curriculum, co-marketing opportunities and more, according to the company.

Druva’s Timm Hoyt

“An increasing number of European countries, including Germany, are investing billions to improve digital infrastructure and networking, and are only making it easier for enterprises to move more of their business to the cloud,” said Hoyt. “Additionally, the investments in Germany that AWS announced in September are a clear leading indicator that this market is ready for a cloud-first data protection offering. Taken all together, there is a clear demand from prospects and partners in the region for this sort of offering and we feel now was the right time to expand Compass even further.”

The program’s continuing growth is a sign of success for the Compass partner organization, he said.

“We are getting great feedback from those already taking advantage of the new resources and are now seeing strong demand from partners in other countries, including Germany and others. Partners are core to our success, accounting for the majority of our sales — and Druva Compass is designed to help these partners and their customers thrive.”

Wachtler has more than 20 years of management experience with direct and partner sales organizations.

“He will be closely aligned with our key strategic partners, including AWS and VMware, to expand solution selling opportunities for our resellers, system integrators and MSPs,” said Hoyt. “Bernd has a unique background working with and for these types of organizations during his career, which will make him a valuable resource for our partners to collaborate with.”

Druva’s Bernd Wachtler

Wachtler comes to Druva from Veritas, where he led the cloud migration and data resiliency practice for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, as well as for other German-speaking countries, said Hoyt. Previously he held various direct and channel sales positions at major storage and data management companies including Dell EMC, IBM, Brocade, Seagate and Fusion-io.

Dan Olds, an IT analyst with Gabriel Consulting Group, told Channel Futures that Druva’s advance into the DACH countries is a good move for the company and its customers.

“For customers, it gives them a new and easy-to-use alternative for cloud backup and disaster recovery,” including ransomware protection, “which is starting to become a must-have feature these days,” said Olds. “For the company, this opens up a new territory that is full of medium- and large-sized organizations that will definitely see the need for Druva’s SaaS solutions. VARs in the DACH area should take a close look at Druva’s value proposition with an eye towards reselling Druva services as this will give them more capabilities to use to help solve the problems of both new and existing customers.”

Another analyst, Rob Enderle of Enderle Group, said that Druva’s Compass partner program appears to be well managed and tightly executed.

“This is critical for any partner program because, done right, they provide significant value to customers and sales momentum for the platform they are tied to,” said Enderle. “As we have seen with most well executed partner programs, I expect this effort will significantly improve Druva’s market position and customer satisfaction over time.”

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February 21, 2020 at 03:56AM

Cisco Meraki Extends Wi-Fi 6 Portfolio with Lower Cost Access Point
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cisco-meraki-extends-wi-fi-6-portfolio-with-lower-cost-access-point/

The new entry MR36 Wi-Fi 6 AP from Meraki lists for $849.

Cisco Meraki is fleshing out its wireless LAN portfolio with three new access points (AP) based on the new higher speed Wi-Fi 6 standard. The expanded Wi-Fi 6 product line, launched this week, includes Meraki’s first general purpose AP based on the new standard, also known as 802.11ax.

The new lower cost MR36, which carries a list price of $849, is considerably less expensive than Meraki’s existing higher-end MR45 and MR55s, introduced last April with price tags of $1,449 and 1,849, respectively. This week’s rollout includes upgrades of those access points. Priced the same as their predecessors, the MR46 and MR56 are aimed for much higher density requirements and offer greater performance than the MR36.

Nevertheless, access points that support Wi-Fi 6 come at a premium price over the more ubiquitous Wi-Fi 5, or 802.11ac. While Wi-Fi 6 is backward-compatible with WLAN infrastructure based on Wi-Fi 5 and earlier standards, only the most recently released iPhones and select Android phone models support Wi-Fi 6. Enterprise laptops and higher-end commercial and consumer devices have started to support it as well.

Despite the higher cost of Wi-Fi 6 access points and low percentage of users with devices that support it overall, partners increasingly are recommending Wi-Fi 6 to customer seeking to upgrading their enterprise infrastructure, or for greenfield deployments.

Worldwide Technology’s Neil Anderson

“Wi-Fi 6 offers the most future-proofing,” said Neil Anderson, senior director of network solutions at World Wide Technology. “Whereas Wi-Fi 5 has been out for five years and is definitely the safest and most understood to deploy, it’s getting long in the tooth. Where the rubber meets the road, deploying Wi-Fi APs is expensive. Someone needs to design and install them — and it’s pretty manually intensive. It’s not like putting a new server in a data-center rack. So customers want to do that as few times as possible — maybe once every five years.”

Over the next year or two, as people upgrade their devices, the percentage of devices that support Wi-Fi 6 is expected to rise. Wi-Fi 6 supports speeds a maximum of 9.6 Gbps, compared with Wi-Fi 5’s 3.5 Gbps. Its support for eight spatial streams is double that of Wi-Fi 5 and the subcarrier modulation range offers a 4x increase, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Wi-Fi 6 also uses orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) to more efficiently share channels, which reduces upload and download latency, particularly in locations with a significant number of simultaneous users.

“The next 10 years will see new device types, and diverse high-density wireless environments, which is why we want to offer an expanded range of Wi-Fi 6 options,” according to a blog by Cisco product marketing manager David van Schravendijk, announcing the new access points.

WWT frequently holds workshops for customers that cover Wi-Fi 6 and 5G wireless networks.

“I would say the largest factor holding up Wi-Fi 6 deployments isn’t necessarily the newness of the technology,” Anderson said. “It’s the expense to install, and in Cisco’s case – it requires new controller architecture/products as well – so now you are not only churning your APs, but you have to replace your aggregation point too. That’s a fairly complex cutover. This is true for both Cisco and Aruba. For Meraki, their controller is their cloud — customers don’t have to worry about it, so I would expect Meraki deployments will go faster for Wi-Fi 6 initially.”

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February 21, 2020 at 05:01AM

How Outsourcing Creates Cybersecurity Budget, Expertise Options
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/how-outsourcing-creates-cybersecurity-budget-expertise-options/

As technical demands increase, outsourcing can expand options and add depth.

Alexander Moiseev

Outsourcing is a global trend in business, and cybersecurity is no exception. According to Gartner, the managed security service market grew by 6.7% in 2018, reaching $10.7 billion in revenue, and continued growth is expected in the coming years. Service providers and vendors contribute to this market by offering their customers expertise, intelligence or solutions as a service.

The advantages of outsourcing create opportunities many businesses need, but they’re typically implemented to overcome three main challenges including lack of internal expertise, poor budget planning and control.

Outsource to Afford More

Many services can provide us with more than we could otherwise afford, and IT services work the same way for businesses. Suppose a company needs to expand its data center. This company will have to buy servers, find more space in the data center and spend time on deployment. Alternatively, it can purchase workloads in the public cloud and save money it would otherwise have spent on on-premise infrastructure. Another example is a security operation center (SOC) for advanced cyberprotection. Building an internal SOC demands investment in personnel, processes and detection and response technologies. Alternatively, managed service providers and vendors offer SOC as a service with a dedicated team of experts, protection solutions and threat intelligence.

Outsource to Get Expertise

One of the main problem areas for companies in regard to their IT staff is their lack of internal expertise. According to a report, one in three CISOs (70%) say that it is difficult for companies to find experienced cybersecurity professionals.

Midlevel employees who bear the brunt of cybersecurity tasks are a key element in IT security decision-making as they assess protection demands and recommend solutions. To do this properly, there should be several experts working together to find the best solution.

Imagine that the company doesn’t have enough employees, or they don’t have enough skills in areas such as cloud computing or Internet of Things security to work effectively. In this case, outsourcing can be considered an effective alternative. Service providers accumulate cybersecurity expertise and are focused on the quality of services because their revenue depends on their customer satisfaction rating.

Because of this, the service market has become very competitive. According to Ami Partners’ evaluation, the number of MSPs is expected to almost double from 48,000 in 2016 to 74,000 in 2021. This means providers need to maintain a high level of knowledge and reputation to keep clients.

Enterprise companies already take this proven path with at least half of the CISOs (55%) confirming that they solve the personnel problem with the help of outsourcing, according to the company’s CISO perspectives on cybersecurity report. For SMBs, this approach should be even more effective as they are often more limited in human resources for IT security.

Outsource to Keep Budgets Under Control

Another benefit of cybersecurity outsourcing is facilitating necessary, but important, resource planning. This can be beneficial for companies that …

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February 21, 2020 at 05:03PM

HP Unleashes ‘Poison Pill’ in Increasingly Tense M&A Battle with Xerox
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/hp-unleashes-poison-pill-in-increasingly-tense-ma-battle-with-xerox/

HP remains steadfast in thwarting takeover attempts by Xerox.

Sticking to its guns about its ability to drive sustainable long-term value for shareholders, HP’s board of directors has adopted a shareholder rights plan and declared a dividend distribution of one preferred share purchase right on each outstanding share of HP common stock — a defense tactic in the business world known as a poison pill.

A company targeted for acquisition uses a poison pill to prevent or discourage an acquirer’s attempts at a hostile takeover by making the affected stock less attractive. The HP board adopted the rights plan following an announcement that Xerox intends to begin a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of HP common stock.

HP’s Chip Bergh

“HP’s board is focused on creating long-term value for HP shareholders. We believe it is essential that HP shareholders have sufficient time and full information when considering any tender off that Xerox may commence,” said Chip Bergh, chair of HP’s board of directors. “As we have previously said, we are very concerned about Xerox’s aggressive and rushed tactics, and any process that is not based on full information, is a threat to our shareholders.”

Xerox’s move to acquire printer giant HP began in November, and the two vendors have been engaged in increasingly negative and hostile communications ever since. Earlier this month, Xerox tried to sweeten its bid for HP by increasing its initial offer of $22 per share, to $24.

Xerox shot back about HP’s poison pill defense with the following statement:

“The HP board clearly adopted a poison pill because our offer is receiving overwhelming support from their shareholders. Regardless of what the company and its army of advisors announce Monday, we believe HP shareholders appreciate that the value we could create by combining Xerox and HP outweighs – and is incremental to – anything HP could achieve on its own. Despite the HP board’s intention to deny shareholders the chance to choose for themselves, we will press ahead with our previously announced tender offer and electing our slate of highly qualified director candidates.”

According to HP, the rights plan will not prevent a combination of HP with another business, but should encourage Xerox, or anyone seeking to acquire the company, to negotiate with the board prior to attempting to impose some combination that is not in the best interests of HP shareholders.

Expect to hear about HP’s plan to grow the company on Feb. 24, when it’s out of its quiet period.

In the meanwhile, HP announced earlier this week its continued efforts to fight cybercrime, which includes printers, PCs and other IoT endpoints, by joining the Buyers Labor (BLI) Security Validation Testing program for multifunction printers (MFPs) and printers. The vendor said that it was the first OEM to pass the test for device penetration, and the only OEM to pass the second test for policy compliance.

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February 21, 2020 at 10:50PM

Recruiting Tactics for MSPs
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/recruiting-tactics-for-msps/

Hiring the right candidate depends on writing clear job postings, effectively interviewing potential talent and encouraging diversity in the workplace.

For any managed service provider (MSP), having the right team in place is essential to success. So, how do you build an effective recruitment process if you don’t have a background in human resources? How can you attract the right talent? In this article, we’ll dive into tips on HR processes, writing clear job postings, interviewing potential talent and encouraging diversity in the workplace.

Keep Your Processes Simple

Make sure that your process is easily understood, and clearly communicated with your candidates and employees. Finding the right mix of simplicity, efficiency and quality assurance will enable your employees to engage in the strategy. You can always add layers of complexity if required, but keeping it simple can provide a strong foundation enabling long-term growth.

Writing Job Postings

A job posting is a mix of marketing, articulation of business needs and painting an honest picture to get high-quality candidates to click “apply.” It turns out that candidates skim job postings in much the same way that many of us read emails: Like someone replying “TLDR” (too long, didn’t read) to a wordy email, a high-quality candidate may see a wordy job posting and just move on. I’m aware of the soapbox arguments of, “Well, if they didn’t read the posting, then clearly we don’t want them here,” or, “We need to put everything in the posting so we get precisely what we are seeking.” But, where else does that apply in our day-to-day lives? We streamline processes and improve experiences for customers every day, so why not apply these principles to recruitment strategies?

Tailoring Test: 15 Seconds

A test I’ve developed and shared with many professionals over the years is the tailoring test. Print your draft job posting out and have two trusted colleagues not familiar with the role flip over the paper and read the draft for 15 seconds. Then ask them what they recalled from the posting and what stood out. What do they articulate? Was it what you wanted a proposed candidate to notice? Of course, the posting can be more than 60 words, but get creative, consolidate and target what will truly matter to high-quality candidates. In an age of Twitter and TikTok, the opportunity exists to engage short attention spans with high-quality postings.

 Evaluating Candidates

With all aspects of these processes, enable your team to

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February 21, 2020 at 10:50PM

CoreDial-ConnectWise Integration Designed to Help MSPs
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/coredial-connectwise-integration-designed-to-help-msps/

CoreDial has a new integration with ConnectWise’s professional services automation (PSA) solution, allowing its partners to synchronize data between CoreNexa Account Manager and ConnectWise Manage.

CoreNexa Account Manager allows its partners to sell, deliver, manage and invoice for cloud communications services. ConnectWise Manage automates business processes for MSPs in areas such as sales, help desk, support, finance and human resources.

ConnectWise Manage is one of the most widely used business platforms among MSPs.

Ken Lienemann, CoreDial’s chief revenue officer, tells us many of the partners his company signs already have a business management platform that they use to assist with their business operations.

CoreDial’s Ken Lienemann

“In many cases it’s ConnectWise,” he said. “The CoreNexa Account Manager supports the quote-to-cash process for the delivery of cloud communications. As a result of this integration in a production environment, a partner can select their database of record for account information: SKUs, pricing and billing data. Upon activation of the integration, data will sync, prompt users for manual intervention of questionable items, and events will maintain syncing going forward. The result is data accuracy, less overhead and rework, and utilizing each system for its respective strength.”

The CoreNexa-ConnectWise integration automatically updates information across both platforms, letting partners select either solution as their primary point of data entry. It also allows MSPs to choose which data elements to sync and delivers a single, consolidated invoice for UCaaS, CCaaS and more.

“Much of the channel continues expanding their solution portfolio in support of meeting more market need, capturing more wallet share and enhancing value to their customers resulting in retention and growth,” Lienemann said. “For a few customers and a few solutions this is manageable by the employees. As the number of customers and solutions expand, the complexity grows in a non-linear manner. This results in customer service challenges and frustrations, not to mention the typical multiple invoices sent to the customer or the billing gymnastics required each month to consolidate various charges into a single invoice. This integration allows CoreDial and ConnectWise to automate most if not all of this, allowing employees to focus on the customer and enhance their overall experience.”

CoreDial is integrated via ConnectWise Manage APIs, which use security roles to determine access to environments, Lienemann said.

“When our mutual partners set up an integration, an API member is created for that integration, and security permissions are established,” he said. “Our platform makes sure the API keys are encrypted and saved securely.”

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February 21, 2020 at 10:50PM

HP Unleashes ‘Poison Pill’ in Increasingly Tense M&A Battle with Xerox
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/hp-unleashes-poison-pill-in-increasingly-tense-ma-battle-with-xerox-2/

HP remains steadfast in thwarting takeover attempts by Xerox.

Sticking to its guns about its ability to drive sustainable long-term value for shareholders, HP’s board of directors has adopted a shareholder rights plan and declared a dividend distribution of one preferred share purchase right on each outstanding share of HP common stock — a defense tactic in the business world known as a poison pill.

A company targeted for acquisition uses a poison pill to prevent or discourage an acquirer’s attempts at a hostile takeover by making the affected stock less attractive. The HP board adopted the rights plan following an announcement that Xerox intends to begin a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of HP common stock.

HP’s Chip Bergh

“HP’s board is focused on creating long-term value for HP shareholders. We believe it is essential that HP shareholders have sufficient time and full information when considering any tender off that Xerox may commence,” said Chip Bergh, chair of HP’s board of directors. “As we have previously said, we are very concerned about Xerox’s aggressive and rushed tactics, and any process that is not based on full information, is a threat to our shareholders.”

Xerox’s move to acquire printer giant HP began in November, and the two vendors have been engaged in increasingly negative and hostile communications ever since. Earlier this month, Xerox tried to sweeten its bid for HP by increasing its initial offer of $22 per share, to $24.

Xerox shot back about HP’s poison pill defense with the following statement:

“The HP board clearly adopted a poison pill because our offer is receiving overwhelming support from their shareholders. Regardless of what the company and its army of advisors announce Monday, we believe HP shareholders appreciate that the value we could create by combining Xerox and HP outweighs – and is incremental to – anything HP could achieve on its own. Despite the HP board’s intention to deny shareholders the chance to choose for themselves, we will press ahead with our previously announced tender offer and electing our slate of highly qualified director candidates.”

According to HP, the rights plan will not prevent a combination of HP with another business, but should encourage Xerox, or anyone seeking to acquire the company, to negotiate with the board prior to attempting to impose some combination that is not in the best interests of HP shareholders.

Expect to hear about HP’s plan to grow the company on Feb. 24, when it’s out of its quiet period.

In the meanwhile, HP announced earlier this week its continued efforts to fight cybercrime, which includes printers, PCs and other IoT endpoints, by joining the Buyers Labor (BLI) Security Validation Testing program for multifunction printers (MFPs) and printers. The vendor said that it was the first OEM to pass the test for device penetration, and the only OEM to pass the second test for policy compliance.

via Blog https://mymarketlogic.com/blog
February 21, 2020 at 11:56PM

Ingram Micro’s Promark Now Distributing Platform9’s Kubernetes, OpenStack Services
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/ingram-micros-promark-now-distributing-platform9s-kubernetes-openstack-services/

The deal brings Promark, a subsidiary of Ingram Micro, to Platform9 as a key partner for the future.

Platform9 aims to dramatically grow its managed Kubernetes and OpenStack sales and services now that it has signed a distribution deal with Promark, which is a subsidiary of distributor powerhouse Ingram Micro.

Under the deal, Platform9’s Managed Kubernetes (PMK) and Managed OpenStack (PMO) products will gain access to Promark’s wide range of VARs and other channel partners in the U.S. to help the company expand its market around the globe, the companies said.

Kamesh Pemmaraju, Platform9’s head of product marketing, told Channel Futures that one of the largest benefits of the new distribution deal will be that Promark’s wide market presence and power will help make his company’s products more recognizable in a busy IT marketplace.

Platform9’s Kamesh Pemmaraju

“People don’t know about us,” said Pemmaraju. “We have a very compelling solution but customers don’t know we exist … they try to build this on their own and find it hard to do.”

The Promark distribution deal will help reverse that trend, he said.

“So this partnership will help us be found by customers. It gives us awareness in the market that we are going after. It is getting our message out to more and more customers who are out there and struggling” with their Kubernetes and other deployments, he said.

“We’re providing an easy button for Kubernetes deployments,” said Pemmaraju. “Everyone else is trying to build it themselves and finding out that it’s way too complex.”

The deal will also will give Platform9 and its managed services access to Promark’s broad ecosystem of training, marketing, services and more, he said.

“We have been working on trying to amplify our partner ecosystem for a while,” he said. “Then Promark asked us about this and we talked with them about it. They were looking for products.”

Now the Promark team is being trained in Platform9’s products and VARs are coming on board, he added. The products are available through Promark immediately and the first training sessions are starting next week.

“We are ready to go,” said Pemmaraju.

Platform9’s managed Kubernetes deployments can be anywhere customers want to use them, including public cloud, hybrid cloud, private cloud, on premises or as a service. The company’s managed OpenStack services allow users to go live with OpenStack private cloud in minutes, while taking care of the entire OpenStack life cycle for users, according to the company.

Jeffrey Brown, the president and general manager of Promark Technology, told Channel Futures that the deal was made to help his company’s partners and customers as well.

Promark’s Jeffrey Brown

“Our channel partners and resellers look up to us for new born-in-the-cloud technologies,” said Brown. “Many organizations search for efficient and affordable ways to implement a hybrid cloud strategy and our partners are there to help them with this mission. Platform9’s managed Kubernetes platform provides a fully automated solution to tackle the challenges of hybrid cloud environments and guide end users through this journey.”

The Platform9 products will help Promark’s channel partners and their customers because they combine a spectrum of needed services and technologies in one package and a solid team to support it, said Brown.

“Customers in the cloud era would like to achieve automation, simplicity, rapid deployment of services, efficiency and cost savings. Platform9, a market leader in managed Kubernetes, offers all that and more,” Brown said.

Tony Iams, an IT analyst with Gartner, said the deal is a good one for both companies.

“As the use of Kubernetes proliferates, organizations that lack the engineering resources to deploy and maintain Kubernetes clusters seek out managed service providers such as Platform9 to automate management of container systems on-premises or in public clouds,” said Iams. “By leveraging Platform9’s PMK SaaS offering, Promark will make Kubernetes available to a wider base of mainstream users.”

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February 22, 2020 at 03:51AM

2020 Outlook for IT Solution Providers: Growth in Edge Computing, AI, and More
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/2020-outlook-for-it-solution-providers-growth-in-edge-computing-ai-and-more/

Looking into 2020, there is plenty of growth potential as disruptive technologies create new services and sales opportunities. The market is changing thanks to new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and edge computing.

These technologies are enabling organizations to reach new levels of efficiency, achieve operational excellence, and provider better customer experiences. But organizations cannot possible implement, manage, and maintain the necessary systems and platforms to run these technologies – enter IT solution providers.

Read more in this whitepaper to learn how to tune into the market’s transformation and position yourself to leverage new opportunities. The future is bright – and 2020 should be a successful year!

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February 22, 2020 at 03:51AM

Backup and Recovery: Growing Opportunity for IT Solution Providers
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/backup-and-recovery-growing-opportunity-for-it-solution-providers/

Backup and recovery are critical elements of any business continuity plan. The ability for partners to offer disaster recovery and cloud backup services for total data protection means leveraging a full end-to-end, hybrid cloud approach.

This whitepaper discusses how end-to-end data protection and recovery from a single interface presents a great opportunity to expand your portfolio and grow your business.

Topics include:

Affordability

Flexibility

Support

Performance

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February 22, 2020 at 03:51AM

Anatomy of an Active Cryptomining Worm
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/anatomy-of-an-active-cryptomining-worm/

AT&T Cybersecurity has conducted a technical analysis of the common malicious implants used by threat actors targeting vulnerable Exim, Confluence and WebLogic servers.

AT&T Cybersecurity has conducted a technical analysis of the common malicious implants used by threat actors targeting vulnerable Exim, Confluence and WebLogic servers. Upon exploitation, malicious implants are deployed on the compromised machine. While most of the attacks described are historical, we at AT&T Cybersecurity are continuing to see new attacks, which can be further researched here.

The main goal of the malicious implants thus far has been mining Monero cryptocurrency. For the complete, detailed analysis of how an active cryptomining worm works, including scripts, click here.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

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February 22, 2020 at 03:52AM

MSP360 Readies New Billing Platform, MSP University for Q2
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/msp360-readies-new-billing-platform-msp-university-for-q2/

The numbers and 2020 initiatives highlight the company’s continued focus on the needs of MSPs.

MSP360 has rolled out its year-end 2019 results along with several other updates, including the location of its new corporate headquarters and the development of both unified billing and MSP University. 

The multicloud data backup and recovery (BDR) solutions provider highlighted the continued focus on the needs of MSPs, and says that last year’s numbers paint a pretty clear picture of protecting its clients’ data, acquiring new customers and helping MSPs with generating new business. 

Overall product activations for MSP360 Managed Backup Service (MBS), the company’s data backup solution, increased to more than 210,000 by year-end 2019. Compared to 2018 numbers, revenue for the backup-as-a-service (BaaS) platform increased by 38%. 

Further, MSP360’s user base for MSP360 Remote Assistant, a free product that allows MSPs to quickly and securely connect and provide remote support — grew by 185% year over year. 

MSP360’s Brian Helwig

“While the numbers do reflect how our storage-agnostic approach to BDR has been resonating with MSPs, there’s more to the story,” said Brian Helwig, CEO of MSP360. “Our customers have been coming to us for assistance on a variety of business challenges – typically having to do with marketing, sales and support – so instead of solely focusing on selling our BDR platform, we’ve been developing new ways to deliver additional value to our customers. Educating them on common functional areas of business is proving to be an effective approach.”

In addition, the company announced that MSP360’s unified billing platform, designed to simplify the MSPs billing process for storage and software, will launch by the end of the second quarter. Essentially, instead of receiving separate bills for the cloud storage the MSP purchases from a third-party vendor and MSP360’s offerings, an MSP will have the option to receive a single, comprehensive bill highlighting both expenses if they enable unified billing. For storage providers enrolled within MSP360’s unified billing platform, MSPs will receive the same prices third-party cloud storage providers are charging their customers directly. 

The provider also announced an initiative to help MSPs grow and scale through MSP University, a tool to help MSPs grow and scale. The platform is still in development, but will be designed to provide MSPs with the skills needed to take their businesses to the next level. Also expected to launch in the second quarter, the platform will provide MSPs with educational content on common functional areas in business, including marketing, sales, HR, finance and customer service. 

“We’re just getting started,” says Helwig. “We’re constantly working with our partners to develop new ways to help them with generating more monthly recurring revenue. We thrive when our MSPs do.”

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February 22, 2020 at 04:50AM

New FBI Report Reveals Cyberthreats with New Twists
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/new-fbi-report-reveals-cyberthreats-with-new-twists/

Cyberattacks are getting creative and so are MSSPs aiming to stop old threats with new twists in their tracks.

The recently released FBI Internet Crime Report 2019 alerts the public to current threats. It’s also useful data for MSSPs looking for insights from law enforcement on recent and ongoing criminal activity. Three of the top issues of most interest to MSSPs are tech support fraud, ransomware and phishing. While none of these is new to the threatscape, they’re all picking up in intensity.

The FBI reports that losses from tech support fraud in 2019 topped $54 million, up 40% from a year ago. The agency received 13,633 complaints about this issue from victims in 48 countries.

Tech-Support Scams

Comparitech’s Paul Bischoff

“Tech-support scams are a fast-growing problem according to the Bureau’s report. Microsoft is the most commonly impersonated company in these scams, and given that it leaked a huge customer service database earlier this year, that’s likely to continue,” said Paul Bischoff, lead researcher and privacy advocate with Comparitech.

The Microsoft customer service database leak Bischoff is referencing exposed 250 million Microsoft customer-service and support records over a 14-year period. No password or user authentication was required for anyone to see all of that data from a web browser. The potential for subsequent personalized tech support scams, phishing, spearphishing and whale phishing attacks is almost incalculable.

There’s an increase in the creativity behind such attacks as well. The FBI report cites some of the most recent as criminals posing as customer support for well-known travel industry companies, financial institutions or virtual currency exchanges.

However, there’s no downtick in more traditional tech support threat attacks including “email or bank account, a virus on a computer, or a software license renewal,” according to the report.

Ransomware

Ransomware attacks are increasing, and some say the number of such attacks exceed that which the FBI reported. But the consensus remains strong — ransomware remains a top threat.

“The FBI received 2,047 ransomware complaints accounting for losses of $8.9 million. I don’t know how the FBI adjusts for losses, but that seems like a very conservative estimate,” said Bischoff.

The FBI discourages paying the ransom in such attacks as the success only serves to encourage criminals to attack even more organizations. However, the FBI says in its report that if an organization does elect to pay the ransom it should also report the incident to the FBI and request assistance.

Ransomware attacks are particularly debilitating to organizations without the proper backups and restore plans in place prior to the incident. But even then, criminals are constantly adapting. For example, now ransomware attacks backups too.

Attackers are also targeting third parties for access to bigger organizations. On Feb. 11, NRC Health was hit by a ransomware attack, effectively expanding the threat to health-care institutions via third-party attack vectors. NRC Health collects patient satisfaction survey data that is used to determine doctors pay and Medicare reimbursements for hospitals.

BitSight’s Jake Olcott

“This incident isn’t just a wake-up call for NRC Health to better manage their own cyber risk, but it should sound the alarms for the hospitals and health systems that leverage their tools. Instead of breaking through the walls of hospitals and health systems, criminals now realize that an easier path to disruption is through a trusted vendor,” said Jake Olcott, vice president of BitSight, a security ratings company

“Supply-chain risk management must be a priority for the health care organizations that rely on an ever-growing ecosystem of vendors for day-to-day operations — and that starts with immediately assessing the security of those vendors and continuously monitoring their performance,” Olcott added.

But it’s not just …

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February 22, 2020 at 06:04AM

Juniper Networks Enhances Security Protection for Enterprise Traffic
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/juniper-networks-enhances-security-protection-for-enterprise-traffic/

Juniper Networks adds value to infrastructure sales with its expanded Connected Security portfolio.

Juniper Networks on Monday said it has expanded its Connected Security Portfolio with encrypted traffic analysis for Juniper Advanced Thread Prevention (ATP) Cloud and SRX Series firewalls. The vendor also integrated its security intelligence framework (SecIntel) to the Mist platform for wireless access.

By adding these additional capabilities, Juniper offers solutions to secure all traffic within an organization, whether encrypted or not, throughout all parts of the networks – access, campus, WAN or data center – according to the company.

Juniper Networks’ Samantha Madrid

“To achieve the best results for our customers, we must take advantage of existing network infrastructure to create a threat-aware network,” said Samantha Madrid, vice president of security business and strategy at Juniper Networks. “Juniper Connected Security gives organizations the ability to safeguard users, applications and infrastructure by extending deep network visibility and security policy enforcements to all points of connection across the network.”

At the same time, the announcement of SecIntel integration with Mist represents the vendor’s rounding out of its portfolio that already includes enabling SecIntel on Black Hat MX last August and SecIntel integration on its QFX and EX switching products in November.

With this latest integration of wireless access into the Juniper Connected Security strategy, Mist customers now can get threat alerts detected by Juniper SRX firewalls and ATP cloud within the Mist cloud-based management application.

What does this mean to Juniper partners?

“Encrypted traffic analysis will add value to the ATP Cloud platform, which will increase the software attach rate,” Oliver Schuermann, senior director, enterprise product marketing at Juniper, told Channel Futures. “Similarly, SecIntel for Mist will add value to the infrastructure, allowing tighter integration with the wireless portfolio. Also, this will add additional revenue with the pull-through of security sales. This demonstrates our ability to deliver an integrated operational experience, as well as add value to the portfolio for our partners.”

Last month, Juniper named Gordon Mackintosh its new channel chief. Mackintosh is vice president of worldwide channel and virtual sales and is responsible for the company’s go-to-market strategy for partners with the goal of delivering greater business outcomes.

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February 25, 2020 at 12:50AM

Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services Is Named a Top 3PL for the Fifth Consecutive Year
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/ingram-micro-commerce-lifecycle-services-is-named-a-top-3pl-for-the-fifth-consecutive-year/

Third-party logistics companies are selected based on industry experience, services offered and the ability to handle high order flow.

Each year, in January, the editors of Multichannel Merchant announce a list of the top 3PLs—the leading logistics providers. For the fifth consecutive year, Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services earned a spot on the list.

Companies are selected based on industry experience, services offered and the ability to handle high order flow. The editors also conduct a comprehensive review of key capabilities and factor in average annual order volume. Holding a place on this list year after year is a testament to our team’s commitment to innovation and excellence—and our ability to meet the ever-changing demands of our clients and the market.

Supply chain solutions are becoming more valuable.

 With the growth of ecommerce, direct-to-consumer merchants need outside help to manage their internal fulfillment capabilities. Reverse logistics, too, are more critical than ever. Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services is pleased to be earning more and more recognition for our proficiency in handling forward logistics services, as well as returns.

We’re the global leader in logistics, commerce enablement and device lifecycle services.

With our global infrastructure, open technology platform, and services including cross-border fulfillment, drop shipping, returns management, IT asset disposition and re-marketing, we offer clients a broad range of resources and decades of knowledge.

Our Technology: 

BlueIQ: Ingram Micro’s proprietary global IT asset management system enables clients to manage their assets efficiently in real time, regardless of where on the globe they’re collected. From receipt through processing and disposition, BlueIQ provides process control oversight and a complete, auditable chain of custody.

Shipwire: Our order and fulfillment management platform connects merchants to an expansive global network of warehouses, parcel carriers, transportation and ecommerce options. The platform’s logistics infrastructure supports B2B and B2C solutions, and enables fast order fulfillment, inventory control and visibility, and optimized supply chain solutions.

Warehouse Management System (WMS): Our proprietary WMS is highly customizable and scalable. Whether clients need to manage hundreds of returns a month or millions of units across multiple locations on a major holiday, our WMS can handle it.

To learn more about Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services and understand why we were chosen for the Top 3PL list again this year, visit www.ingrammicroservices.com.

Glen Sutton is senior vice president, Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services, Americas region.

 This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

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February 25, 2020 at 12:50AM

Expert Insights on 8 Cybersecurity Trends for 2020
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/expert-insights-on-8-cybersecurity-trends-for-2020/

The only real way for your customers to thwart cyber threats is to become armed with information.

Cyberattacks will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, according to the “2019 Official Annual Cybercrime Report,” by Cybersecurity Ventures. These cybercrimes represent “the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, risks the incentives for innovation and investment, and will be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined,” the report states.

The only real way for your customers to thwart them is to become armed with information. Check out these cybersecurity insights about looming threats, trends and technologies for 2020.

The Skills Gap Widens –The shortage of cybersecurity professionals is nearly 3 million globally, according to the (ISC2) Cybersecurity Workforce Study “Cybersecurity Professionals Focus on Developing New Skills as Workforce Gap Widens,” with close to half a million in the United States alone. What’s more, 60% of those surveyed say their companies are at moderate or extreme risk of cybersecurity attacks due to this shortage, the study states. Fortunately, the industry is responding with creative solutions, such as cyber ranges, to fill the gaps.

The Potential for Colossal Attacks on IoT – With the increased adoption of internet of things (IoT) and industrial internet of things (IIoT) comes the potential for colossal security breaches—both in terms of size and impacts. For example, the global connected cars market is expected to grow 270% by 2022, with more than 125 million passenger cars with embedded connectivityto be shipped between 2018 and 2022, according to CounterPoint research. Imagine the consequences of an attack.

It’s All in Service Providers’ Contracts – Read and understand the contracts of your service providers and delineate security responsibilities up front. For example, the HIPPA Privacy Rule requires that “a covered [healthcare] entity obtain satisfactory assurances from its business associates that the business associate will appropriately safeguard the protected health information it receives or creates on behalf of the covered entity.”

Dev-Test Environments – Production environments are protected, but what about dev-test and other non-production environments? Uber software engineers developed and tested software that could connect to backup data related to users and drivers through inadequate access controls. Intruders then exploited Uber’s software development environment in a series of breaches, demonstrating the importance of securing all software environments, not just production environments.

Growing Data Privacy Concerns and Regulation – Data continues to be collected from every connected device, which raises the question: Who owns the data? If an enterprise owns the data, then the enterprise must be mandated to protect it. The GDPR (and the California Consumer Privacy Act) established that personal data is fundamentally the property of the person. In the case of California, which will likely become a de facto standard across the nation, organizations will have to disclose to California customers what personal data has been collected, and then delete and stop selling it if the customer requests.

AI-Generated Cybersecurity – Attackers are increasingly using AI to mimic people we know, but security companies are also using AI to fight back. In fact, 61% of enterprises say they cannot detect breach attempts today without the use of AI technologies, and 48% say their budgets for AI in cybersecurity will increase by an average of 29% in FY 2020, according to the Forbes.com article “Why AI Is the Future of Cybersecurity.”

Fighting Back with Cyber Ranges – Today’s organizations, universities and companies alike are increasingly turning to cyber ranges to help employees understand the latest threats and give them the tools and practice to combat them.

The Downstream Suppliers – No longer are organizations navigating the global economy alone. There are partners, suppliers, franchisees and other constituencies to consider—all connected in some way. An attack on you or any one of them puts everyone at risk. The Target breach that shocked the world in 2013 and affected 40 million cardholders demonstrated how cyber attackers gained access to Target’s gateway server through credentials stolen from a third-party vendor.

These are all trends that your customers will face in 2020.This is your opportunity to serve as a trusted advisor by having critical conversations about each of these topics to determine the best solutions to solve their challenges. There is no better time to take advantage of the various opportunities in the cybersecurity space. Tech Data can help empower your team with the latest industry expertise, cutting-edge solutions and services to enhance your reputable security practice. Let Tech Data’s holistic approach to cybersecurity help you grow your security margins across the cyber-threat continuum.

To learn more, visit here or contact [email protected].

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

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February 25, 2020 at 12:50AM

Unisys Unveils Updated Global Partner Program at RSA
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/unisys-unveils-updated-global-partner-program-at-rsa/

Unisys also announced the availability of Stealth 5.0.

RSA CONFERENCE — Unisys, the security services provider, has expanded and enhanced the partner program it introduced last year.

Announced during this week’s RSA Conference 2020, the new Unisys Security Global Channel Partner Program designates partners at three performance-based tiers – platinum, gold and silver – with benefits assigned to each tier. Registered partners have access to discounts, demos, collateral, co-branded materials and customizable marketing campaigns related to Unisys Stealth and other security offerings.

Other benefits include webinars, partner roadshows and regional events later in 2020. Partner-specific solution overviews with use cases and case studies are also available.

Chris Kloes, Unisys’ vice president of security, tells us the program focused specific resources on a couple of partners in select markets in 2019, and the results were “wildly successful.”

Unisys’ Chris Kloes

“With greater demand for software-defined perimeter and zero-trust solutions in the market, we knew that other partners globally required this type of solution,” he said. “Some partners have decades of experience in working with technology providers. We have taken some of the best practices and applied them to the program. Unisys has invested significantly in its online training curriculum in order for our partner teams to be fully enabled when speaking with their customers.”

By formalizing relationships with registered resellers of its security solutions, Unisys will broaden its client base for its security solutions, as well as boost the market reach of partners through the ability to resell solutions like Stealth, according to the company.

“Our partners have clear line of sight to the margin they’ll earn through transparent deal registration programs and additional margin incentives based on select criteria being met,” Kloes said. “The partner program expands Unisys Stealth into many more verticals and geographies where we haven’t had a presence. Through our comprehensive training program, our partners will be able to establish additional services revenues to complement the technology sale.”

Also at RSA, Unisys announced the availability of Stealth 5.0, the latest version of its security software which now provides protection for data in container and Kubernetes environments, designed to improve data-center security and secure new workloads. Stealth brings clients “always on” security and resilience, stopping even sponsored, sophisticated cyberattacks. And should an attacker get inside, Stealth prevents data exfiltration so that the breach remains a minor occurrence, the company said.

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February 25, 2020 at 02:53AM

Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services Is Named a Top 3PL for the Fifth Consecutive Year
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/ingram-micro-commerce-lifecycle-services-is-named-a-top-3pl-for-the-fifth-consecutive-year-2/

Third-party logistics companies are selected based on industry experience, services offered and the ability to handle high order flow.

Each year, in January, the editors of Multichannel Merchant announce a list of the top 3PLs—the leading logistics providers. For the fifth consecutive year, Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services earned a spot on the list.

Companies are selected based on industry experience, services offered and the ability to handle high order flow. The editors also conduct a comprehensive review of key capabilities and factor in average annual order volume. Holding a place on this list year after year is a testament to our team’s commitment to innovation and excellence—and our ability to meet the ever-changing demands of our clients and the market.

Supply chain solutions are becoming more valuable.

 With the growth of ecommerce, direct-to-consumer merchants need outside help to manage their internal fulfillment capabilities. Reverse logistics, too, are more critical than ever. Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services is pleased to be earning more and more recognition for our proficiency in handling forward logistics services, as well as returns.

We’re the global leader in logistics, commerce enablement and device lifecycle services.

With our global infrastructure, open technology platform, and services including cross-border fulfillment, drop shipping, returns management, IT asset disposition and re-marketing, we offer clients a broad range of resources and decades of knowledge.

Our Technology: 

BlueIQ: Ingram Micro’s proprietary global IT asset management system enables clients to manage their assets efficiently in real time, regardless of where on the globe they’re collected. From receipt through processing and disposition, BlueIQ provides process control oversight and a complete, auditable chain of custody.

Shipwire: Our order and fulfillment management platform connects merchants to an expansive global network of warehouses, parcel carriers, transportation and ecommerce options. The platform’s logistics infrastructure supports B2B and B2C solutions, and enables fast order fulfillment, inventory control and visibility, and optimized supply chain solutions.

Warehouse Management System (WMS): Our proprietary WMS is highly customizable and scalable. Whether clients need to manage hundreds of returns a month or millions of units across multiple locations on a major holiday, our WMS can handle it.

To learn more about Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services and understand why we were chosen for the Top 3PL list again this year, visit www.ingrammicroservices.com.

Glen Sutton is senior vice president, Ingram Micro Commerce & Lifecycle Services, Americas region.

 This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

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February 25, 2020 at 02:53AM

CenturyLink, Microsoft, Google, Cisco Kick Off the Week with Cloud News
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/centurylink-microsoft-google-cisco-kick-off-the-week-with-cloud-news/

There’s a lot happening this week thanks to the RSA Conference and the popularity of cloud in general.

Cloud news leaped out of the gates on Monday as a number of companies made announcements independently and as part of the RSA Conference taking place this week. We’ve rounded up some of the channel-centric cloud pieces and compiled them in this short roundup.

CenturyLink Now an Azure MSP

As businesses move workloads to the edge and use more than one clother oud, they must optimize performance. To that end, CenturyLink, a Microsoft gold partner, has joined the Networking Managed Service Provider Program for Microsoft Azure.

CenturyLink now is authorized to provide network and consultation services around Azure services to help enterprises more easily connect and build cloud solutions.

Last year, the carrier and Microsoft made a deal for CenturyLink to provide high-performance connectivity to Azure locations.

“Azure customers can now look to CenturyLink to build cloud solutions with high performance, and predictable networking and security,” said Ross Ortega, partner program manager, Microsoft Azure Networking.

Microsoft Moving Into Mexico

There’s more news on the Microsoft cloud front. Last week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella held a press conference with the president of Mexico to announce a $1.1 billion investment in that country.

A big part of the so-called “Innovate for Mexico” initiative comes in the form of a new data center region for Azure. Once that’s completed within the next five years, businesses and organizations in Mexico will be able to buy Azure, Office 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform services, and they may opt to keep data in-country, the company said.

Microsoft’s Enrique Perezyera

“There is only one future, and it will be digital,” Enrique Perezyera, general manager, Microsoft Mexico, said. “Mexico is well positioned to harness the power of new technologies, and by jointly working with Microsoft, the country will make this future a reality.”

“Innovate for Mexico” aims to contribute to Mexico’s development, not just through data centers but also through education and skills development. For Azure partners, though, the data center news is likely most applicable — at least for now. As more people undergo Microsoft training, managed service providers, VARs and other partners looking to operate or expand in Mexico will have a larger talent pool from which to draw.

The addition of data centers in Mexico means Microsoft Azure will operate 57 cloud regions in 22 countries.

Microsoft stands out as the first of the big three public cloud providers to really focus on the Mexico market.

Google Cloud Releases More Chronicle-Enabled Security Features

Google Cloud Platform on Monday unveiled additional security features made possible by its 2019 Chronicle acquisition.

First, GCP has updated Chronicle’s security analytics platform so users may detect threats using the new YARA-L rules language.

“This advanced threat detection provides hugely scalable, real-time and retroactive rule execution,” Sunil Potti, vice president, Google Cloud Security, wrote in a Feb. 24 blog.

And second, GCP debuted Chronicle’s data fusion capability, which allows deeper security insights including automatically linking multiple events into one timeline. Palo Alto Networks is the first partner to integrate this new data structure, doing so with its new Cortex XSOAR platform that adds threat management to security orchestration, automation and response.

“Cortex XSOAR offers automated enrichment, response and case management to enterprise-wide threats,” said Rishi Bhargava, vice president, product strategy at Palo Alto Networks. “The integration with Chronicle’s new detection capabilities and event timelines, across months or years of data, enhances that response and enables comprehensive threat management for our mutual customers.”

Chronicle launched its security analytics platform last year to …

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February 25, 2020 at 03:51AM

Cybersecurity Roundup: BullGuard, Olympics Cyberthreats, Sophos, SentinelOne
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cybersecurity-roundup-bullguard-olympics-cyberthreats-sophos-sentinelone/

Many SMBs are operating under a false sense of security.

Despite constant headlines of breaches and warnings that cybercriminals aren’t strictly going after big targets, many SMBs still aren’t taking cybersecurity seriously enough.

New research commissioned and published by BullGuard revealed an alarming number of small businesses in the United States and United Kingdom are not prepared for a potential cyberattack or breach.

One-third of companies with 50 or fewer employees report using free, consumer-grade cybersecurity, and one in five companies uses no endpoint security. Additionally, 43% of SMB owners have no cybersecurity defense plan in place at all — leaving their most sensitive financial, customer and business data – and ultimately their companies – at significant risk.

The study also revealed some glaring discrepancies between what SMB owners believe versus what’s actually occurring in the market. Nearly 60% of SMB owners believe their business is unlikely to be targeted by cybercriminals; however, the results revealed that almost 19% of SMB owners have suffered from a cyberattack or data breach within the past year.

Once breached, one in four (25%) SMB owners said they had to spend $10,000 or more to resolve the attack, which could be potentially devastating for a small company. As for time lost, one-half of SMB owners said it took 24 hours or longer to recover from a breach or cyberattack, while one-quarter reported they lost business as a result, and almost two in five said they lost crucial data.

To find out more about why many SMBs are lax when it comes to cybersecurity, we spoke with Paul Lipman, BullGuard’s CEO.

Channel Futures: Why are so many SMBs still not taking cybersecurity seriously?

BullGuard’s Paul Lipman

Paul Lipman: Many SMBs are operating under a false sense of security as larger companies attract most of the media attention when it comes to cybercrime and hacking. In reality, SMBs are enticing targets for hackers. Large corporations invest heavily in internet security systems, typically making it challenging for hackers to breach their networks. They also have the financial resources and workforce to monitor and address such threats compared to smaller organizations. Small businesses are not immune to cyberattacks and data breaches, and are often targeted specifically because they fail to prioritize security and have limited resources available.

Smaller companies may have less data to steal, but if successfully hacked, they can provide a tunnel into the networks of larger companies with which they work. And as phishing targets, they are much more vulnerable than their larger counterparts who have first-line defenses, sophisticated firewalls, intrusion detection systems and sandboxes that are all overseen by 24/7 monitoring.

CF: What are the dangers of relying on free consumer cybersecurity solutions?

PL: One of the last things SMBs think about is cybersecurity. By shortchanging cybersecurity, they are putting everything they’ve worked for at risk.

Additionally, for consumers, as much as free public Wi-Fi is appealing, it can also be risky and unsafe. Since it’s a free service, its use can be by anyone, including hackers, predators, spies and all sorts of cybercriminals. You never know who is sharing the public Wi-Fi connection with you and what their intentions are. There are a number of free and paid VPNs available. Though free VPNs can reduce the risks associated with public Wi-Fi, they do have security limitations. As such, it’s much better to invest in a paid VPN service to ensure maximum protection.

CF: What can MSSPs and other cybersecurity providers be doing to help these SMBs?

PL: Service providers deliver value in three key areas. First, in recommending …

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February 25, 2020 at 03:51AM

RSA Roundup: McAfee M&A, BlackBerry, Trustifi, BigID
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/rsa-roundup-mcafee-ma-blackberry-trustifi-bigid/

McAfee is collaborating with DXC Technology on managed detection and response.

McAfee‘s acquisition of Light Point Security and product news from by BlackBerry, Trustifi and BigID marked the opening of the 2020 RSA Conference in San Francisco.

“In its 29-year history, RSA Conference has evolved to meet new demands of the ever-changing world of cybersecurity,” said Linda Gray Martin, RSA Conference’s senior director and general manager. “But one thing has always remained constant, and that’s the importance of the human element in driving the industry forward.”

McAfee plans to integrate Light Point’s browser isolation technology into McAfee Secure Web Gateway, complementing its existing inbound and outbound protection for all web and cloud traffic. Financial details of the acquisition weren’t disclosed.

McAfee’s Ash Kulkarni

“Web browsing is one of the most common threat vectors for endpoints to get infected,” said Ash Kulkarni, executive vice president and chief product officer in McAfee‘s enterprise business group. “Adding Light Point Security’s capabilities into our products will create solutions that enable our customers to mitigate web-based threats without impacting user experience. We are constantly working to find ways to help our customers safely adopt the cloud so they enjoy increased productivity without experiencing heightened concerns about cyberattacks. Light Point Security’s browser isolation capabilities will bolster the McAfee Unified Cloud Edge offering to make it a preferred solution for security-focused businesses without compromising on productivity.”

In addition, McAfee has launched a global managed detection and response (MDR) platform in collaboration with DXC Technology, and has unveiled new innovations to its cloud-native MVision platform with the availability of Unified Cloud Edge (UCE), which provides unified data and threat protection from device level to the cloud.

Also at RSA, BlackBerry unveiled its new BlackBerry Spark platform with a new unified endpoint security (UES) layer which can work with BlackBerry unified endpoint management (UEM) to deliver zero-trust security. Using AI, ML and automation, Spark now offers improved cyberthreat prevention and remediation, and provides visibility across desktop, mobile, server, and IoT (including automotive) endpoints.

Richard McLeod, BlackBerry‘s global vice president of enterprise software channels, said the Spark platform and his company’s zero trust/unified endpoint security architecture represent “significant security consultation, professional and managed services, and high value-add security sales opportunities” for BlackBerry partners.

BlackBerry’s Richard McLeod

“With this announcement, endpoint protection platform, endpoint defense and response, mobile threat defense and continuous authentication solutions are available today for authorized BlackBerry partners,” he said. “Enabling our partners to bridge the security requirements from servers to laptops to mobile devices, from endpoints to applications, to IoT and automobiles.”

​​​​​In addition, with the Spark platform, partners can take advantage of BlackBerry’s software development kit (SDK) to integrate intelligent security into their apps and services,” McLeod said.

“For example, in upcoming releases an ISV that is already using our Dynamics SDK will be able to leverage BlackBerry’s advanced Mobile Threat Defense within their application without having to add any code,” he said.

Also at RSA:

Trustifi, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) email security company, has just incorporated a new AI-enabled feature into its email encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) solution that also works via optical character recognition technology (OCR). The tool recognizes elements such as a scan of a credit card or a screenshot of a financial statement, and categorizes those attachments as sensitive. It then automatically encrypts the attachment, reducing the opportunity for employees/individuals to mistakenly transmit confidential material unprotected.

BigID announced next-generation data security capabilities, with features that apply BigID’s ML algorithms, designed originally to facilitate compliance with privacy regulations like the California Consumer Privacy (CCPA), to dark data. This solution uses advanced data discovery and ML-driven cluster analysis to identify, classify and process unstructured files, and retroactively addressing glaring security blindspots and getting ahead of future issues.

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February 25, 2020 at 05:52AM

Forcepoint Debuts Security Subscription Services
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/forcepoint-debuts-security-subscription-services/

Forcepoint Advantage modernizes enterprise security pricing.

Forcepoint has new security subscription services delivering all-you-can-consume access, unlimited growth and support across the company’s protection solutions.

Forcepoint Advantage offers a single per-user subscription program across the endpoint, network, cloud and entity behavior analytics. This eliminates the need to license and manage separate point products — such as a firewall, web gateway, cloud access security broker (CASB) and data loss prevention (DLP).

Ravi Srinivasan, Forcepoint vice president, tells us there were three primary drivers for introducing Forcepoint Advantage. Those include: growing market demand for organizations seeking security solutions that could address broader use cases; the complexity faced by the enterprises to buy, implement and maintain multiple point product vendor relations; and the lack of transparency in those point product pricing models, even in a security-as-a-services model.

Forcepoint’s Ravi Srinivasan

“This promoted Forcepoint to introduce Forcepoint Advantage, modernizing enterprise security pricing with the required security solutions to solve broader security use cases,” he said.

Forcepoint Advantage will help partners create new business opportunities, especially in the area of protecting data wherever it’s used (on premises or in the cloud) and protecting any access to cloud (branch offices or remote users), Srinivasan said.

“Partners can benefit from the disruptive, single-subscription pricing model to introduce Forcepoint solutions to address broader enterprises security needs,” he said. “For example, partners can lead with Forcepoint Advantage to unify the necessary data security controls to protecting data wherever it’s used with converged a data protection solution. This means expanded opportunities for partners.”

Instead of promoting a point product like next-generation firewall for protecting network on the edge of the enterprise, partners can leverage Forcepoint Advantage to help enterprises protect all access to cloud, from enterprise, branch offices and remote users connecting to public, private and hybrid clouds, “thus differentiating from point vendors that are either a firewall-only vendor or secure web gateway vendor, or CASB vendor,” Srinivasan said.

Organizations garner the “most flexible” enterprise deployment model available to cover unlimited user growth, whether through organic business expansion or mergers and acquisition, over the term of the relationship, according to Forcepoint.

“Forcepoint recognizes that solving today’s most pressing security problems requires tight integration of capabilities that cross traditional point product boundaries,” said Matthew Moynahan, Forcepoint’s CEO. “We are committed to being a true security partner by driving convergence across the security stack and returning value back to our customers in the form of dramatically reduced licensing costs and lower operational burden for their already resource constrained security teams. Every user on today’s enterprise network must be protected, and we are committed to making it affordable for our customers to do so through programs such as Forcepoint Advantage.”

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February 25, 2020 at 05:52AM

RSA Roundup: McAfee M&A, BlackBerry, Trustifi, BigID
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/rsa-roundup-mcafee-ma-blackberry-trustifi-bigid-2/

McAfee is collaborating with DXC Technology on managed detection and response.

McAfee‘s acquisition of Light Point Security and product news from by BlackBerry, Trustifi and BigID marked the opening of the 2020 RSA Conference in San Francisco.

“In its 29-year history, RSA Conference has evolved to meet new demands of the ever-changing world of cybersecurity,” said Linda Gray Martin, RSA Conference’s senior director and general manager. “But one thing has always remained constant, and that’s the importance of the human element in driving the industry forward.”

McAfee plans to integrate Light Point’s remote browser isolation (RBI) technology into McAfee Secure Web Gateway (SWG), complementing its existing inbound and outbound protection for all web and cloud traffic, and the newly launched MVision Unified Cloud Edge (UCE). Financial details of the acquisition weren’t disclosed.

Naveen Palavalli, McAfee‘s vice president of product and solutions marketing, tells us the technology will be available for selling through the channel as both an add-on to current SWG customers and as part of the UCE bundles.

“Enterprises in high-risk and/or high regulated environments will benefit from RBI, which adds an additional defense-in-depth layer to strengthen their defenses,” he said. “With UCE, enterprises have a converged approach to security in a SASE architecture, which dramatically reduces their cost and complexity, delivering maximum business agility from the cloud.”

In addition, McAfee has launched a global managed detection and response (MDR) platform in collaboration with DXC Technology.

Also at RSA, BlackBerry unveiled its new BlackBerry Spark platform with a new unified endpoint security (UES) layer which can work with BlackBerry unified endpoint management (UEM) to deliver zero-trust security. Using AI, ML and automation, Spark now offers improved cyberthreat prevention and remediation, and provides visibility across desktop, mobile, server, and IoT (including automotive) endpoints.

Richard McLeod, BlackBerry‘s global vice president of enterprise software channels, said the Spark platform and his company’s zero trust/unified endpoint security architecture represent “significant security consultation, professional and managed services, and high value-add security sales opportunities” for BlackBerry partners.

BlackBerry’s Richard McLeod

“With this announcement, endpoint protection platform, endpoint defense and response, mobile threat defense and continuous authentication solutions are available today for authorized BlackBerry partners,” he said. “Enabling our partners to bridge the security requirements from servers to laptops to mobile devices, from endpoints to applications, to IoT and automobiles.”

​​​​​In addition, with the Spark platform, partners can take advantage of BlackBerry’s software development kit (SDK) to integrate intelligent security into their apps and services,” McLeod said.

“For example, in upcoming releases an ISV that is already using our Dynamics SDK will be able to leverage BlackBerry’s advanced Mobile Threat Defense within their application without having to add any code,” he said.

Also at RSA:

Trustifi, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) email security company, has just incorporated a new AI-enabled feature into its email encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) solution that also works via optical character recognition technology (OCR). The tool recognizes elements such as a scan of a credit card or a screenshot of a financial statement, and categorizes those attachments as sensitive. It then automatically encrypts the attachment, reducing the opportunity for employees/individuals to mistakenly transmit confidential material unprotected.

BigID announced next-generation data security capabilities, with features that apply BigID’s ML algorithms, designed originally to facilitate compliance with privacy regulations like the California Consumer Privacy (CCPA), to dark data. This solution uses advanced data discovery and ML-driven cluster analysis to identify, classify and process unstructured files, and retroactively addressing glaring security blindspots and getting ahead of future issues.

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February 25, 2020 at 08:52PM

Microsoft Sharpens Focus on India as Market Primed for Rapid Growth
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/microsoft-sharpens-focus-on-india-as-market-primed-for-rapid-growth/

Digital India initiative has buoyed opportunities for IT partners.

(Pictured above: Microsoft’s Satya Nadella on stage at the company’s Future Decoded conference in Mumbai, India.)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is in his home country of India this week where the company is doubling down on its effort to deepen its partnerships with technology solutions and service providers.

On the first of a three-day trip to India, Nadella addressed an audience of CEOs at Microsoft’s Future Decoded conference in Mumbai, where he talked up the company’s latest advances in AI, automation and tools to enable digital transformation.

Nadella described Microsoft’s drive toward a ubiquitous compute fabric with increasing intelligence in the cloud, at the edge, and the shift away from dependency on any one device, showcasing the company’s enabling tools and platforms including Azure, GitHub, LinkedIn, PowerApps and Teams.

“To me, it comes down to how every organization here in India can drive this wave,” Nadella said.

Anant Maheshwari, president of Microsoft India, told attendees that the country now has 560 million internet users and 460 million who use smartphones.

Microsoft’s Anant Maheshwari

“The data loop that this is creating is amongst the largest and growing the fastest across the world,” Maheshwari said. “And that creates tremendous opportunity for India to influence the world and influence where digital goes.”

Maheshwari added that the IT industry makes up $180 billion, approximately 8% of the country’s GDP. India is home of the world’s third largest ecosystem including 8,000 startups that are SaaS providers, a figure that has grown three times over the past five years, according to Maheshwari.

“If you take these two ends of the spectrum, we are part of leading the India transformation from both ends — the services side from the IT services and the innovation that’s happening in startups,” he said.

Over the past year, Microsoft has engaged in deeper partnerships with some of India’s largest IT services and infrastructure providers. Through its ITeS 360 initiative, Microsoft is encouraging some of its largest partners to create business units focused on the company’s core applications and solutions stack.

Among them, Tata Communications Services (TCS) formed a Microsoft business unit in November and HCL Technologies last month also formed one. Both are among India’s largest IT services, solutions and outsourcing providers. Last summer, Reliance Jio, a subsidiary of diversified energy and chemical conglomerate Reliance Industries, signed a broad 10-year partnership with Microsoft.

As part of that agreement, Jio is building data centers across India with the “next-generation” of compute, storage and network infrastructure where Microsoft will deploy its Azure platform. The first two datacenters are slated to go live this year in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Jio will also build solutions for clients based on the Azure platform.

India has rapidly arisen as a potentially lucrative growth market for companies that provide a wide variety of IT services throughout the country, where approximately 1.4 billion people represent the world’s second largest population.

The country has aggressively modernized its infrastructure following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India initiative in 2014 to bring affordable and widely available broadband and modern wireless communications services throughout India.

Indeed, just a few years ago the best broadband service available was 256 Kbps, and now the average speed available in villages throughout India is 21 Mbps, according to Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani, who joined Nadella on stage during yesterday’s Future Decoded speech.

It also wasn’t long ago that only 2G wireless service was widely available, Ambani added, noting that it came at the steep price of 10,000 rupees (approximately 139 USD) per Gb. Over the past three years, he said 380 million people have migrated to 4G technology, which now costs about 14 rupees, or 19 cents.

“I can easily say that the mobile networks in India now are better or on par with anybody else in the world,” Ambani said. “Consumption has also gone up and this has really become people’s movement. Because we have this infrastructure, we are accelerating, and we are just at the beginning of this whole journey.”

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February 25, 2020 at 11:50PM

Automation: An Answer to the Compliance Kerfuffle
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/automation-an-answer-to-the-compliance-kerfuffle/

Less than 10% of MSPs offer compliance-as-a-service solutions. Kaseya Compliance Manager seeks to fill this gap.

Compliance is so hot right now, and Kaseya is all over it. The provider just announced a new comprehensive audit, assessment and analysis solution that allows users to automate compliance processes and documentation according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cyber Security Framework (CSF). 

This capability within Kaseya Compliance Manager boosts MSPs and helps them better support small and midsize clients facing the increasingly nasty and growing number of cybersecurity threats by leveraging the best practices outlined in the NIST CSF. —

According to Kaseya’s 2019 MSP Benchmark Survey, 83% of MSPs are impacted by their end-customers’ compliance requirements, and one-half assist end customers in their compliance efforts on an ad-hoc basis; yet, there’s a compliance expertise gap among MSPs, with less than one in 10 MSPs offering compliance-as-a-service solutions. 

Kaseya Compliance Manager aims to solve this issue, empowering small and midsize companies to prepare for just about any existing or future data privacy law iteration, as NIST CSF makes up the foundation for a majority of these regulations. [For example, the federal COPRA bill (US’ would-be answer to the GDPR), the CCPA, and the NY SHIELD Act — arguably the most comprehensive state data privacy regulation to date, effective March 2020).

Kaseya’s Mike Puglia

“Standards like GDPR, HIPAA and NIST CSF have a laundry list of requirements to demonstrate compliance, and oftentimes the complexity of these requirements reach beyond the expertise of IT administrators and MSPs,” said Mike Puglia, chief strategy officer, Kaseya. “Despite that fact, almost every MSP client is subject to at least one set of security or privacy rules, if not more. For most organizations, compliance with these rules is outside their skill set. This presents a huge opportunity for MSPs to step in and offer to manage the compliance process for their customers.” 

Puglia warns, however, to do so effectively, MSPs need a solution that not only helps them bridge the compliance expertise gap but also complements their multifunction capabilities so that they can capitalize on this next big managed service. This is where Kaseya Compliance Manager comes in. 

Kaseya Compliance Manager is a purpose-built, role-based compliance process automation platform. The product’s workflow engine, automated discovery, management portal, and built-in compliance document generation and archiving hand MSPs the information they need to gather, process, analyze and validate customer compliance efforts with a number of regulations and laws. 

“We built Compliance Manager to be intuitive,” said Puglia. “Regulation-specific versions of Compliance Manager, for GDPR and HIPAA for example, delve into the specific requirements and nuances of those standards without requiring the technician to have a background in data privacy or medical records. Additionally, again keeping MSPs in mind, we offer live instructor-led training, one-on-one sessions and onboarding assistance to help them get their first deployment up and running, as well as provide free unlimited technical support.”

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February 26, 2020 at 04:52AM

Boomi Launches Improved Integration Center of Excellence Service
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/boomi-launches-improved-integration-center-of-excellence-service/

Boomi partners can leverage Boomi’s ICoE for greater ROI.

Boomi, a Dell Technologies business, has a new Integration Center of Excellence (ICoE) service, to help today’s modern business with their digital tranformations.

The latest iteration of Boomi’s ICoE practice, or service, is based on a five-step methodology designed to help enterprise customers build integrations faster and better.

Boomi’s Chris Port

“Based on our experience with over 10,000 customers, Boomi has developed the first ICoE model for the age of rapid, distributed innovation and AI, IoT, multicloud infrastructures and other technologies, that enterprises depend on today,” said Chris Port, chief operating officer for Boomi. “We’re uniquely positioned to help customers make the most of the Boomi Unified Platform to drive integrated experiences with their customers by building integrations, reducing technical debt, and achieving their goals for growth and digital transformation.”

Historically, ICoE has promised to standardize processes, cut integration costs and improve business processes, but it was criticized for falling short in each area, especially in today’s world where organizations are more distributed, a new ICoE approach needed to be created, according to Port.

The new ICoE service goes further than previous approaches and is based on Boomi’s experience with more than 10,000 customers and was developed in collaboration with leading global system integrators.

“We developed a methodology to build an ICoE that supports digital transformation and builds capabilities that meet the needs of today’s enterprise, such as support for cloud, on-premises, API, rigorous security and more,” he said. “Our ICoE is not another top-down bureaucracy designed for a pre-cloud enterprise. It’s a flexible, collaborative team that makes the most of iPaaS to empower integration contributors – from security experts to citizen integrators – to make building integrations faster and more suitable to today’s rapidly evolving digital organization.”

In contrast with earlier industry efforts with ICoEs, the new Boomi ICoE is different:

Boomi says its service combines modern development and management practices to provide a more productive, flexible, and collaborative IT environment.

Enterprises have had to pick and choose which integrations to excel at, whereas Boomi’s ICoE addresses all types of integrations – whether it involves low-code, API development or custom coding, and whether they connect to cloud, multicloud, on-prem, IoT or other endpoints.

Every organization starts at a different point in the integration maturity spectrum and has unique differences that need to be well understood. The Boomi ICoE service helps customers with the maturity journey, enabling them to more quickly and effectively achieve better business outcomes.

Partners deal with large customers who have increasingly complex and distributed teams. Their customers need support and guidance, which is what Boomi’s ICoE service is designed to do.

“Boomi’s ICoE enables partners to leverage our integration community of excellence while we remain focused on the integrations. The center will provide partners with a faster implementation, increased time to value, and greater ROI,” said Port. “Partners will be able to support even larger enterprise customers, providing them with the guidance, community, and methodology needed to more rapidly scale and succeed at integrations.“

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February 26, 2020 at 05:51AM

HP Marches Forward with Growth Plan, Calls Xerox Proposal ‘Fundamentally Flawed’
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/hp-marches-forward-with-growth-plan-calls-xerox-proposal-fundamentally-flawed/

Yet the company is open to exploring talks with Xerox.

As promised, HP Inc. has emerged from its quiet period and announced a multiyear plan to grow earnings and the company, maintaining its commitment to shareholders. At the same time, HP said it’s keeping the door open to further talks with Xerox, which has been on a tear to take over the company for the past few months.

HP’s multiyear strategic and financial value creation plan is expected to deliver $4.7-$5.1 billion of non-GAAP operating profit in fiscal 2022, driven by growth in the company’s printer and 3-D printing and digital manufacturing products, as well as sustained attention to costs, and a new capital return program of about $16 billion from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2022.

HP’s Enrique Lores

“HP is out of the gate strong in [the first quarter], with outstanding earnings and a robust plan to create significant value for shareholders,” said Enrique Lores, president and CEO of HP. “Our three-year financial targets reflect a company at the top of its game, combining the industry’s best innovation with disciplined cost management and aggressive capital returns to support a compelling investment in both the short and long term.”

Lores also noted that Xerox’s most recent bid for the company, at $24 per share or about $34 billion, undervalues HP, creates significant risk and compromises the future of the company.

Here’s a closer look at the last Xerox proposal, as per HP:

Exchanges HP stock for cash and Xerox stock at a fundamentally flawed value exchange that does not compensate HP shareholders for the value of HP executing on its strategic plan and transfers value from HP shareholders to Xerox shareholders.

Uses HP’s balance sheet as transaction consideration and creates an irresponsible capital structure that would jeopardize the future value of the combined company and constrain its ability to invest in growth and innovation.

Overstates the potential synergies by including HP’s existing plans for independent cost reductions and productivity gains.

Always keeping its stockholders front and center, including potential mergers and acquisitions, HP said it will reach out to Xerox to explore if there is a deal that creates value for shareholders that is additive to HP’s strategic and financial plan.

“The HP Board is united in its full support of the company’s strategy and team. HP has a proven track record of consistent value creation and it is well positioned in both print and personal systems to drive operating profit growth and attractive shareholder returns,” said Chip Bergh, chair of HP’s board of directors. “Our new capital return program enables us to optimize our balance sheet while maintaining the appropriate capital structure for the business.”

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February 26, 2020 at 05:51AM

RSA Roundup Day 2: Mimecast, Exabeam, CrowdStrike, Firemon
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/rsa-roundup-day-2-mimecast-exabeam-crowdstrike-firemon/

Exabeam unveiled a new cloud platform and FireMon handed out awards.

Day two of this week’s massive RSA Conference 2020 in San Francisco prompted more product news from Mimecast, Exabeam and Crowdstrike.

Mimecast has added new capabilities to its cloud-based platform comprised of integrated service components to combat the latest cybersecurity challenges. These capabilities further enable customers to “embrace a new approach” to defending email, the company said.

Mimecast’s Dino DiMarino

Dino DiMarino, Mimecast’s chief revenue officer, tells us these new additions provide partners with a “stronger, more comprehensive” defense against evolving attack methods, which can be integrated to streamline and eliminate cost and complexity.

“With these updates, our partners can increase their customer’s cybersecurity protection across all corners of their organizations beyond their purview, strengthening three distinct zones — at the perimeter, within an organization or network, and beyond the perimeter,” he said. “This offers a unique opportunity for partners to differentiate themselves by offering customers more pervasive security protection in a single, integrated solution compared to [a] disparate point solution.”

Exabeam unveiled its new Exabeam Cloud Platform, designed to help architects secure new use cases by expediting the provisioning and consumption of new applications, tools and content, and making security engineers and analysts more efficient.

Applications, including the previously announced Exabeam Threat Intelligence Service and the new Exabeam Cloud Archive, will be available on the cloud platform through the Exabeam Application Marketplace. The first tool, the Exabeam Parser Editor, is being made available with the launch of the Exabeam Cloud Studio on the cloud platform.

Ted Plumis, Exabeam’s vice president of channels, business and corporate development, tells us each tool is designed to streamline the workload of the security operations center (SOC) engineer and increase the security available.

Exabeam’s Ted Plumis

“Partners will see carryover benefits from assisting end users in solving specific pain points: helping leaders improve the company’s security posture; aiding architects in securing new use cases by expediting the provisioning and consumption of new applications, tools and content; and making security engineers and analysts more efficient with simplicity of use and deployment,” he said. “This is the first step in new opportunities for Exabeam partners. In the future, applications will also be available from trusted partners. Partners will be able to build applications on the cloud platform using Exabeam’s software development toolkit (SDK) or simply sell them through the marketplace. Having access to this marketplace is a distinct competitive advantage for Exabeam partners.”

CrowdStrike announced that it has made available to partners new features built on the data of the CrowdStrike Falcon platform to enable them to develop and deliver security applications and services to customers. The new offerings allow technology alliance partners, CrowdStrike Store application partners and MSSPs to innovate for new security use cases that combat advanced threats and stop breaches.

The Falcon platform reduces the burden of operationalizing, maintaining, configuring and optimizing endpoint security for MSSPs while providing the “most comprehensive protection available,” according to CrowdStrike. MSSPs can better protect their customers with CrowdStrike’s endpoint protection because it allows them to protect endpoints across all leading operating system (OS) platforms and against all types of attacks, enabling immediate and effective prevention and detection of threats, according to the company.

“The valuable crowdsourced data and rich APIs of the CrowdStrike Falcon Platform power our thriving partner ecosystem,” said Matthew Polly, CrowdStrike’s vice president of business alliances and channels. “This is demonstrated by the growth in our strategic technology integrations with cloud leaders, the increase of offerings for our customers in the CrowdStrike Store, and the development of our new MSSP program. As a pioneer of the security cloud, CrowdStrike has revolutionized enterprise security by providing a holistic ecosystem of leading tools and applications that enable partners and customers to better architect their security stack and seamlessly deploy and manage new resources all through one platform. We are proud to partner with innovative leaders worldwide in the global battle to fight advanced threats and stop breaches.”

Also at RSA, FireMon announced the winners of its Ignite Partner of the Year awards recognizing top-performing partners, integrators and distributors.

The 2019 FireMon award winners are:

2019 Growth Partner of the Year – SHI

2019 Americas Partner of the Year – Presidio

2019 EMEA Partner of the Year – IBM Switzerland

2019 APAC Partner of the Year – AmonSoft

2019 Americas Distributor of the Year – Synnex

2019 International Distributor of the Year – StarLink

FireMon also announced new API integrations with ServiceNow, Cisco ACI and Swimlane aimed at helping customers improve network security visibility, control and efficiency while maximizing the value of their investments in security and IT service management systems.

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February 26, 2020 at 07:51PM

Strike While the Iron’s Hot with MDR Security Services
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/strike-while-the-irons-hot-with-mdr-security-services/

The market for MDR is expected to grow from $420 million in 2017 to over $1.6 billion in 2022.

Year after year, cybersecurity is at the at the top of CEO concerns and is among the top CIO purchasing priorities.

Many are working to solve this by moving to a more modern infrastructure — think UCaaS, SD-WAN and 5G. But while adopting these technologies likely leads to a better user experience, the move also brings greater complexity behind the scenes, especially around security.

During his presentation, “Stress Less, Earn More with MDR Security Services,” on March 10, part of the security conference track sponsored by Nextiva at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Jack Danahy, Alert Logic‘s senior vice president and chief evangelist, will dive into the growing market for managed detection and response (MDR) security services.

Alert Logic’s Jack Danahy

He’ll illustrate the low-stress opportunity it can bring for service providers to expand revenues and create stronger customer relationships by delivering peace of mind.

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Danahy provides a sneak peek of the information he plans to share with attendees.

Channel Futures: How big is the opportunity for MDR services?

Jack Danahy: Whether you read the analysis from Gartner or watch the rising number of firms using the term MDR, it is clear that there is a new wave of services required in security, and I believe that wave is MDR. Gartner’s 2019 MDR Market guide describes a 500% increase in customers looking for MDR by 2024, and indicates a strong preference to MDR over any other managed security service during that same period. In dollars, the market for MDR is expected to grow from $420 million in 2017 to over $1.6 billion in 2022, a CAGR of 31.6%. That speaks to substantial growth in MDR services revenues.

There is an added opportunity for multifaceted MDR providers. Service providers who add a meaningful and repeating security practice can expect lower rates of churn and higher margin contribution from managed services due to the demand and perceived scarcity of the resources providing security services.

CF: Why aren’t more partners taking advantage of this opportunity?

JD: We see strong interest within the partner community to understand more about security as they create their forward-looking strategy. Impeding the adoption among some partners are exactly the conditions that are driving MDR demand. Security isn’t simple, either to understand or manage, and security resources are very scarce. Partners experience both of these complications, and can feel that the integration of MDR will jeopardize their existing relationships or revenue if they fail to meet their existing standards. It is the responsibility of the MDR enablers to improve their capacity to describe, integrate, train and reward partners for their efforts in becoming MDR teams, and demonstration of this commitment will likely bring a higher and deeper level of interest in partnering for this technology and support.

CF: What are some things to keep in mind when incorporating an MDR offering?

JD: A strong MDR partner can provide a variety of levels of MDR integration. When incorporating this capability, I recommend a …

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February 26, 2020 at 10:50PM

4 Questions to Ask Cloud Vendors Before You Buy
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/4-questions-to-ask-cloud-vendors-before-you-buy/

Will the vendor help you make more money and will its support grow with your capabilities?

Joseph Landes

Managed service providers looking to transition their business to a predictable, recurring cloud-based model are faced with choosing a partner from among numerous cloud management vendors – and it’s important to recognize that not all are created equal.

Promises will be made about capabilities and expertise, and the MSP needs to understand what information is most important to ensure their cloud vendor can help them build a successful cloud business. If you’re an MSP looking for a new cloud vendor, these are the four questions you must ask before buying:

Will your support model grow with me? Many cloud management vendors will claim their support is best-in-class when, in truth, it’s the Achilles’ heel of their business. Ask your vendor how many years it has been providing cloud support, its support team’s average tenure, and its standard support terms. If you feel its support can’t grow with you, don’t make the mistake of partnering with them even though other parts of their offering could be attractive.

Does your solution directly affect connectivity for my customers? No MSP wants their customer environment to be inaccessible for any amount of time. It’s the bane of every MSP’s existence as it means your customer isn’t able to work, an influx of help desk requests come in and eventually connectivity loss leads to mistrust and lost customers. Some cloud management solutions mandate a custom desktop client that first connects to a portal and then passes the connection to the infrastructure in the public cloud. If that vendor’s product is down, your customer can’t authenticate and connect to their desktops. As an MSP, you can’t afford extra steps or software to stand in the critical path of your customer’s success. A better route is for your customers to connect to the public cloud using native tools without “checking in” first with your vendor.

Do you support multiple cloud use cases? Not every customer comes to the cloud the same way. Some will move one workload at a time while others will forklift their entire business at once. If a vendor says, “we only support virtual desktops” or “we don’t support lift and shift,” it likely means their cloud solution is too narrow and you will inevitably run into scenarios they simply can’t support. Think carefully before you lock yourself into a vendor with only a one-point solution that isn’t broad enough to meet your customer’s true needs.

Are you helping me make more money? In the world of cloud, technical expertise equates to table stakes. What separates the wheat from the chaff is a vendor whose solution can help an MSP expand its margins and make more money. Many vendors will lead a demo by showing you the top 10 features of their SaaS offering. By wowing you with the bells and whistles of their product, you’ll be led to a false sense of security where you believe the product will sell itself. This leaves you to figure out on your own how to make money selling and implementing your product. Does the vendor understand the cloud ecosystem well enough to walk you through a clear path to increasing your margins meaningfully? Does it have a channel-friendly approach where it passed leads to you from direct customers or offers marketing/sales support and industry insights? If not, you’re likely betting on the wrong solution and should instead look for a vendor who is going to put more profit in your pocket while also delivering a best-in-class product for your customers.

For an MSP, forging a relationship with the right cloud management vendor is an important step in transitioning your practice to the cloud and helping your customers reap its benefits. These few simple, but important, questions will go a long way toward building a foundation for your cloud practice’s success.

Joseph Landes is the chief revenue officer of Nerdio where one of his primary focuses is to significantly scale the Nerdio for Azure product and enable MSPs to build successful cloud practices in Microsoft Azure. Prior to joining Nerdio in 2018, Landes had a successful 23-year career at Microsoft, where he held senior leadership positions at the company’s corporate headquarters in Redmond as well as in Eastern Europe, India and Brazil. He brings a wealth of experience in international marketing, sales and business development, along with cloud product marketing. Landes also has written for leading channel and technology publications. Follow him on LinkedIn or @josephlandes or @GetNerdio on Twitter.

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February 26, 2020 at 10:50PM

Cloud MSPs SADA, SCTG Give Enterprise Clients More Options with New Deals
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cloud-msps-sada-sctg-give-enterprise-clients-more-options-with-new-deals/

Each has expanded partnerships with big-name vendors, Google Cloud and Digital Realty, respectively.

Two cloud-centric managed services providers this week made waves with significant announcements. Above all, the activity showcases some different ways MSPs can expand their businesses to meet customer needs and create new revenue streams.

SADA Inks Hefty Partnership Extension With Google Cloud

SADA, an MSP named as one of Channel Partners’ and Channel Futures’ 2020 organizations to watch, is extending its singular partnership with Google Cloud through a multiyear, $500 million agreement.

Last year, SADA ditched its Microsoft business and went all in on Google Cloud — a move that has generated almost 400% growth, SADA CEO Tony Safoian said. The half-billion-dollar contract announced on Tuesday reflects total certainty in the decision to team only with Google Cloud, Safoian told Channel Futures.

SADA Systems’ Tony Safoian

“A commitment of this scale confirms our confidence in Google Cloud … while demonstrating the enthusiasm our enterprise customers are continuing to show for Google Cloud Platform,” he said. “SADA’s launch of new services around Anthos and Smart Analytics, coupled with the expansion of our packaged solution offerings, epitomizes the value that channel companies can bring to customers.”

SADA now is working to launch new solutions and services built on Google Cloud.

For example, it’s prepping faster hybrid and multicloud deployments with Anthos. The MSP recently released Anthos First-Step and Anthos Flat-Rate packages; next, it will debut AnthosLabs workshops, providing hands-on experiences, software and consultative training for IT professionals. That way, customers learn how to implement Anthos in multi- and hybrid cloud environments more quickly, and get tips for managing cloud spend and resources with more predictability and consistency, SADA said.

“What’s most exciting about these … workshops is that customers go from having zero prior experience with Anthos to deploying it to a multicloud environment, all in the span of one jam-packed afternoon,” Miles Ward, CTO at SADA and a Channel Partners/Channel Futures 2020 Channel Influencer, said.

SADA Systems’ Miles Ward

In addition, look for SADA to introduce packages that help enterprises with smart analytics and data warehousing. This will all be done through Google Cloud, of course, yet will include support for Netezza, Teradata and Hadoop migrations to BigQuery. SADA also will host “sprint workshops” around machine learning. The idea is to give clients more immediate ability to make decisions through data-driven insights, and help them innovate.

Finally, SADA will bring Google Cloud AI to contact centers. This will allow live agents to use data to resolve issues and close cases faster, spot trends and identify common topics the contact center is handling.

SADA has beefed up its engineering and technical account management teams to support and deliver these expanded managed services.

“We’re very proud to expand our strategic partnership with SADA,” Carolee Gearhart, vice president, worldwide channel sales at Google Cloud, said. “As a Google Cloud MSP, SADA has proven its expertise in enabling customer success and providing innovative and scalable solutions for the enterprise.”

SCTG Goes Deeper with Digital Realty

ServerCentral Turing Group, a key Amazon Web Services MSP, is broadening its work with data center colocation vendor Digital Realty.

On Tuesday, SCTG said it’s expanding its collaboration on Digital Realty’s Ashburn, Va., connected campus, reportedly one of the fastest-growing data center environments with more than 70% of global internet traffic passing through it.

SCTG is offering connectivity, and custom and hybrid cloud solutions to its enterprise clients through Digital Realty’s PlatformDigital offering, which supports digital transformation.

“Managed service providers must be able to provide direct connectivity to the major cloud providers so their customers can scale their IT infrastructure fast, efficiently and safely,” Jordan Lowe, CEO and co-founder of SCTG, told Channel Futures. “That starts with a trusted data center partner who can provide the highest quality service and the least amount of latency possible for critical applications and worldwide data exchange. Our expanded collaboration on Digital Realty’s Ashburn campus provides a reliable platform for our customers to build upon.”

And because Digital Realty has worldwide reach, end users teaming with SCTG gain important advantages, Lowe said.

“Companies need hyperscale platform connectivity and hybrid solutions to be competitive worldwide,” Lowe added. “Digital Realty is the perfect partner for us because they provide the accessibility, resiliency and availability our clients need to scale quickly and efficiently.”

Erich Sanchack, executive vice president of operations for Digital Realty, agreed.

“SCTG’s clients can be confident they have a solid operational foundation on PlatformDigital for their global digital-transformation initiatives,” he said.

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February 26, 2020 at 10:51PM

How to Ease the Very Hard Job of Finding and Hiring the Right People
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/how-to-ease-the-very-hard-job-of-finding-and-hiring-the-right-people/

Here are useful suggestions to help channel partners find the right people to fill jobs in IT, sales, support and more.

Hiring the right people for IT jobs is always a critical chore, from systems security to sales, research, engineering, partner programs and more. But successful hiring has to start with first finding the right candidates and that can be a huge battle in itself.

To provide some helpful insights, three channel leaders will join James Bier, the co-founder and chief channel development officer at VAR Staffing, at the 2020 Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas for a panel discussion about best practices to attract top talent. The March 11 panel, Recruiting the ‘Right’ Talent, part of the business best practices conference track sponsored by Nextiva, will include Sam Chawkat, chief operating officer of Dynamic Networking Solutions; Troy Gelsky, director of client services for VAR Staffing; and James Laszko, chief technology officer of Mythos Technology.

We spoke with the panelists prior to the event to talk about their recruitment secrets. Their remarks are edited for clarity and brevity.

Channel Futures: How does proactively recruiting specific talent allow organizations to separate themselves from their competition?

VAR Staffing’s Troy Gelsky

Troy Gelsky: If your organization subscribes to the idea of proactively recruiting, and your recruiting team is good at what they do, there will hopefully be a constant inflow of candidates that you are speaking with on a monthly basis. You never want to feel like you are running to catch the bus you already missed.

Sam Chawkat: You need to be always hiring and always proactively looking for talent or you will be left behind. New blood fuels creativity [and] fuels new business avenues to explore that were not explored before. It fuels culture and it fuels a little competition to strive to do better. If you are not always on the hunt for the right person, you are going to miss them through all shuffle.

CF: How should organizations find or mine such talent acquisition?

TG: We remind our partners to spread the word in different ways. Mixing it up between job postings on CareerBuilder, Dice, LinkedIn and Monster, word of mouth inside your channel community, and one of the most valuable and less utilized is the compensated employee referral. We also suggest partnering with local universities and trade schools, as that is a great revolving door for “green talent.”

CF: What are some of the ways to find qualified workers when unemployment rates are low and quality candidates are not bringing themselves to your door?

TG: It’s hard to find “hidden talent” because most of what you are looking for is gainfully employed at the moment. Typically speaking, the best employees are not on the job boards posting their resumes to find a job, so you need to be proactive and have a good message to attract them to your organization.

Dynamic Networking Solutions’ Sam Chawkat

SC: For us, it’s working with key business affiliates, working with academic institutions, having a strong internship program and offering a finder’s fee for employee referrals as well as customer referrals.

CF:  What new interviewing methods are needed when you have to go out and recruit applicants?

James Laszko: For us, adapting our process to include peer interviews was a giant leap. We’ve had many applicants wash out of the process due to a gut feel or clash with one of our existing team members. Our team feels empowered because they are listened to and we’re potentially avoiding a conflict in hiring a wrong fit.

CF: What are the right messages to put out there to attract good candidates to get them to come in to talk?

JL: In an industry that has such super low unemployment rates, it’s a tough gig. We’re not located in a major metropolitan area, so our wages are a bit lower than large cities. However, we feel that the team and company culture is the biggest driver for success for us. In our interview process we make sure to …

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February 26, 2020 at 11:50PM

Malwarebytes Targets MSPs with New Program, Operations Console
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/malwarebytes-targets-msps-with-new-program-operations-console/

MP3 offers a tiered approach to suit specific customer and licensing needs.

Malwarebytes on Wednesday unveiled its enhanced cloud platform, and rolled out its MSP Premier Partner Program (MP3) and OneView, MP3’s cloud-based operations console.

MP3 and OneView will enable MSPs to grow their revenue through streamlined delivery of security solutions to their SME customers. The Malwarebytes Nebula platform provides cloud delivery and management across the entire Malwarebytes’ product portfolio including incident response, endpoint protection, and endpoint detection and response (EDR).

Mike LaPeters, Malwarebyte’s vice president of worldwide MSP and channel operations, tells us his company has always taken a regional/segmented view of the channel.

Malwarebytes’ Mike LaPeters

“We have undertaken this initiative primarily to globalize and centralize our programs under one umbrella relationship,” he said. “The important thing for both us and our partners is our relationship. Treating partners as partners is what is most important. Reselling, MSP (services), technician or break-fix are just specializations. MP3 is a realization of this vision.”

Previously in limited release, MP3 offers a tiered approach to suit specific customer and licensing needs, scaling to fit the evolving needs of MSPs, the company said. The OneView console enables onboarding of new customers, management of license and billing, global policy setting and role-based access control. Additional features include in-console support and customer reporting with insights into the value that the MSP is delivering through endpoint protection activities including detected threats and remediation activity.

The intent or spirit behind MP3 is different from what’s been in place for partners, LaPeters said.

“How a partner transacts (reselling, delivering as a service or offering break-fix) is just a matter of logistics; it shouldn’t define our engagement,” he said. “The fundamental message of this program is we have partners and we will help those partners deliver value to their customer in whatever way best meets their customer’s needs. Secondly, we have invested a lot in trying to understand how to help partners deliver a better outcome for their customers. One of the cornerstone features of the MSP launch is the ability for partners to earn security training certificates. These are granted in increasing volume as their tier level increases. These certificates allow the partner to get advanced security training, funded by Malwarebytes, to increase their knowledge and expertise in security.”

The training is an investment in helping partners to get better at delivering security across the board, LaPeters said.

“Think something along the lines of Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) or Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) [or] Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE),” he said. “Partners growing their capabilities helps everyone. It’s a key foundational value of Malwarebytes; everyone is entitled to a malware-free existence.”

Along with the launch of MP3, Malwarebytes has increased its internal dedicated team by nearly 10 times, LaPeters said.

“We also have built a new licensing model which enables partners to add, modify and remove licenses without the need to place orders or talk to a person,” he said. “So, for example, a customer of an MSP needs 20 endpoints added at 3 a.m. on a Sunday — well, they just add them. No waiting for business hours; we want to be real-time in how our partners support their clients. Threats don’t wait for business hours.”

Malwarebytes Malware Removal Service (MRS) and Premium Services, previously in controlled availability, also are now available to all enterprises. MRS provides intervention and triage to manage and isolate a critical malware incident, while Premium Services offer dedicated security resources to suit the needs of each customer.

“We see more businesses shifting their security needs to MSPs in order to better address the rapidly evolving threat landscape,” said Akshay Bhargava, Malwarebytess’ chief product officer. “Our enhanced Malwarebytes Nebula platform and MSP offerings mean that our partners can better protect their customers. Enhanced operational controls and reporting ensure these businesses have a strong posture against threats and can recover with minimal downtime in the event of a breach.”

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February 27, 2020 at 02:52AM

Igel Updates Partner Program with Move to Online Training, Replaces MDF
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/igel-updates-partner-program-with-move-to-online-training-replaces-mdf/

Igel is replacing MDF with strategic planning and marketing (SPAM) funds.

Igel is moving to simplify the way it enables partners to sell services, or to deliver their own, by replacing live training with online classes.

The rollout of Igel Academy is one of several updates the provider of virtual client software and VDI hardware is implementing to its partner program for 2020. Igel also is adding incentives for its gold partners and replacing its MDF program with new funding for those who develop proposals to customers. Igel’s changes come as the company, which sells only through the channel, has experienced significant growth over the past two years.

Phil Eden, senior director of Igel’s U.S. channels, outlined the changes to partners attending the company’s recent Disrupt conference in Nashville. Partners should now have login credentials to Igel Academy, Eden said.

Igel’s Phil Eden

“If you’re familiar with our previous enablement strategy of sitting in a classroom for four hours and taking the exam, those days are past,” Eden said. “Now we host all of our technical and sales certifications behind the Igel Academy.”

All of Igel’s sales go through the channel and the same is true for services, Eden emphasized. Igel has a set of services it provides that partners can sell, each offered as separate SKUs. They include quick-start implementations, design workshops, consulting and health checks. Alternatively, Igel will certify partners to deliver those services, or they can provide their own. Partners can also offer fee-based services as well as Igel’s technical relationship managers (TRMs), which are subscriptions available for 12 months at a list price of $70,000. Igel offers multiyear TRM packages as well.

Eden outlined the other changes to its partner program for this year. The 10% margin will remain the same with 30% for deals that were registered by platinum partners and 25% for gold. One new benefit Igel is giving to gold partners is back-end deal protection, which until now was only offered to platinum partners. Igel also is replacing its MDF program with new strategic planning and marketing (SPAM) funds, Eden said.

“These are the same kinds of dollars that you use traditionally for MDF but they’re proposal-based funds,” he said.

Igel also is increasing reward bonuses to its highest achievers. Partners who exceed $1 million in revenue will receive $20,000. If they hit $1.5 million, the bonuses will double to $40,000 and those who exceed $2 million will receive $60,000. Until recently, that was an elusive goal. Not one partner had $1 million in 2017, according to Jed Ayres, who Igel named as its sole CEO earlier this month. In 2018, eight partners booked more than $1 million, and last year that figure rose to 12.

“We pumped over $1 million in rebates and MDF into the channel,” Ayres told Channel Futures during the company’s Disrupt conference last month in Nashville. “This tells you our partners are winning.”

One of those partners is Pete Downing, chief marketing and technology officer with XenTegra, an MSP which Igel named its partner of the year during last month’s conference. Downing told Channel Futures that his Igel business quadrupled last year over 2018.

“The Linux at the endpoint is resonating,” Downing said. “And I think that it’s more than just about the OS. It’s about the simplicity. It’s about the ability to plug into anything.”

Now, Igel is gearing for further growth with last month’s release of its Igel OS for Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD). It’s the first virtual desktop operating system certified to work with Microsoft’s WVD, a virtual desktop as a service (DaaS) hosted in the Azure cloud.

“Microsoft has 128 customers that are actively testing WVD that are among the top 500-sized customers in the world, and many of those have Igel in the test pattern,” Ayres said. “The demand continues to amaze us.”

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February 27, 2020 at 03:50AM

HubSpot Launches Solutions Partner Program, a Sign of the Times
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/hubspot-launches-solutions-partner-program-a-sign-of-the-times/

HubSpot is a glaring example of the evolving channel.

Since its founding in 2006, HubSpot has evolved from a marketing software company to a full customer experience platform. Its partner program has evolved as well.

The vendor recently launched the HubSpot Solutions Partner Program, the next iteration of its Agency Partner Program, which debuted 10 years ago.

Channel partners have been hearing a lot about new partner types invading what has comfortably been their terrain for many years. HubSpot, who has built its Agency Partner Program with thousands of partners in about 110 countries, exemplifies the changes taking place in the channel.

HubSpot’s Katie Ng-Mak

“The rebrand is really to capture the changing nature of our partner’s business as well as the market opportunity that’s represented to them from the fact that they’re now working with HubSpot, which has a full customer experience offer,” Katie Ng-Mak, vice president solutions partner program at HubSpot, told Channel Futures.

How muddy are the waters for channel partners? The answer — very. Here’s why HubSpot launched its Solutions Partner Program.

Today, within HubSpot’s solutions partner ecosystem, a large number of partners still call themselves agencies.

“But when you look at the services that they provide, you’ll see that many are heavy on marketing services but you’ll also find a lot of skill sets around building integrations; many partners are building systems integration practices, and some are thinking about sales-enablement services. So what we’re finding is that while many of our partners define themselves as marketing agencies, the services that they offer aren’t quite as pure as you’d imagine,” said Ng-Mak.

At the same time, over the past few years as HubSpot has expanded its product set, the company has been engaged by different types of businesses that want to partner with them.

“These businesses have nothing to do with marketing but are interested in us because their clients are interested in the fact that we have sales service and marketing products. They’re interested in the fact that we have a platform solution that can solve their go-to-market needs,” she said. “We’re starting to have other businesses come to us interested in partnership as well.”

Who are these partners knocking on HubSpot’s door? They’re service providers with skill sets in CRM implementations, and partners who identify as systems integrators and IT resellers.

“What’s interesting is that since we started having these conversations, we can have two service providers offering what sound like very similar services, but they [the partners] go by different names,” said Ng-Mak.

“HubSpot’s move is a recognition that multiple partner types are important over the buyer’s journey,” Jay McBain, principal analyst, channel partnerships and alliances at Forrester, told channel partners.

“The traditional ‘transactional channel’ doesn’t go away, McBain wrote recently. In fact, those partners that have spent years …

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February 27, 2020 at 03:50AM

Client List Stolen from Facial Recognition Company Used by Law Enforcement
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/client-list-stolen-from-facial-recognition-company-used-by-law-enforcement/

Securing core business data is essential for MSSPs who can see clients crash in financial ruin if their protectors fail.

Clearview AI, the facial recognition company used by law enforcement, reports its entire client list was stolen by a party with unauthorized access. While at least one state, New Jersey, has barred police from using its controversial facial recognition services, Clearview AI’s now-stolen client list contains most law enforcement agencies across the country.

But the main threat isn’t a list of police departments and law enforcement agencies; after all, that data is public information and readily available. One of the main threats this theft poses is in an illegal business advantage for competitors.

KnowBe4’s Roger Grimes

“At a minimum, that customer list can be sold to competitors who can then offer similar services with steep competitive discounts to gain market share, along with which potential customers seem to be the biggest users and thus are likely spending the most money. That’s a n- brainer,” said Roger Grimes, data driven defense evangelist at KnowBe4.

Crashing business models to create an unfair business advantage for others is increasingly becoming a favorite tactic. Think of it as a subset of corporate espionage. And securing core business data is fast becoming an added focus for MSSPs who can see clients crash in financial ruin if their protectors fail.

Grimes said the list might also be used in a sophisticated spearphishing campaign, where membership can be tied to specific phishing attempts which appear to have insider information.

“Any bits of private information and knowledge, such as account names, that can be used within a spearphishing email, make that email seem more realistic and more able to fool a higher percentage of people,” Grimes explained.

The company’s facial recognition database is comprised of billions of photos scraped from social media, including Facebook, YouTube, and Venmo, according to a New York Times report. The company’s practice of gathering photos without permission from the owners or the subjects fuels ongoing privacy concerns.

Tripwire’s Tim Erlin

“This notification provides very little actionable information for anyone involved or just trying to avoid the same mistakes. A breach like this just adds fuel to the fire for Clearview’s critics,” said Tim Erlin, VP of product management and strategy at Tripwire.

As is the case with other breaches, look for it to be used in other types of threats down the road. Cybercriminals are very adept these days at combining stolen databases to create ever more sophisticated attacks.

MSSPs should also track developments on this and other breaches as standard operating procedure since it’s seldom that all the facts come out on first brush.

“We’re likely to hear more about the extent of this breach as investigations uncover more data, and history tells us that it’s likely to expand in scope,” said Erlin.

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February 27, 2020 at 04:51AM

RSA Roundup Day 3: VMware Carbon Black Cybercrime Outlook, Secureworks
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/rsa-roundup-day-3-vmware-carbon-black-cybercrime-outlook-secureworks/

Many organizations said IT and security have a negative relationship.

Day three of this week’s massive RSA Conference 2020 in San Francisco brought the release of VMware Carbon Black’s 2020 Cybersecurity Outlook and Secureworks’ new cloud configuration assessment.

The report uncovers the top attack tactics, techniques and procedures seen over the last year. VMware Carbon Black also collaborated with Forrester Consulting on a survey of more than 600 IT/security managers and above, including CIOs and CISOs.

Among the top findings:

Attacker behavior continues to become more evasive, a clear sign that attackers are increasingly attempting to circumvent legacy security solutions. Defense evasion behavior was seen in more than 90% of the 2,000 attack samples analyzed.

Defense evasion behaviors continue to play a key role with ransomware. These ransomware attacks are heavily targeting organizations in energy, government and manufacturing sectors.

Wipers (attacks that can overwrite data and clear hard drives) continue to trend upward as adversaries (including Iran) began to realize the utility of purely destructive attacks.

IT and security teams appear to be aligned on goals — preventing breaches, efficiency and incident resolution — but more than 77% of survey respondents said IT and security have a negative relationship.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said driving collaboration across IT and security teams should be the organization’s top priority over the next 12 months.

More than 5% of respondents said both security and IT will share responsibility for key areas like endpoint security, security architecture and identity/access management over the next three to five years.

Tom Kellermann, head cybersecurity strategist at VMware Carbon Black, tells us the high number of respondents claiming that IT and security have a negative relationship within their organization is both surprising and concerning.

VMware Carbon Black’s Tom Kellermann

“This shows that despite vastly increased awareness around cybersecurity and the continued conversation around increased collaboration, there is still a lot of work to be done,” he said. “Security should be a team sport; however oftentimes it can feel like the two sides are at odds, given the constant evolution of the attacker and the large number of IT footprints that attackers can target. It’s common to find that some organizations have misaligned priorities between IT and security teams (often driven by process and organizational challenges including discrepancies among reporting structures, budgets, processes or skill sets), and for things to function like a well-oiled machine the right hand needs to be talking to the left.”

This issue is further magnified by the C-suite’s perception of IT and security staffing, as only 31% of C-suite respondents said their IT and security teams are understaffed, while 61% of VP-and-below respondents said these teams are understaffed, Kellermann said.

“This 30-point delta suggests that the C-suite may be out of touch with the day-to-day IT and security resourcing needs for the organization,” he said. “In light of the security talent shortage, organizations must play as a team to best defend against cyberattacks. Executing a consolidated IT management and security strategy will help break down silos and empower respective teams to tackle security.”

The ability to drive collaboration and share decision making are key functions security and IT teams need to master in order to work cohesively to defend against new attacker behaviors, Kellermann said.

“As hackers continue to evolve, IT teams need to …

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February 27, 2020 at 05:50AM

Underreporting Small Data Leaks Leads to Big Consequences
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/underreporting-small-data-leaks-leads-to-big-consequences/

MSSPs may want to offer services designed to address small vulnerabilities to prevent big problems for clients.

Canada’s privacy commissioner’s office says systemic underreporting of data loss in federal agencies likely means more citizens and businesses are at risk than previously calculated.

Specifically, the House of Commons says federal departments and agencies have failed to protect 144,000 Canadians’ personal information over the past two years. Further, not everyone affected was informed. The underreporting of incidents is largely associated with small breaches.

“Most reports on data breaches only cover incidents that reach a threshold of people affected, which only allows us to see big breaches of, say, five hundred records or more,” said Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate with Comparitech. “The CBC’s report is interesting because it shows just how often smaller data incidents occur. Eight thousand incidents in two years is more than 10 breaches per day!”

Comparitech’s Paul Bischoff

Small breaches can appear of little consequence at first because they appear to affect only a few people.

“The report is a good example of how most data breaches are caused by human error and not by hackers overcoming cybersecurity measures. Even the most well-equipped organizations can do little to stop employees from accidentally emailing the wrong person,” said Bischoff.

But as the House of Commons’ new calculations proved, small breaches add up to big consequences. In this case, 144,000 people in all were affected.

Even so, Canada appears to be making strong headway in improving data-breach reporting. In the first year after Canada’s privacy law came into effect on Nov. 1, 2018, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada received six times the number of reports than the previous year — 680 security breach reports from November 2018 to November 2019.

Those reported breaches, however, were larger and due to problems commonly encountered in other countries.

NuData Security’s Lisa Baergen

“With Canadian companies now compelled to report data breaches, the number of breaches and personal information exposed is still alarming and underscores the reality: Relying on credentials is outdated,” said Lisa Baergen, VP of marketing at NuData Security, a Mastercard Company, last November when the uptick in reports first surfaced.

“Most static data like name, birthday, social security numbers and more are on the dark web for sale making such things as passwords and other credentials ineffective for truly identifying friend from foe,” Baergen added.

Because the small breaches affected so few people and were often attributable to human error, not everyone affected was notified and not every offender was aware of the offense at the time.

In the U.S., data breach notification laws vary by state. This creates a quagmire for breached companies to wade through and increases the potential for error and other compliance failures.

Given so many potential reporting gaps, especially in terms of smaller data breaches and leaks, MSSPs might want to consider offering audits and other services specifically designed to find and address these smaller vulnerabilities before they create big problems for their clients. It could very well be another important and lucrative revenue stream too.

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February 27, 2020 at 09:10PM

To Address Cloud Security Challenges, Simplify and Unify
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/to-address-cloud-security-challenges-simplify-and-unify/

The cloud introduces a number of challenges that can be overcome by bringing as many controls as possible into a single solution, offering greater visibility across the organization.

According to a 2019 Cyber Security Report published by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, 93% of organizations say they are concerned about cloud security, and 28% admit to having experienced cloud security incidents during the past year.

The reality is, most companies lack the specialized knowledge and skills needed to ensure that customer data stored in the cloud is protected. Cloud service providers (CSPs) do provide extra security layers, such as automating threat detection, with the intent of making their customers feel more confident in the security of the cloud. However, the number of cloud breaches that are being reported shows that CSPs and organizations alike continue to struggle with cloud security. Much of this is due to a lack of unified visibility not just in the cloud, but also across an organization’s entire network; siloed teams and technologies; a lack of threat intelligence; and partnerships with third-parties whose security controls are not up to snuff.

To address these challenges, many in the industry are advocating for organizations to simplify and unify their security approach—that is, to bring as many controls as possible into a single solution in order to break down the silos between security teams and technologies and to give greater visibility across the organization. We at AT&T Cybersecurity help organizations to accomplish this with our Unified Security Management (USM) Anywhere platform.

Of course, the effectiveness of any security solution is largely determined by the threat intelligence underpinning it. In any environment, we need to identify the common tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) adversaries are using in their attacks.

For an overview of the latest threat intelligence from AT&T Cybersecurity for Google Cloud Platform (GCP), click here.

 

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

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February 27, 2020 at 09:10PM

Ingram Micro’s Global Growth Strategy Includes New Executive Changes
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/ingram-micros-global-growth-strategy-includes-new-executive-changes/

The promotions follow on others made in December.

(Pictured above: Ingram Micro’s Jennifer Anaya at the distributor’s recent Trust X Alliance event.)

Ingram Micro on Thursday announced executive promotions and appointments to align with its global technology solutions strategy and growth initiatives. These leadership changes follow the surprising news, about two weeks ago, that longtime Ingram Micro global cloud leader, Renee Bergeron, was leaving the company, and news, in December, that CEO Alain Monie would focus his time on the company’s cloud, commerce and life-cycle services (CLS).

This latest news is also overshadowed by more recent Bloomberg reporting that China is poised to take over HNA Group, parent company of Ingram Micro.

The new global appointments include about a half-dozen Ingram Micro executives, including the promotion of Jennifer Anaya to senior vice president, marketing. She will lead the expansion of Ingram Micro’s marketing efforts globally. Anaya has been a VP since 2012.

Ingram Micro’s Paul Bay

“The momentum within our Global Technology Solutions team is unstoppable,” said Paul Bay, the team’s executive vice president and president. “Globally, we are continuing to expand our efforts and show up as the preferred business partner and solutions aggregator, offering the people, processes and the technology solutions for our IT channel partners to grow profitably, while delivering an unprecedented experience to the customers they serve. We are committed to collaboration as we build further on our position as an indispensable business partner to the IT industry, while providing an inclusive and engaging workplace where we have often been recognized as one of the world’s best places to work.”

News of Bay’s promotion to his current position was made in mid-December, along with the news that Monie would refocus his attention on cloud, commerce, and CLS. Ingram Micro also announced the promotion of Bill Brandel to senior vice president of Canada, Alex Maier to senior vice president of Germany, and Matt Sanderson to senior vice president of the U.K. and Ireland.

Here are the recent executive changes, in addition to Anaya who reports Bay:

Tim Ament, senior vice president, advanced solutions in the U.S., was promoted to senior vice president and chief country officer, Australia and New Zealand. He will report to Diego Utge, executive vice president and group president, Asia Pacific.

With little time to warm their seats from their December promotions, Brandel, Maier and Sanderson have been promoted to senior vice presidents overseeing their respective countries of Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.

In the U.S., Ingram Micro vice president, networking and security business unit leader Eric Kohl’s role was expanded to vice president, security and data center software, and Jeff Yelton, vice president and general manager advanced solutions at Ingram Micro, was promoted to vice president, infrastructure and specialty technologies. Both executives report to Kirk Robinson, senior vice president and chief country executive, Ingram Micro.

Putting more focus on its marketing efforts, Agency Ingram Micro, the B2B services agency created under Anaya’s leadership in 2012, will scale its reach and results in 2020 from regional to global offerings, and will continue to expand the number of events it hosts, worldwide, including Ingram Micro One events, which will take place globally.

With the recent news of Bergeron’s departure, Ingram Micro said that Nimesh Davé, executive vice president, global cloud, and Tim Fitzgerald, vice president, cloud channel sales, North America, would fill the gap.

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February 28, 2020 at 01:01AM

Proposed U.S. Data Protection Act Creates New Federal Data Protection Agency
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/proposed-u-s-data-protection-act-creates-new-federal-data-protection-agency/

If it passes, the new law takes aim at medium-to-large businesses. MSSPs should be prepared to assist with compliance.

U.S. laws on data privacy protections are a jumbled mess of chaos. Filling the void created by a lack of a single, principal federal law are hundreds of federal and state laws causing compliance and enforcement confusion through overlapping conflicting legislation and a plethora of untended gaps.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is looking to change that through a new bill she introduced this month called the Data Protection Act. If passed, the new law would create a Data Protection Agency as a consumer data privacy watchdog.

“Senator Gillibrand’s Data Protection Act of 2020 has numerous hurdles to cross before enactment but it is a powerful step in the right direction that not only affirms the powerful value of data and our innate right to privacy but also acknowledges what everyone knows — the U.S. has lagged in data security and is woefully unprepared to protect privacy,” said Warren Poschman, senior solutions architect at comforte AG.

If the Data Protection Act becomes law, Sen Gillibrand says the newly created federal Data Protection Agency would be empowered to do the following:

Enforce privacy statues and rules pertaining to data privacy as authorized by the agency itself or by Congress.

Receive complaints, conduct investigations and inform the public on data protection matters.

Comforte’s Warren Poschman

Promote data protection and privacy innovation across all sectors, “developing and providing resources such as Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) that minimize or even eliminate the collection of personal data.”

Ensure equal access to privacy protection and protect against “pay-for-privacy” or “take-it-or-leave-it” provisions in terms of service (ToS) contracts.

Advise Congress on emerging privacy and technology issues, such as Deepfakes and encryption.

Represent the United States at international forums on data privacy issues and inform future treaty agreements regarding data use and protections.

However, the bill is not without flaws.

“What remains to be seen is the funding, implementation and overall effectiveness of such a huge undertaking at the federal level. Similarly to any IT implementation, without careful attention to architecture, there will be substantial post-implementation challenges to success which may come in the form of unfunded mandates to already-strapped state governments, the endless bureaucracy that stymies many federal programs and the courts already, or simply the inability to react and cause change quickly enough to make a difference,” Poschman said.

Even so, an umbrella federal agency overseeing the complexities of consumer data privacy protections is a good step toward making serious headway in the runaway “data gold rush” where abuses are bountiful and increasing daily.

“In today’s data-driven economy, there is perhaps no greater reason for action at the federal level than data privacy. Although the bill as it stands today would seemingly apply only to medium and large businesses (either more than $25 million in revenue or more than 50,000 records), the key takeaway is that the U.S. government cannot continue to hide behind the 10th Amendment by leaving data security and privacy to state and local governments,” Poschman said.

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February 28, 2020 at 03:55AM

Microsoft Releases Azure Sphere Secure Edge to Cloud IoT Solution
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/microsoft-releases-azure-sphere-secure-edge-to-cloud-iot-solution/

The solution includes a new secure Linux OS embedded into microcontrollers.

Microsoft’s Azure Sphere, embedded software and services designed to hasten the development of secure IoT endpoints, is now available.

The release of Azure Sphere during this week’s RSA Conference comes nearly two years after Microsoft introduced it at the same annual event. During that time, various customers have piloted the preview release of Azure Sphere, notably Starbucks, which is deploying it to gather telemetry from its coffee brewing and expresso machines.

Initiated as a high-priority Microsoft Research effort in 2015, IoT solutions built with Azure Sphere will offer advanced security designed to protect edge devices, such as cameras and remote sensors, from cyberattacks.

Azure Sphere consists of microcontrollers certified by Microsoft that provide secure wireless communications, memory and compute, with a new edge-based operating system based on a custom Linux kernel that integrates with a cloud-based security service.

The first Azure Sphere microcontroller certified by Microsoft is now available from Taiwan-based MediaTek. Its Wi-Fi connected MT3620 controller enables smart devices to the new Azure Sphere service and partner solutions.

At last year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Avnet launched its Azure Sphere MT3620 Starter Kit. Based on the MediaTek microcontroller, the Avnet kit enables developers to rapidly build prototype solutions based on Azure Sphere. In addition to including the MT3620 Sphere module, the Avnet Azure Sphere Starter Kit includes Wi-Fi connectivity, a subsystem and expansion interfaces for third-party sensors, displays, motors and relays, among other devices.

Avnet’s Jim Beneke

The Avnet bundle is a development kit is based on a production-ready, certified Azure Sphere module, which reduces the time it takes to build a solution, according to Avnet VP of product and emerging technologies Jim Beneke, who described the offering to Channel Futures last year. The kit includes FCC certification, meaning a solution provider doesn’t have to go through that lengthy process and expense, Beneke explained.

“It includes different interperipheral interfaces that are in Azure Sphere, brings them out on the module and makes them accessible on the starter kit platform through various expansion slots,” he said.

The starter kit also includes what are known as “click boards,” an ecosystem consisting of hundreds of small boards with various sensor types such as pressure, temperature, control relays and actuators.

“With these click boards, you can just plug them right in and you can customize for the types of interfaces you’re looking for, to connect into this platform and to connect them to Azure Sphere,” Beneke said.

Microsoft said other microcontrollers in the works will support various verticals, such as toys, home appliances, industrial systems and enterprises implementations such as the Starbucks effort. More advanced microcontrollers are under development, including a processor announced by NXP Semiconductors last summer that will offer greater compute capability to enable AI, graphics and image recognition. Also in the works is the first native cellular Azure Sphere processor announced in October that’s coming from Qualcomm.

The Azure Sphere security service monitors each microcontroller via trusted links between devices using certificate-based authentication. The service also provides threat detection, failure reports and enables device patching.

“The security service connects with every single Azure Sphere chip, with every single Azure Sphere operating system, and works with the operating system and the chip to keep the device secured throughout its lifetime,” said Microsoft distinguished engineer Galen Hunt and managing director for Azure Sphere, in an online discussion with Ann Johnson, corporate VP for the company’s cybersecurity solutions group.

Moving forward, Hunt said his goal is to expand the Azure Sphere ecosystem. Besides the forthcoming processors from NXP and Qualcomm, Hunt said: “Our next big plan is to take Azure Sphere everywhere. We’ve demonstrated it’s possible, but I think we’re just starting to scratch the surface of secured IoT.”

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February 28, 2020 at 05:52AM

IBM-Harris Poll: State, Local Governments Remain Unprepared for Ransomware
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/ibm-harris-poll-state-local-governments-remain-unprepared-for-ransomware/

More than 100 cities across the United States were hit with ransomware in 2019.

Despite increasing ransomware attacks on state and local governments, a high number of employees have seen no change in preparedness from their employers.

That’s according to a new Harris Poll survey sponsored by IBM Security, which polled 690 employees who work for state or local government organizations in the United States.

Seventy-three percent of government employees surveyed are concerned about impending ransomware threats to cities across the country, and more employees fear cyberattacks to their community than natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

IBM’s Christopher Scott

Christopher Scott, global remediation lead for IBM X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services (IRIS), tells us the security industry is seeing a skills gap, and it’s even more difficult for state and local governments to secure top security talent.

“However, government decision makers should understand that they don’t need to be handling these issues alone and that securing assistance from MSSPs can help to strengthen their security defenses,” he said.

More than 100 cities across the United States were hit with ransomware in 2019, according to research from Emsisoft. The Harris survey found one in six respondents disclosing their department was impacted by a ransomware attack.

Despite the growth of these attacks, half of the employees surveyed have not seen any change in preparedness from their employers, with only 38% receiving general ransomware prevention training. Also, budgets for managing cyberattacks have remained stagnant according to 52% of state and local government IT/security professionals polled.

“Governments should be ensuring their teams are maintaining and testing backups of their systems, patching systems, creating and implementing incident response plans, and regularly testing their preparedness via threat simulations,” Scott said. “If employees are armed with the proper next steps, governments can avoid crucial missteps and save time in incident response and recovery. Beyond that, providing basic cybersecurity training and raising awareness around common cyber threats is a great starting point.”

Some general best practices include:

Be cautious of suspicious emails;

Encourage multifactor authentication (MFA) and biometric authentication;

Avoid using the same password on multiple sites and utilize a password manager;

Patch and backup your devices consistently; and

Be sure not to give others access to your online accounts such as email.

Election security is top of mind for government employees, according to the survey. Some 63% of respondents are concerned that a cyberattack could disrupt the upcoming elections, with most government employees placing their local board of elections among the top three most vulnerable systems in their communities.

The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has warned that ransomware attacks, in particular, pose a heightened risk to the elections. According to the study, the fear of ransomware attacks feels real to the vast majority of responding government employees, with 73% expressing concerns about threats to U.S. cities.

“The world of cybersecurity continues to evolve and there are real threats to many of our cherished and trusted systems,” Scott said. “For these systems, making sure that people are paying attention to anything suspicious with voting machines and securing them through functions such as red-team…

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February 28, 2020 at 05:52AM

DigiCert Unveils TLS Certificate Management for Partners
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/digicert-unveils-tls-certificate-management-for-partners/

DigiCert, the secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate provider, is upgrading channel partners to DigiCert CertCentral Partner, a comprehensive transport layer security (TLS) certificate management solution for cloud and hosted environments.

CertCentral Partner offers an updated API that lets partners integrate key features into their own offerings for their customers. Using CertCentral, partners can support multiple subaccounts under a main account, simplifying management of customer accounts, ordering, payments and other processes, according to DigiCert.

DigiCert’s Tobias Zatti

Tobias Zatti, product manager at DigiCert, tells us CertCentral Partner gives his company’s partners “not just the most flexible and trusted products in the market, but also the fastest validation.” His role focuses entirely on “building products that help our partners succeed.”

“[CertCentral Partner includes] pre-validation, which allows for instant issuance if customers have multiple certificates for the same org,” he said. “It also gives partners strong automation tools and easy integration into their own systems, with full customization. CertCentral is also built on the world’s most modern and scalable architecture, and partners can rely on DigiCert for global and locally tailored solutions that other CAs cannot provide.”

Features allow partners to: access all certificate types from one place; take advantage of flexible ordering processes; and view and use a comprehensive library of documentation with API details, technical support and more.

“CertCentral Partner not only makes it easier to sell products, it also offers more products than all previous TLS managers combined — and all in one place,” Zatti said. “The robust API helps partners tailor their solutions to their customers, paired with full automation of the certificate lifecycle. That, combined with efficient processes and technical support for every part of the world, makes upselling and cross-selling much easier than before.”

“The streamlined API gives us access to more products than before,” said Marco Hoffmann, head of product management and domain registrar services at InterNetX. “With enhanced features like pre-validation and the detailed document library, DigiCert CertCentral Partner makes our daily tasks a lot easier.”

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February 28, 2020 at 05:52AM

Citrix Channel Plans Fixed on Workspace
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/citrix-channel-plans-fixed-on-workspace/

Citrix wants partners to put user experience at the heart of the sales conversation.

Citrix says much of its channel activity in the coming months will focus on training partners on its digital workspace platform, Workspace.

Workspace enables users to access their business apps, desktops and data streams from anywhere, from different devices through a single dashboard.

Citrix’s Justin Sutton-Parker

“Certifications will come together to be more focused around Workspace,” said Justin Sutton-Parker, director of channel, Northern Europe. “Where there were lots of different brand names for our products, we’ve got to join it together a little more around Workspace and make it slightly more concise for the partner to go through certification and understanding in that area.”

With Workspace’s focus on enabling employee productivity, the partner needs to put the user at the heart of the sales conversation, the exec told Channel Futures.

“They’ll get the technical training, enablement and how to position it for customers, because it’s a slightly different sell. The market has moved on to focus on users, and ‘what is the user experience?’ It’s making sure that partners can convey that message,” said Sutton-Parker.

Citrix claims employees today use more than a dozen apps to get work done — often four or more just to complete a single business process like submitting expenses, booking travel, submitting purchase orders or approving time off.

“Organizations are talking about user engagement, employee engagement, and how productivity is driven by that. So partners are now putting the user at the centre of the experience. And that takes a little bit of explaining,” said Sutton-Parker.

Citrix last month demonstrated some additional intelligent features for Workspace for partners at Citrix Summit. First announced at Citrix Synergy last year, they include machine learning-fueled microapps and workflows, universal search and virtual assistance.

This is an opportunity for partners to look at developing skills around micro apps, said Sutton-Parker.

“If you’ve got that interface, partners need to become conversant in micro apps — some already are, some are on the learning curve. They are asking, ‘What skills do I need?’ And Citrix is helping them with that as part of the program, to make sure those skills have developed so they can move with the times. If we’re helping them to evolve, then we also helping them to be more successful,” he says.

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February 28, 2020 at 09:51PM

Salesforce M&A, Google Cloud Data Center, Pureport Hire Top Cloud News
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/salesforce-ma-google-cloud-data-center-pureport-hire-top-cloud-news/

Pureport, Salesforce and Google Cloud each made announcements this week.

The final week of February is wrapping up with some important nuggets of cloud news. Of course, there’s more out there, including the impact of cloud on earnings at Dell and VMware. This roundup takes a closer look at some announcements that emerged this week from Pureport, Salesforce and Google Cloud.

Pureport Hires Red Hat Distinguished Engineer as CTO

Pureport, the cloud tech firm that interconnects sites and vendors without physical infrastructure, has lured a top engineer away from Red Hat, which IBM bought in late 2019.

Pureport’s Peter Sprygada

Peter Sprygada, who holds extensive expertise in cloud networking and open-source programming, has joined as the startup’s chief technology officer. He succeeds Doug Mittendorf, who now is a lead software engineer at Salesforce.

“Peter’s ability to transform network operations through automation, orchestration and seamless customer experiences will help us drive new standards in this market, and continue to position our platform,” Rich Lee, Pureport CEO, said.

Sprygada comes to Pureport from Red Hat, where for the past four years he held the role of distinguished engineer and served as the chief architect of the Ansible automation platform. Partners also may know Sprygada from his time at Arista and Cisco, among other companies.

At Pureport, Sprygada is tasked with leading the engineering and product management teams. He will oversee all product strategy and engineering, as well as the technical delivery of Pureport’s multicloud fabric platform. Sprygada’s efforts will directly benefit the managed services providers, VARs and other partners who team with Pureport.

“Channel partners are working daily with organizations faced with the challenge of how to effectively deliver today’s multicloud mandates across a seamless network infrastructure,” Sprygada told Channel Futures. “I’m eager to work closely with our partners to deliver cloud-like automation and orchestration to their hybrid and multicloud networking requirements.”

Pureport’s technology so far works with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud. Last September, Pureport achieved AWS Delivery Partner Status for AWS Direct Connect, supporting connections ranging from 50 Mbps to 10 Gbps.

Pureport helps channel partners with technical integration and provides them with training and education, co-branded marketing materials and more.

Sprygada has earned multiple patents that cover areas including network service discovery and automated network device configuration.

Salesforce Snaps Up Vlocity, Says That’s the Last Buy for Now

Salesforce has made another big acquisition but says its buying spree is nearing an end — at least for a while.

During its earnings call earlier this week, Salesforce said it has purchased Vlocity, a cloud and mobile software provider built on the Salesforce platform, for $1.3 billion. Nonetheless, Mark Hawkins, president and CFO of Salesforce, told investors and analysts the company doesn’t see “huge opportunity” to undergo more deals in the near future, according to multiple reports.

“It’s not what we’re working on,” he said.

Last year, Salesforce snapped up Tableau for $15.7 billion and Clicksoftware for $1.4 billion; in 2018, it also bought MuleSoft for $6.5 billion. Despite all that spending, the finance pros over at Motley Fool see no downsides — insight that partners can use as guidance as they consider their Salesforce strategies.

“Getting so many different disparate pieces to work together is no small task,” Nicholas Rossolillo wrote of the many deals, “but Salesforce is more than just making it work. Its legacy sales and service clouds are still growing by respectable percentages, and the newer marketing platform clouds are doing some serious heavy lifting. It’s clear that this cloud platform has become an integral part of many organizations’ software investment and operational strategy.”

To that point, Vlocity adds vertical market expertise in …

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February 28, 2020 at 10:51PM

AlienVault Vet Joins ActivTrak to Lead Global Channel
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/alienvault-vet-joins-activtrak-to-lead-global-channel/

ActivTrak’s solution can be configured to provide immediate visibility and reporting.

ActivTrak, the cloud productivity monitoring software provider, has appointed Andrea Tharp, previously with AlienVault, as director of worldwide channels.

Tharp will work closely with ActivTrak’s product, sales and marketing teams to implement the company’s global channel strategy targeting MSPs. Her responsibilities will include building out ActivTrak’s channel enablement, partner support and incentive programs to expand new routes to market, and drive growth and revenue in financial services, health care, retail and other vertical industries.

Tharp tells us it’s “always great to join an organization that’s enjoyed early channel success.”

ActivTrak’s Andrea Tharp

“That being said, it was very clear that there are opportunities to expand the markets served while we also expand the product portfolio,” she said. “Now that we’re getting more advanced in our solutions to meet our partners’ (and their customers’) needs, our go-to-market channel model needs to evolve with us. The biggest changes are in operational infrastructure, content and training, as well as program enhancements to best align with our partner’s businesses. Examples include a highly targeted MSP program where we’ve introduced usage-based pricing, consolidated billing and dedicated technical account managers to name a few.”

Previously, Tharp served as director of channels at AlienVault – now AT&T Cybersecurity – where she helped launch and grow the MSSP channel program. She also has held high-profile sales and channel positions at SolarWinds, Infocyte and Dell.

“The experience gained at AlienVault will serve as a great foundation to what we can achieve here,” Tharp said. “Whether collaborating with partners to successfully sell, deploy and support ActivTrak solutions, or coaching service providers on how to incorporate ActivTrak into existing security or compliance-oriented offerings, the knowledge and experience gained from the AlienVault program will be invaluable. We will also lean on lessons learned when it comes to incentivizing and recognizing the success of partners in boosting sales and ensuring ActivTrak solutions reach the market faster. The cornerstone of our program is our commitment to excellence with transparency, predictability and fairness. Through all of the years of my experience, I have found those foundational elements are top of mind with the broader partner community, too. ”

Tharp said meeting with as many partners as possible is at the top of her to-do list and “learning where we can improve while also launching programs to reach new markets, increase partner engagement, drive recurring transactions and reward partners wherever possible.”

With more than 5,000 customers, ActivTrak’s solution can be configured to provide immediate visibility and reporting.

“I’m thrilled to have Andrea join our team at such an important point in our growth trajectory,” said Rita Selvaggi, ActivTrak‘s CEO. “Her expertise and leadership in building and leading a channel organization will be instrumental in expanding our go-to-market strategy and relationships with MSPs, system integrators and resellers as they embrace and extend our workforce productivity platform.”

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February 28, 2020 at 10:51PM

Salesforce M&A, Google Cloud Data Center, Pureport Hire Top Cloud News
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/salesforce-ma-google-cloud-data-center-pureport-hire-top-cloud-news-2/

Pureport, Salesforce and Google Cloud each made announcements this week.

The final week of February is wrapping up with some important nuggets of cloud news. Of course, there’s more out there, including the impact of cloud on earnings at Dell and VMware. This roundup takes a closer look at some announcements that emerged this week from Pureport, Salesforce and Google Cloud.

Pureport Hires Red Hat Distinguished Engineer as CTO

Pureport, the cloud tech firm that interconnects sites and vendors without physical infrastructure, has lured a top engineer away from Red Hat, which IBM bought in late 2019.

Pureport’s Peter Sprygada

Peter Sprygada, who holds extensive expertise in cloud networking and open-source programming, has joined as the startup’s chief technology officer. He succeeds Doug Mittendorf, who now is a lead software engineer at Salesforce.

“Peter’s ability to transform network operations through automation, orchestration and seamless customer experiences will help us drive new standards in this market, and continue to position our platform,” Rich Lee, Pureport CEO, said.

Sprygada comes to Pureport from Red Hat, where for the past four years he held the role of distinguished engineer and served as the chief architect of the Ansible automation platform. Partners also may know Sprygada from his time at Arista and Cisco, among other companies.

At Pureport, Sprygada is tasked with leading the engineering and product management teams. He will oversee all product strategy and engineering, as well as the technical delivery of Pureport’s multicloud fabric platform. Sprygada’s efforts will directly benefit the managed services providers, VARs and other partners who team with Pureport.

“Channel partners are working daily with organizations faced with the challenge of how to effectively deliver today’s multicloud mandates across a seamless network infrastructure,” Sprygada told Channel Futures. “I’m eager to work closely with our partners to deliver cloud-like automation and orchestration to their hybrid and multicloud networking requirements.”

Pureport’s technology so far works with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud. Last September, Pureport achieved AWS Delivery Partner Status for AWS Direct Connect, supporting connections ranging from 50 Mbps to 10 Gbps.

Pureport helps channel partners with technical integration and provides them with training and education, co-branded marketing materials and more.

Sprygada has earned multiple patents that cover areas including network service discovery and automated network device configuration.

Salesforce Snaps Up Vlocity, Says That’s the Last Buy for Now

Salesforce has made another big acquisition but says its buying spree is nearing an end — at least for a while.

During its earnings call earlier this week, Salesforce said it has purchased Vlocity, a cloud and mobile software provider built on the Salesforce platform, for $1.3 billion. Nonetheless, Mark Hawkins, president and CFO of Salesforce, told investors and analysts the company doesn’t see “huge opportunity” to undergo more deals in the near future, according to multiple reports.

“It’s not what we’re working on,” he said.

Last year, Salesforce snapped up Tableau for $15.7 billion and Clicksoftware for $1.4 billion; in 2018, it also bought MuleSoft for $6.5 billion. Despite all that spending, the finance pros over at Motley Fool see no downsides — insight that partners can use as guidance as they consider their Salesforce strategies.

“Getting so many different disparate pieces to work together is no small task,” Nicholas Rossolillo wrote of the many deals, “but Salesforce is more than just making it work. Its legacy sales and service clouds are still growing by respectable percentages, and the newer marketing platform clouds are doing some serious heavy lifting. It’s clear that this cloud platform has become an integral part of many organizations’ software investment and operational strategy.”

To that point, Vlocity adds vertical market expertise in …

via Blog https://mymarketlogic.com/blog
February 29, 2020 at 01:00AM

Voters Worry About Election Fraud, Lose Trust
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/voters-worry-about-election-fraud-lose-trust/

New research shows that American voters are plenty worried about election fraud this cycle.

A whopping 41% of Americans worry about voter registration tampering ahead of the 2020 presidential election, according to a new nCipher Security survey. But the country is split on who will be behind any election interference. Either way, MSSPs securing election processes and voting machines for government clients will need to step up their protection measures and potentially aid clients in reassuring the public.

Super Tuesday is a primary blockbuster event and voters fear election fraud is a top threat from that day forward in this highly contentious election cycle. According to the survey, more than one-third (38%) think a U.S. government official or one of the political parties will be the criminals behind jerry-rigging election outcomes. Another 37% think the culprits will be other countries like Russia or China.

Voting Machine and Process Fears

Voters believe security is not strong enough to protect the integrity of the vote and the democracy.

Thirty-seven percent said that the systems used for voting are antiquated and not secure.

Thirty-five percent prefer paper ballots, while 30% prefer electronic voting machines with paper backup records.

One in three Americans says they are less confident about the state of election security than they were in 2016.

But are these fears based more on public perception than machine reality? Are voting machines secure? Yes and no, says Roger Grimes, data driven defense evangelist at KnowBe4.

KnowBe4’s Roger Grimes

“For most of the history of voting machines they were more likely to contain multiple hackable flaws, some of them very easy to exploit for an experienced hacker. The last few years under intense scrutiny has made them far more secure. So, for the newer ones, most of the easy exploits are gone. But in general, what makes both the old and the new ones ‘secure enough’ is that they are fairly varied,” said Grimes.

Most security partners advise election officials to remain diligent in securing their election processes and voting machines.

KnowBe4’s Erich Kron

“There are few security professionals who truly believe that electronic voting machines are secure. To compound the problem, incidents like what occurred in the Iowa Democratic primaries have eroded even the trust of the public,” said Erich Kron, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4. “With no federal requirements for election security, we find that the oversight and testing of the devices that are used to determine what may be the most important event to happen in the US, the election of our president and congress, is left to only a couple of vendors whose primary goal is selling as many voting machines as they can,” Kron added.

The key to securing voting machines lies in understanding more than just who is likely to target them.

“Voting machines are another strong example of how the proliferation of smart IoT devices – with their inherent vulnerabilities – can affect any aspect of our lives. Most voting machines lack the security to manage today’s threats and pose a real threat to democratic processes,” said Natali Tshuva, CEO and co-founder of Sternum.

Sternum’s Natali Tshuva

“With billions of smart IoT devices coming to market now and over the next few years, relying on network security alone is insufficient, and all IoT devices must be developed with strong, embedded security that can combat evolving and unknown threats,” Tshuva added.

Public Mistrust Is Growing

A whopping 60% of Americans think that some states are more likely to experience election interference than others, primarily in …

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February 29, 2020 at 05:11AM

MSP 501 Profile Podcast: Logically Talks Automation and Artificial Intelligence
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/msp-501-profile-podcast-logically-talks-automation-and-artificial-intelligence/

501-er Logically talks about how the management of IT has to be simplified and automated.

Company Name: Logically

Company MSP 501 Rank: 70

Chief Executive Officer: Christopher Claudio

Headquartered: Portland, Maine

Primary Services:

Network Engineering

Application Development

Healthcare Consulting

IT Outsourcing

Managed Services

Managed Security Services

O365

IT Strategy & Planning

Cloud Migration

Security, Audit, and Compliance

Twitter: @LogicallyMSP

Logically’s Christopher Claudio

Automation and artificial intelligence are becoming extremely central to customer satisfaction for MSPs. SMB managed IT services provider Logically has a solution that addresses this issue, which earned the company the title of last year’s MSP 501 Digital Innovator of the Year.

We sat down with Christopher Claudio, CEO at Logically, to discuss how automation and AI are areas of growing importance to the MSP industry; OpLogic, which the company calls game-changing technology; and how it has impacted digital transformation.

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February 29, 2020 at 05:11AM

7 Steps to Developing a Strong Patch Management Strategy
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/7-steps-to-developing-a-strong-patch-management-strategy/

Your patching strategy can make or break your—and your customers’—business.

We’ve all been there before. You log into your laptop, only to be greeted by a pop-up reading “Updates are ready to install.” If you’re like most people, you either click the “Remind Me Later” button or simply ignore the message. But system updates are designed to patch important security flaws in your operating system; by ignoring them, you create new security gaps that open your network up to vulnerabilities. This is why Windows 10 has removed the option for users to ignore or repeatedly delay updates.

Unpatched systems are playgrounds for hackers, especially those using automated exploit kits to secretly launch attacks. As an SMB or MSP, you might believe your company or clients safe, but, in reality, 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses. It’s therefore vital that they take initiative in applying preventative measures, and one of the simplest ways to do this is by keeping systems up to date with software patches. This is especially important to keep in mind if you’re running operating systems older than Windows 10.

How Cybercriminals Probe and Exploit Systems

Exploit kits are a quick and efficient way for hackers to find vulnerabilities in your unpatched software. In a recent Webroot podcast, Joe Panettieri compared exploit kits to the probe droids from “Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back” that scan the planet looking for any sign of a Rebel base. Similarly, exploit kits can “probe” or audit machines in search of vulnerabilities. When a flaw is discovered, they can automatically deliver malicious payloads like malware, ransomware or cryptomining scripts.

The EternalBlue attacks of 2017, which exploited an unpatched flaw in Windows XP’s file sharing protocol, were a good example of this strategy. Unfortunately, Windows systems make formidable targets for exploit kits. In fact, our research revealed that the number of IPs hosting Windows exploits grew 75% between January and June 2019 alone.

Microsoft itself has issued several major patch warnings for Windows 7, Windows 10 and Windows XP, noting that it’s “highly likely malicious actors will write an exploit” for older Windows systems. With the end of support for Windows 7 in January, now is the time to create a patch management strategy.

A Solid Patch Management Strategy Is Vital

An effective patch management strategy gives you a clear-cut process for deploying all missing software and application patches as soon as they’re announced. And when it comes to protecting against exploit kits, speed is crucial. Patch warnings often disclose the vulnerability, which can prompt cybercriminals to create exploit kits for out-of-date machines. This means that, as soon as you know about the security flaw, so do hackers. Currently, the average time to patch is 102 days. That gap is simply too large to be considered safe.

With the right patch management strategy, you’ll be less likely to delay or ignore important fixes when released.

Tips for Developing a Strong Patch Management Strategy

Ready to protect your business against exploits? Here are some steps every patch management strategy should include:

Step 1: Take an inventory of your IT devices, operating systems, OS versions and third-party applications.

Step 2: Categorize by risk and priority (using a high, medium or low score for each).

Step 3: Utilize virtual machines (VMs), and run patches on those environments first to perform patch validation. Back up your test data.

Step 4: Develop patch management policies by establishing when you will patch and what will be patched first. For example, “Every Friday, we patch Windows OS.”

Step 5: Roll out your patches and apply them as soon as possible. Use your RMM to patch and manage your own network and/or your SMB clients’ networks.

Step 6: Document your patch management processes and procedures.

Step 7: Keep up to date with vendor patch announcements.

What’s Next?

I encourage you to learn more about “locking down” your MSP business and your customers against exploit kits and other cybersecurity attacks by checking out our Lockdown Lessons series.

Start a free Webroot Endpoint protection trial and see for yourself how our solutions can help you prevent threats and maximize growth.

Tim Sheahen is senior director of sales.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

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February 29, 2020 at 05:11AM

Linux Foundation Partners with Open Source Group on Code Security Audits
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/linux-foundation-partners-with-open-source-group-on-code-security-audits/

The move aims to make open source software more secure for enterprises and users through security audits.

To continue to grow the security and reputation of open source software by the businesses around the world, the Linux Foundation recently partnered with the Open Source Technology Improvement Fund (OSTIF) to fund more software security audits on a wide range of open source projects.

The strategic partnership, which will augment the Linux Foundation’s previous work in providing code security audits, enables OSTIF to share its related code-auditing resources through the Linux Foundation’s Community Bridge funding and support organization for developers and projects.

OSTIF is a nonprofit group that works to connect open source security projects with needed funding and logistical support, while the Linux Foundation hosts a myriad of open source projects and encourages open source collaboration around the world.

The partnership is the result of a need for increased security audits that can assure enterprises of the safety and security of open source project code, Mike Dolan, vice president of strategic programs for the Linux Foundation, told Channel Futures.

The Linux Foundation’s Mike Dolan

“With open source, anybody can see the code and anybody can tell us if there’s a security problem,” he said. “And whether it is open source or proprietary code, the reality today is that most proprietary software even includes open source code. The world of proprietary-only is really shrinking.”

As more and more enterprises continue to use open source project code from the Linux Foundation members and projects to run their businesses, they are continuing to become more dependent on open source, which drives the need to baseline its security, said Dolan.

“If they fail, there’s a system-level problem with that,” said Dolan. “So we want to make projects better for upstream use, above the developers in the chain.”

That means focusing on increasing security and improving the security of these projects that so many enterprises are dependent upon, he added.

On its own, the Linux Foundation has funded more than $1 million in security audits in the last few years, and now those efforts will be expanded through the partnership with OSTIF.

“Putting this together means that we can start to improve, in a measurable way, many of these projects that people are dependent upon,” Dolan said.

The code security audits will be done by a variety of companies that contract with the Foundation, which has no internal code auditing resources of its own. OSTIF’s background is in performing such audits, and the group has relationships with many auditing firms, said Dolan.

OSTIF is going to help find auditors, price the work out, move the efforts forward and hold the auditors accountable, while streamlining the process for the Linux Foundation, said Dolan.

“The groups each have different specializations,” he said. “This will help get security audits done more seamlessly for projects.”

For channel partners who work with open source project code, the security audits will be helpful, said Dolan. “The world is becoming more dependent on open source and channel partners are a critical part of the supply chain that delivers software to customers. As channel partners start to build more services or software-based solutions, the choice of software becomes more important.”

Through the audits, the ability to select open-source software code that has been vetted for its security will make it easier for partners and customers to choose open source, said Dolan.

“It gives confidence for channel partners to share with their customers,” he said.

Pund-IT’s Charles King

Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, said the partnership should be helpful in working to make open source projects even more secure for enterprise users in the future.

“For two decades, the Linux Foundation has provided reliable support and insights for thousands of open source projects and tens of thousands of developers,” said King. “In today’s business and online environments, there are probably no greater concerns than the security of infrastructures, systems and applications, so the new strategic partnership between the Linux and Foundation and the OSTIF comes as welcome news.”

With the Foundation’s stature among open source advocates and OSTIF’s focus on security challenges and solutions, “the partnership should deliver real dividends to the businesses and individuals that depend on Linux and other open source products,” said King.

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February 29, 2020 at 06:07AM

HCL Technologies CTO Discusses New Microsoft Business Unit
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/hcl-technologies-cto-discusses-new-microsoft-business-unit/

HCL plans to double its workforce of Microsoft experts within two years.

HCL Technologies is the latest Microsoft partner to from a business unit. The global IT services and solution provider, based in Noida, India, generated $9.7 billion in revenue last year and has 149,000 employees. HCL announced the formation of its Microsoft Business Unit (MBU) last month.

The new MBU isn’t HCL’s first business unit focused on a specific technology alliance partner, but it’s one of a few. HCL also is investing significant resources into expanding the unit focused on the Microsoft technology stack. Channel Futures reached out to Kalyan Kumar, HCL’s corporate VP and CTO for IT business services, to learn more about the structure of this initiative and where the company sees the largest opportunities.

Channel Futures: Now that HCL has formed this business unit, what does it mean? Will you be adding new people?

HCL Technologies’ Kalyan Kumar

Kalyan Kumar: We are building a new team that will be an overlay team of evangelists, business developers, Microsoft enterprise solution architects and other people who cut across all the Microsoft stack. And we are adding more people in the field. The top priority of the Microsoft business unit is to drive enablement capability and new skills across the larger delivery ecosystem from Microsoft.

CF: What is the time frame for bringing that all together?

KK: We already have close to 5,500 people on the Microsoft stack. Our plan is to double this within about 24 months and take it to 11,000-plus who are certified on the Microsoft ecosystem. The business unit is already active.

CF: What is the driver for doubling it? Is the pipeline that strong?

KK: We’re seeing that now with our large platform ecosystems: Microsoft, Google, AWS and a few others. We are really starting to bet around a few of them and are starting to build a plan and capacity. And we’re going to hire a lot of new talent. We’re going to skill them across the globe because there’s a significant demand for the Microsoft technology across our customer base and also across our prospect base.

CF: What are some of the opportunities and pain points you are hearing from clients that the Microsoft business unit will address?

KK: There are four big areas. One, we’re seeing this whole move toward modernization as a team. How do I modernize infrastructure? And how do I modernize applications? If you look back at the Microsoft stack, there’s a big installed base of Microsoft operating systems across the globe and databases from the core Microsoft technologies. We have customers running environments going back to Windows Server 2003. They have to be upgraded and modernized. The same thing with SQL Server, the .NET Framework and applications written with more monolithic architectures. There’s a clear demand to modernize, with Azure becoming a good target for both infrastructure and application modernization.

The second is we’re seeing a big focus around SAP — modernization, especially around how [to] take SAP into hyperscaler environments. And if you’ve seen the embrace by Microsoft of the SAP S4 Move program, there is a very clear interlock around large customers in high-tech manufacturing. These are big verticals with a big massive SAP footprint wanting to migrate into Azure.

The third is workplace modernization, which there’s a massive push around. This includes Windows 10 and the whole push update model. There’s a lot of interest among customers to modernize their workplace environment across devices, the ability to seamlessly access resources across a mobile environment and to become more productive with collaboration and …

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February 29, 2020 at 06:07AM

Sophos CEO: Faster Growth Expected Under Thoma Bravo Ownership
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/sophos-ceo-faster-growth-expected-under-thoma-bravo-ownership/

Sophos’ MSP business grew more than 75% year over year last quarter.

Thoma Bravo‘s nearly $4 billion acquisition of cybersecurity giant Sophos is now complete and the company is ready to gain even more ground on rivals such as McAfee and CrowdStrike in endpoint, and Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet in next-gen firewall.

Thoma Bravo, the private equity firm, has acquired more than 200 software and technology companies representing more than $50 billion of value. Among the firm’s acquisitions are Imperva, Veracode and Barracuda Networks, and a stake in McAfee.

Most recently, Sophos introduced a new Xstream architecture for its XG Firewall with transport layer security (TLS) traffic decryption capabilities designed to eliminate security risk associated with encrypted network traffic.

XG Firewall now also features AI-enhanced threat analysis from SophosLabs and accelerated application performance.

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Kris Hagerman, Sophos’ CEO, talks about what the acquisition will mean for his company and what partners can expect in the coming months.

Channel Futures: With the acquisition completed, what’s next in the process?

Kris Hagerman: Well, we continue to grow and succeed as a company. We’re now going to be no longer listed on the London Stock Exchange as a publicly traded company and will become a private company with
Thoma Bravo as our sole investor. And we’re just very excited to start this next chapter. We’ve had a really good run over the last few years. We feel like we’re on a real roll right now and we think working with Thoma Bravo will only help accelerate that.

CF: What will this acquisition mean for Sophos’ partners? Will it create new opportunities for them?

Sophos’ Kris Hagerman

KH: Yes, and I mean that fundamentally. Let’s start with the basics. Sophos is committed to our channel first and channel is our best go-to-market strategy. This strategy is a big part of what has driven our success and that will continue. And Thoma Bravo sees an exciting opportunity to continue to aggressively grow Sophos, both organically and inorganically, and so do we. And with Thoma Bravo’s guidance and support and investment, we believe we can accelerate the next-gen transition we already have well underway and get to the future faster, which has benefits for our customers, our partners and for Sophos as a whole.

If you think about where we are at the moment, we’ve been driving this quite exciting transition to become a true next-gen security leader, and as of the last quarter, we now have over 60% of our business in this next-gen product portfolio – which is all of our most advanced products – all managed in Sophos Central, which is our cloud-based management platform, and that next-gen business was not only 60% of our total business, but it grew over 40% year over year in the last quarter. So we think that we’re on a very nice trajectory and with the help of Thoma Bravo, we fully expect …

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March 02, 2020 at 10:50PM

GPS Insight Drives the Channel with Fleet Management
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/gps-insight-drives-the-channel-with-fleet-management/

Fleet management is a growing opportunity for channel partners looking to expand their businesses.

Fleet management is a growing opportunity for channel partners looking to expand their businesses.

In this Fast Chat, executive editor Craig Galbraith talks with Ted Cole, vice president of channel and strategic partnerships with GPS Insight, about how his company’s solutions help fleet managers improve their operations.

Cole also describes the type of company that would benefit most from GPS Insight’s fleet management solution and the flexible channel program that the company offers its solution-provider partners.

Watch the video — then, For more information, visit GPS Insight’s partner page.

Visit GPS Insight at booth #1156 at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, March 10-12, in Las Vegas.

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March 02, 2020 at 10:50PM

VMware Launches Partner Connect to ‘Embrace the Whole Customer Journey’
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/vmware-launches-partner-connect-to-embrace-the-whole-customer-journey/

The new partner program is a rebirth of how VMware does partnering.

In what the company is calling a significant revamping of its partner program, VMware on Monday rolled out VMware Partner Connect, a more flexible way to partner with the vendor. The company announced its intentions to rebuild its partner program at VMWorld in August, and last April at its Partner Leadership Summit in Carlsbad, California. 

VMware Partner Connect is a modernized program designed to enable partners to do business with VMware in a way that aligns with their business model. The company’s previous program was largely based on a transactional resell model that was siloed in terms of all the business models – advisory services, professional services, managed services, repeatable IP, integrated solutions – represented in the vendor’s partner community. 

VMware’s Jenni Flinders

“It also didn’t embrace the whole customer journey and customer experience with everything that we offer, especially with cloud and where our strategic IT priorities are coming to market,” Jenni Flinders, vice president, global channel chief at VMware, told Channel Futures. “When you look at VMware’s product portfolio of offerings, it’s really expanded dramatically over the last couple of years. This led us to create a simpler way for our partners to engage with us based on our strategic IT priorities as a company, and how we go to market.” 

VMware’s goal in restructuring its partner program was also to create the opportunity to help partners excel in their capability to maximize the vendor’s offerings to customers and focus on customer outcomes. 

VMware’s Richard Steeves

“We’ve kept the customer front and center as we co-developed the program with our partners,” Richard Steeves, senior director, worldwide partner programs at VMware, told Channel Futures. “It became clear that our customers’ IT needs and priorities continue to grow as our portfolio grows and evolves to meet their needs and demands. We needed to make the program radically simple for partners to engage with us, aligned to their investment strategy, acquire new practice areas — whether that’s in modernizing applications or exploring intrinsic security, or welcoming in the ecosystem that’s come in, in way of acquisition in that space.”

Partner Connect is one program built on one agreement that adapts to partners’ business models: cloud, service, resell or all. The new partner program offers three theirs: partner, advanced partner and principal partner, increasingly based on investment and commitment to VMware. 

So, for example, a principal partner achieves master services competencies across different strategic IT priorities and earn comprehensive rewards, including deployment and consumption incentives and prioritization for collaborative business planning and co-selling opportunities with VMware. 

Partner program enhancements include an incentives and development funds portal, which provides enhanced dashboards and improved visibility to help partners track their business with VMware; a new VMware Learning Zone, which provides a variety of content, including the ability to customize learning plans based on individual partner preferences; and an overall improved partner experience. 

VMware has been working diligently with existing partners – about 32,000 – for the past three months, letting them know about the transition to the new program and offering tools and a transition planning dashboard to help them with legal and operational onboarding.

VMware Partner Connect will evolve as the industry changes, customer buying behaviors evolve and will support emerging partner business models.

Carbon Black and VeloCloud will be integrated into the new program in the first half of the year, and Pivotal integration with Partner Connect will occur in the second half of the year. 

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March 02, 2020 at 11:51PM

Important Security Best Practices for Spring and Beyond
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/important-security-best-practices-for-spring-and-beyond/

Here are some key security practices to add to your company’s SOP.

Jeffrey Crystal

Ben Nowacky

It’s reported that hackers attack every 39 seconds, which averages 2,244 times a day. Based on this, you have either already been attacked, are being attacked right now or you’re about to be attacked.

If that’s not enough to get your attention, consider these statistics:

Forty-three percent of breach victims are small businesses; about 30% of phishing emails are opened by users, and 12% of those users click on the infected link or attachment. (Verizon)

Smaller organizations (1–250 employees) have the highest targeted malicious email rate at 1 in 323. (Symantec)

Every day, around 230,000 malware samples are created by hackers. (Panda Security)

Cyberattacks are the primary reason that around 60% of small companies to go out of business. (Small Business Trends)

Around 94% of targeted emails use malicious file attachments as the payload or infection source, while 91% of cyberattacks begin with a “spear phishing” email. (KnowBe4)

Only 5% of company folders are properly protected, on average. (Varonis)

Financial and manufacturing services have the highest percent of exposed sensitive files at 21%. (Varonis)

The average cost of a ransomware attack on businesses is $133,000. (SafeAtLast)

Clearly, the frequency and severity of cyberattacks are on the rise. Of particular concern is the increasing number of attacks directly targeted at managed service providers (MSPs) and their customers. What’s worse, the attackers often leverage MSPs’ own automation and remote-control tools to directly access and compromise their customers.

Security is a shared responsibility between vendors and partners, and it is imperative that partners also exercise best practices in securing their platforms, tools and devices to minimize risk to themselves and their customers.

Critical Security Practices

In this article, we highlight some critical security practices that should be incorporated into your standard operating procedure (SOP) checklists. This list shouldn’t be considered comprehensive, but instead suggest mitigations for the risks and threat vectors we see most often.

Ensuring password security: Increasingly bad actors are leveraging network monitoring and key-logging software to observe their intended victims for some time, capturing critical administrative passwords and familiarizing themselves with the target environment ahead of their attacks. Due to the skilled and patient nature of these attacks, it’s no longer enough to rely simply on strong passwords. Reusing a single password across multiple customers or environments is particularly dangerous, as once compromised, you’re potentially exposing multiple customers.

A common vulnerability in all too many environments is the presence of default passwords left in place on firewalls, IPMI interfaces and other areas. Default passwords allow attackers to gain dangerous access and privileges within the network. Always make sure default passwords have been replaced to deny this avenue of attack against your systems.

Mitigating ransomware and data destruction: By far the most common attacks involve the use of ransomware (e.g., CryptoLocker) software against your servers and workstations. Once encrypted, your data and systems are held hostage by a ransom demand, and paying the attackers provides no guarantee of recovery. In fact, even if payment results in the release of your systems, it’s almost certain the attackers have left root kits, back doors, and even time bombs, so they can strike again in the future. Only a …

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March 02, 2020 at 11:51PM

Enrich Your Solutions Portfolio with SOAR
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/enrich-your-solutions-portfolio-with-soar/

Automation can help overburdened SOC staff.

Roger Egan

As channel partners across the globe assess their portfolio of products and consider emerging security technologies, checklist criteria likely will include hot new sectors, high margins, big professional services attach rates — and limited competition. If this exercise has led you to the security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) market, you may be on the right track.

As in many industries, automation is arriving to help cybersecurity teams battle the increasing volume of threats facing their organizations, a rise directly correlated with the expanding attack surface and increasing numbers of detection tools in use by organizations. This is especially apparent in the security operations center (SOC), which is ground zero for addressing security incidents. The daily battle to efficiently and effectively handle the barrage of alerts entering the SOC is further complicated by skills and resource shortages. Solutions like SOAR are rapidly maturing to help dispose of these very challenges and transform security operations for businesses.

How exactly does SOAR work and what can customers expect to achieve from it? To answer that question, we must first dispel some confusion, particularly how SOAR fits in with security information and event management (SIEM).

Anyone who must manage a SIEM installation in an extensive enterprise environment knows that SIEM alone isn’t getting the job done. The first SIEM solutions were developed around 15 years ago with the promise to make life easier and better for security analysts by providing them with a centralized platform from which to manage and respond to security events. Few would disagree that SIEM represents an improvement over the practice of manually managing security information from multiple, widely disparate systems. Yet many enterprise customers are increasingly finding that centralizing this information has merely replaced one problem with another.

A large computing environment might have 30-50 different security products, from firewalls to email gateways to endpoint protection, each of which produce its own alerts. When all of these alerts are funneled into a central place for handling, it can create alert overload: security analysts become inundated with notifications from dozens of tools simultaneously, many of which are likely to be redundant, and the analysts must attend to each one individually to find the correlations and weed out false positives. This is a slow, labor-intensive process that can tie up valuable analyst time for extended periods, and the tedious nature of the work can increase employee stress and eventually lead to burnout as analysts become dissatisfied and seek work elsewhere. And the greater the load on the analysts, the greater the danger that a critical alert might be missed or mishandled.

Get to Know SOAR

SOAR is designed to solve this alert overload problem and bring efficiency to the alert review process. SOAR doesn’t replace the customer’s SIEM installation — rather, it integrates with it to deliver SIEM’s original promise of providing analysts with coordinated, actionable security intelligence. The letters in SOAR tell the story:

Security orchestration: SOAR works with SIEM to connect and integrate various security systems and processes together.

Security automation: SOAR automatically handles tasks that would otherwise be performed manually by a security analyst.

Security response: SOAR provides an organized framework for both analysts and the SOAR solution itself to address and manage security incidents in a way that limits damage and reduces recovery time and costs.

For example, a typical breach incident might trigger alerts in multiple places. Suspicious files and network activity could bring notifications from enterprise firewalls, email gateways, intrusion detection systems, host-based antivirus software and more. On their own, most SIEM solutions would pass these alerts on to a security analyst without attempting to correlate them or provide any additional intelligence. Faced with a clutter of alerts from the same original incident, multiple analysts within the group would likely pick …

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March 03, 2020 at 11:50PM

MSPs Can Fill SMBs’ Endpoint Backup Gap
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/msps-can-fill-smbs-endpoint-backup-gap/

Endpoints are a huge target, which is why endpoint backup is so essential.

SMBs often view endpoint backup as an expensive add-on. But with endpoints becoming one of the most exploited routes of entry–and SMBs becoming lucrative targets for cybercriminals–having an endpoint backup solution ensures that critical and sensitive data can be quickly and easily restored, in the event of data loss.

And MSPs play an integral role in drilling in this message as they talk to their SMB customers about their data protection needs.

Endpoint devices like laptops, mobiles and tablets store critical business data and act as points of entry to a company’s network. They have therefore become very attractive targets for cybercriminals.

Data created and stored on these devices are also vulnerable to human error, hardware failures and theft. It is therefore imperative to back up files directly from these devices. However, an IDC study uncovered that 58% of small businesses fail to back up their endpoint devices.

Talking to SMBs about Endpoint Backup

When it comes to cyberattacks, threat actors don’t discriminate businesses by size. In fact, 67% of SMBs experienced a cyberattack and 58% experienced a data breach in 2018, according to a Ponemon Institute report. And with the average cost of a data breach climbing toward $4 million, an effective endpoint backup solution is a must-have for SMBs.

As you start talking to your customers about the importance of endpoint backup, here are a few statistics to consider:

While initiating conversations about endpoint backup, keep in mind that SMBs typically don’t have a large IT security budget. SMBs are most likely to opt for a solution that is simple, easy to manage and cost-effective.

Endpoint backup solutions for SMBs should also be automatic to ensure that all files are backed up even if employees forget to manually backup their files. The solution should also be designed for fast recovery and offer point-in-time restore options so clean copies of data are easily accessible.

A cloud-based endpoint backup solution like Carbonite Endpoint  is a comprehensive, automatic backup solution for all your endpoint devices and the data that resides on them. It ensures rapid recovery, and also helps mitigate the cost and consequences of lost or stolen devices, ransomware and hardware failures.

With features like global tracking, remote wipe and poison pill, Carbonite Endpoint provides all-round data protection, so you can control and protect your business data no matter where it lives.

Mekhala Roy is a writer on the Corporate Marketing team at Carbonite. A former journalist, she blogs about Carbonite happenings and cybersecurity.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.

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March 03, 2020 at 11:50PM

2020 MSP 501 Applications to Open Very Soon
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/2020-msp-501-applications-to-open-very-soon/

The entry date was pushed to coincide with the Channel Partners Conference and Expo and to accommodate new methodology.

Hello to all of our 501 hopefuls! As you may have realized by now, we have pushed the date for the 2020 MSP 501 applications. Entries will now open Monday, March 9, which coincides with the first day of the Channel Partners Conference and Expo in Las Vegas.

As we’ve mentioned previously, we have some exciting new judging criteria and a new methodology this year to judge applicants based on market trends and business best practices, so we wanted to make sure that we build out the functionality in a way that makes it as easy and accurate as possible to gauge all of that.

By launching the the 2020 MSP501 application at #CPExpo, we hope to highlight what both the 501 list and event are all about.

Our 2020 MSP 501 list will look much different than it did in 2019. We’re doing a deeper dive into recurring revenue streams, measuring revenue per employee and customer churn to assess operational efficiency, and looking at profit margins to gauge the health of the balance sheets. To hear a more in-depth explanation, check out our “So You Wanna be a 501er?” webinar.

The MSP 501 has grown from a competitive ranking list into a full-fledged community, complete with targeted market intelligence reports to help you benchmark your company against your competitors; an ongoing MSP Educational Series with industry experts sharing their knowledge; and our annual MSP 501 Awards Gala held every year at Channel Partners Evolution in the fall.

Applications for the 2020 MSP 501 will run through May 31. Stay tuned to the MSP 501 page on the Channel Futures site for updates. For questions, email [email protected].

We are so excited and can’t wait to see your submission come through this year. Best of luck to all of our applicants!

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March 03, 2020 at 11:50PM

Gartner Analyst Talks Cloud Enablement, Optimization, Skills for Partners
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/gartner-analyst-talks-cloud-enablement-optimization-skills-for-partners/

Use this in-depth Q&A with Gregor Petri to gain actionable insight into your cloud strategies.

Research firm Gartner Inc. forecasts worldwide public cloud revenue will reach $263.4 billion this year alone. This points to cloud as the new normal for enterprise IT; therefore, channel partners of all stripes who want to make the most of this technology must ensure they are ready to do the heavy lifting on behalf of their clients.

Of particular interest is Gartner’s assertion that, through 2024, two-thirds of organizations will opt for multicloud strategies that reduce vendor dependency. This calls for partners to familiarize themselves with more than one provider so they know whose capabilities best fit the enterprise.

But that’s just one area where the cloud-centric channel will need to become more informed. Gartner, in its recent Predicts 2020 report, revealed additional trends that will transform organizations’ cloud adoption in 2020, including:

Cost optimization. Through 2024, nearly all legacy applications migrated to public cloud IaaS will require optimization to become more cost-effective.

Delayed migrations. Through 2022, insufficient cloud IaaS skills will delay half of enterprise IT organizations’ migration to the cloud by two years or more.

Gartner’s Gregor Petri

The cloud trends and challenges Gartner analysts see correlate with what astute channel partners encounter every day. Gregor Petri, vice president and analyst at Gartner, and a lead author of Predicts 2020, discusses those issues in this edited, in-depth Q&A, which includes Channel Futures’ follow-up takeaways for readers. While Petri does not work with the channel directly, his insight into the cloud issues enterprises face give managed service providers, VARs, agents, ISVs, and others a roadmap for better serving their clients.

Learn more about what Gartner uncovered in the Predicts 2020 report and what those discoveries mean for partners focused on the cloud.

CF: This recommendation – “Start thinking of cloud computing as an enabler for your digital business initiatives rather than as a data center replacement” — is really interesting. How would you suggest channel partners (MSPs, VARs, system integrators, etc.) approach this recommendation with their enterprise customers in mind and, importantly, why?

GP: A common mistake enterprises make when embarking on cloud adoption is to try and follow the fastest path, by simply lifting and shifting their existing applications from the in-house data center to cloud infrastructure, often inclusive of their traditional middleware and tooling. After this, they typically discover this has not automatically made their applications more flexible, cheaper, faster, scalable or reliable. In fact, many companies tell us they are surprised the cost went up instead of down. Using a car analogy, they basically went from using an owned – maybe slightly older and a bit dinky – car to moving around in taxis all day, every day, but without having changed the way they use transportation to get around. Think of ordering a taxi and leaving it in your driveway every night – as you likely did with your own car – but now with a meter running.

But even more severe, the business users of the organization may not even notice the company invested significant time and effort in moving to the cloud, because the way their applications behave stayed largely the same. To get the benefits of the cloud – such as elasticity, scalability, paying only for …

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March 04, 2020 at 12:51AM

Develop an Action Plan For Your Telco, IT Business
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/develop-an-action-plan-for-your-telco-it-business/

Business targets need to be created based on your needs for the future.

For partners on both the telco and IT sides of the channel, just knowing tech isn’t going to cut it anymore.

In today’s channel landscape, you need to be as knowledgeable about business as you are about speeds, feeds and software. That doesn’t just go for your customers’ business — it starts with your own organization.

In this year’s Business Success Workshop, the Channel Partners Conference & Expo preconference, March 9, we’re bringing in a slew of experts to teach you critical skills such as how to correctly calculate your valuation, perform a gap analysis and successfully negotiate an M&A deal.

You won’t just hear people giving you advice. You’ll work through an action plan with people who have walked this walk, and you’ll go home knowing exactly what your next steps are.

One workshop, “The Accidental Entrepreneur: Creating a Business Plan,” will teach attendees to: define the company they want to be; define wealth and size targets; and define desired outcomes and timelines. Workshop leaders will include Arlin Sorensen, ConnectWise‘s vice president of brand and ecosystem evangelism, and Juan Fernandez, ImageNet Consulting‘s vice president of managed IT services.

ConnectWise’s Arlin Sorensen

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Sorensen provides a sneak peek of the information he plans to share will attendees.

Channel Futures: How should you go about determining what your company should be, based on demand, market trends, etc.?

Arlin Sorensen: You need to do your homework on what you are considering building, or changing into, before you dive in. There are many sources of information available, but the best is still to connect with peers and learn what works and what doesn’t. Peer groups can be immensely valuable in that process. From there you want to engage with experienced folks that can help you create a solid strategy and plan so you have a course for yourself and the people that you’ll bring along to create a business with value. Know what you are building – that drives all the rest.

CF: What sort of business targets should you put in place at the beginning and how should those evolve? 

AS: Business targets need to be created based on your needs for the future.

Begin with knowing the personal wealth target you need to have in place when you no longer are being paid.

Determine the timeline over which you need to achieve this wealth target.

Decide if the business will be the primary source of achieving your personal wealth target as that gives guidance to the size and scale of the company that needs to be built.

Remember that hard work alone won’t get you there — once you know the target, you build a plan to build business value to achieve it.

Key parts of that plan include: business value that needs to be created to fulfill the personal wealth need; timeline to get it done; expected tax impact; are there partners or others that will share in the business proceeds; [and] will the company run well without you.

CF: What are realist expectations in terms of outcomes and timelines?

AS: It takes time to build a company with value. Organic growth can be slow; M&A can make it happen much more quickly but requires a source of financing. The timeline does drive some of the decisions that need to be made. Outcomes are determined by how you manage time, talent and treasure that is available to grow the business. With a solid plan, good people, disciplined leadership and peer interaction, you can create a great company fairly quickly.

CF: What do you hope attendees can learn and make use of from this session?

AS: We want to challenge your thinking about the business you have or want to create. Far too many entrepreneurs enter the industry without a plan and a known target they are working to achieve, or they are running a company on muscle and feel with no real plan or success destination. We want to call out the important things to consider and give some ideas for how you can prepare to succeed and finish well.

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March 04, 2020 at 01:50AM

HC3: The Simple, Scalable, Highly Available Appliance Solution for Modern Virtualization
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/hc3-the-simple-scalable-highly-available-appliance-solution-for-modern-virtualization/

Scale Computing brings together virtualization, servers, storage, and backup/disaster recovery into a single solution. Highly automated with machine intelligence, HC3 infrastructure is built to eliminate downtime and be easy to manage for any computing environment.

This document highlights HC3 use cases, covering:

Edge Computing & Distributed Enterprise

Backup & High Availability

Lowering Infrastructure TCO

Virtual Desktops (VDI)

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March 04, 2020 at 02:51AM

HC3 Edge: Deploying Self-Managing Micro-Datacenters at the Edge
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/hc3-edge-deploying-self-managing-micro-datacenters-at-the-edge/

Edge computing encompasses any physical computing infrastructure intentionally located outside the four walls of the data center. Storage and computer resources can be placed where they are needed while hosted on a minimal hardware footprint. Infrastructure at the edge collects, processes, and reduces vast quantities of data, acting as a high-performance bridge from local computing to both private and public clouds.

This document provides insight into the benefits of edge computing with HC3 Edge. You’ll learn how this powerful virtualization platform is build for running the workloads you require with high performance and efficiency.

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March 04, 2020 at 02:51AM

Disaster Recovery Strategies
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/disaster-recovery-strategies/

Disaster recovery asks the question, “How can an organization survive and respond to a wide variety of threats ranging from small hiccups to catastrophic destruction?” The threats to ongoing operation involve both human and technological response, so your IT infrastructure must be both resilient and highly available to stay operational.

This whitepaper outlines the strategies and built-in technologies that can be used to protect both data and workloads to get services back online as quickly as possible following even the worst disasters.

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March 04, 2020 at 02:52AM

Growing Managed Services Profitably by Doing More with Less
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/growing-managed-services-profitably-by-doing-more-with-less/

The market for managed services has grown incredibly competitive, forcing service providers to seek ways to remain competitive while becoming more profitable. The hype around hyperconvergence makes the architecture seem promising, but what more do you need to know to guarantee success?

This whitepaper describes how MSPs can support more applications for more customers with less investment. The content is organized into three sections:

Highlighting MSP Challenges

Hyperconverged Solutions for Enduring Competitive Advantage

The Most Profitable Opportunities for Selling Services

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March 04, 2020 at 02:52AM

Cisco Expands Offers to Small Businesses
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cisco-expands-offers-to-small-businesses/

Cisco expanded its Designed for Business with new offers and promotions for partners.

Cisco on Tuesday updated its “Designed for Business” portfolio that targets small and midsize business customers, with offers that bring together the power of machine learning, AI and cloud-driven solutions.

Introduced at Cisco Partner Summit in November, Cisco’s Designed for Business portfolio is a new brand for the vendor and one designed to help partners win small business customers with market specific technology that’s priced right, and easy to use and manage. Since that time, Cisco seems to have expanded its language from “small” to SMB customers, defining these organizations as having up to 250 employees. Regardless, the company is determined to shed its image as a vendor for large enterprise customers only.

Cisco’s Dhritiman Dasgupta

”Everything [in Designed for Business] is fulfilled by the partner,” Dhritiman Dasgupta, chief marketing officer, small business segment at Cisco, told Channel Futures. “We’ve been very deliberate in the use case we’re going after and all of the training and enablement materials talks to that so partners can have more targeted discussions.”

There are three elements in today’s announcement:

1. The company is introducing its first-ever “buy” button on Cisco.com. This move is designed to drive a new user experience that simplifies the buying process and connects small business customers to a Cisco partner to buy directly on the website. The vendor also offers faster access to technical and sales specialists that’s in 24 languages, globally, through live chat or callback in 15 minutes or less.

2. Cisco added a few new products under the Designed for Business portfolio. First is the Cisco Business Wireless Mobile App that provides a simple way for an individual or company to configure and manage networks in any location from a smartphone. The new app is available in the Apple App Store (iOS) or on Google Play (Android).

Cisco also announced two new Meraki products, a Wi-Fi 6 access point and cloud managed smart camera. The Meraki Wi-Fi 6 access point simplifies network management, improved network performance, reliability and security. This is the vendor’s first Wi-Fi 6 access point for small businesses.

The Meraki cloud-managed Smart Cameras are powered to deliver business insights on areas ranging from foot traffic to identifying which displays are attracting attention to parking utilization, as well as to help mitigate risks. These new cameras include high-quality video, wireless connectivity, on-appliance storage and built-in advanced analytics, eliminating costs involved in sending traffic to a data center. They offer a 360-degree view through a fisheye camera, and one unit can cover an entire premise efficiently.

3. Cisco also is offering new networking promotions and offers. One promotion includes a free access point when purchasing a switch; another offer is around the purchase of an access point that includes free mesh-based extenders. A third offer targets distributors and partners: buy three switches and the fourth one is free.

Cisco also has a data center offer: the HyperFlex Edge, a hyperconverged solution that is one node and is managed from …

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March 04, 2020 at 03:51AM

Microsoft Surface Hub 2S and Steelcase Roam
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/microsoft-surface-hub-2s-and-steelcase-roam/

Survey: Businesses Failing to Fully Protect Assets
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/survey-businesses-failing-to-fully-protect-assets/

It is estimated that up to 50% of all known cyberattacks use encryption.

New research from Flowmon Networks and IDG Connect shows nearly all IT managers recognize encrypted network traffic as a source of security risks, while two-thirds of businesses fail to protect their assets from both internal and external threats misusing secure sockets layer/transport layer security (SSL/TLS).

The survey maps organizations’ defense strategies in addressing the threats in encrypted traffic. Conducted on behalf of Flowmon by IDG, the survey of more than 100 IT managers explores their experiences facing this rapidly growing attack vector.

Artur Kane, Flowmon’s head of product marketing, tells us MSSPs have to make sure that the right technologies are in place, and these technologies are configured and used properly.

Flowmon’s Artur Kane

“This requires a complex ecosystem of next-generation firewall to protect the perimeter, endpoint security, network traffic analysis to cover the internal network, log management and vulnerability assessment in place together with proper knowledge and security processes,” he said. “The challenge, but also an opportunity for MSSPs is to bring the tooling, best practice and guidance with a proper level of outsourcing of these resources based on the customer current situation and needs.”

A large number of companies have been exposed not just to attacks exploiting SSL/TLS vulnerabilities, but also attacks that employ SSL/TLS to mask movement over the network and to attack applications. Without a proper toolset that covers all attack vectors, dealing with encrypted threats is a significant challenge.

Two of the biggest obstacles of deploying network traffic decryption by using an SSL proxy are the fear of breaching data privacy (36%) and concerns over performance degradation (29%).

“The most surprising is the gap between IT experts’ confidence and their real ability to repel encrypted traffic threats,” Kane said. “According to the survey, 96% of IT managers claim confidence to repel encrypted traffic threats. But the vast majority of respondents primarily inspects encrypted traffic at the perimeter, meaning they are unprotected from insider, unknown or advanced persistent threats (for example, SSL/TLS vulnerabilities misuse, cloak malware delivery, hide data exfiltration, and mask botnet communications). Only one-third of respondents have both perimeter and network protection deployed together. When common forms of attack avoid perimeter detection, such as ransomware, botnets obscuring communication with command and control (C&C) servers, advanced persistent threats or browser exploits, there appears a considerable gap in the security strategies that businesses deploy.”

The survey’s findings highlight the importance of deploying network traffic analysis (NTA) and SSL decryption together to provide equal protection against external and internal threats.

Respondents recognize NTA tools as a way to bring together network and security operations teams, to share a single version of the truth (49% rank this as a No. 1 capability of such tools), and to improve prevention and accelerate detection and response.

“Encryption can carry some very common threats,” Kane said. “Thinking about the security strategies, encryption creates certain obstacles for security teams, who are still required to protect their networks in spite of the lack of visibility. So basically, it is a danger that things get out of control without your notice. It is estimated that up to 50% of all known cyberattacks use encryption, and there is universal agreement that encrypted traffic is an important source of security risks. In spite of this, many businesses still lack the means to inspect/monitor encrypted traffic.”

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March 04, 2020 at 06:51AM

Latest Retrospect Backup Aims to Ease Deployment for Partners, Users
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/latest-retrospect-backup-aims-to-ease-deployment-for-partners-users/

A key new feature is automatic onboarding of physical and virtual backup instances, which simplifies the process.

Retrospect, the data backup and recovery vendor, has unveiled the latest version of its backup (version 17) and Virtual (2020 version) products, including updates and improvements that make it easier for channel partners to enable customers to get automatic onboarding of physical and virtual backup instances.

Also included in the Retrospect updates are improvements to the Retrospect Management Console and a ProactiveAI policy-based scheduler feature that has been optimized to be 10 times faster and more efficient, according to the company. Retrospect Virtual 2020, which is now integrated with the hosted backup service, gives users the ability to have one place to monitor every protected physical or virtual machine, whether it runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, VMware or Hyper-V.

JG Heithcock, Retrospect’s general manager, told Channel Futures that one of the most valuable features of the updated products for channel partners and their customers are the new automatic onboarding capabilities.

Retrospect’s JG Heithcock

“With automatic onboarding, administrators can share a single URL with their entire company, and each employee can download the client for their platform, pre-packaged with a public key for authentication,” said Heithcock. “There are no user passwords, and Retrospect Backup 17 will automatically add the new clients and start protecting them using ProactiveAI.”

The latest version of Retrospect Backup also now allows customers to export a preflight summary including backup files and tape information, which aid large-scale data protection strategies, said Heithcock.

Many of the new features and capabilities were created after the company received feedback and requests from partners and users, he said.

“Most of these come up from direct emails but we also hear from our sales and support team,” said Heithcock.

The online web console for Retrospect Backup allows partners and users to monitor backups of physical machines as well as virtual environments from the same web page, while being about 50% faster than the previous version. Also new is flexible licensing as well as support for Backblaze B2 automatic backup and Wasabi cloud storage.

Dagfinn Glad, an Apple certified technical coordinator for Norway-based Fink IT, a Retrospect partner, said the updated version of Retrospect Backup will give partners better control over each customer’s backup needs in one web portal, which will allow his company to advise customers about their future backup requirements.

“We have found no other products that can do this at a reasonable price,” he said. “Our customers always ask for easier and better ways to restore files, and we find that Retrospect makes this easy.”

Other useful features in the updated version of Retrospect include the ability to create scripts for backup configurations that can be shared for new employees, saving set up costs for customers, he said.

“For our customers in architecture there are a lot of employees only hired for a single project,” said Glad. “This will save costs over the year for setting up new users and deleting old ones.”

Steven Hill, an analyst with 451 Research, said that StorCentric, Retrospect’s parent company, has been working to build a respectable portfolio of SAN and NAS storage products that covers everything from the SMB and mid-range markets to the enterprise space.

“Retrospect forms the data protection component of that strategy, and the combination gives Retrospect a solid foundation to continue to expand its features and capabilities to match the evolving and competitive hybrid IT environment,” said Hill.

With the growing decentralization of storage and applications through cloud adoption, Retrospect’s increased focus on automation and centralized management is almost table stakes for next-generation backup products, added Hill.

“Increasing security, reliability and hybrid options are always important, but Retrospect’s growing focus on simplicity is becoming a key value-add, especially for channel partners, SMBs and midmarket customers,” he said.

The enhanced automatic onboarding feature will be particularly useful, said Hill.

“It can take a lot of the effort out of setting up a modern data protection model for midmarket customers,” he said. “More and more businesses are becoming dependent on their IT systems to conduct day-to-day operations, and the growing complexity of these systems can make it difficult to keep up with the changing needs of their IT ecosystems; especially if they have limited IT staffing.”

Retrospect was acquired by StorCentric in June of 2019.

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March 04, 2020 at 06:51AM

AppSmart Scores with Ingram Micro’s Renee Bergeron for Top Executive Slot
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/appsmart-scores-with-ingram-micros-renee-bergeron-for-top-executive-slot/

The leadership reorganization also includes senior executives from WTG, including Vince Bradley, and Telegration.

AppSmart, the B2B technology services company that in one year merged master agents WTG, Telegration and CNSG, on Wednesday announced significant changes to top leadership roles, and the calculated hiring of Renee Bergeron, Ingram Micro’s former senior vice president, global cloud, as SVP and general manager.

AppSmart’s Renee Bergeron

In her new role, Bergeron will be responsible for the next phase of AppSmart’s growth, including strategy, sales, marketing, service delivery and business development. At Ingram Micro, Bergeron led the distributor’s global cloud go-to-market organization and was responsible for the division’s organizational management, as well as strategic direction, sales growth, marketing, business development, operations and customer service activities. She’worked at Ingram Micro for nearly 10 years.

“I am thrilled to join AppSmart. I have been impressed with AppSmart’s laser focus on making channel partners successful,” said Renee Bergeron. “Over the past 10 years, I have seen how the growth of the cloud is changing the channel. AppSmart represents a completely new proposition for partners to not only align themselves for the massive cloud opportunity, but also deliver a full digital services catalog (telecom, networking, energy and IoT) to their customers.”

Just last week, Ingram Micro announced major executive changes to align with its global growth strategy. Those changes didn’t include Bergeron, whose departure news surfaced two weeks earlier.

Here a look at AppSmart’s new leadership team:

Van Murray is vice president of service delivery and commerce operations, and will be responsible for marketplace operations, sales engineering and customer success. Murray is formerly CEO of NeoCloud.

Vince Bradley, formerly CEO of WTG, is vice president of corporate development and general manager of communications, responsible for growth from strategic business opportunities and the telecom channel.

Tim Basa is vice president of sales and operations, tasked with sales strategy, channel enablement, provider-relationship management and back-office operations. Basa joined AppSmart via the Telegration acquisition.

Denis Raue, who also hails from the Telegration acquisition, and was the company’s CEO, becomes vice president of business development, responsible for new and existing relationships wiith top agent and provider partners. Converged Network Services Group (CNSG), acquired in December, will continue to be led by Matt Harty, who will be part of the AppSmart leadership team.

Brian Leonard is the new vice president of marketing. Leonard’s most recent position was VP of marketing at RapidScale, which was acquired by Cox Business nearly two years ago. Prior to that, he worked at Intelisys for four years as director of marketing.

Since AppSmart acquired telecom master agent WTG in 2018, the vendor went on a buying spree scooping up NeoCloud, a cloud services provider, also in late 2018, master agent Telegration and CNSG, an IT and telephone network in 2019.

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March 05, 2020 at 01:03AM

Boosting the Employee Experience with Technology and Workspace Layout
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/boosting-the-employee-experience-with-technology-and-workspace-layout/

Businesses large and small stand to benefit from a mix of open and controlled spaces where employees can choose how best to work.

Employee experience isn’t just about pay, benefits and perks. Sure, employers can use these things to attract qualified candidates, but compensation and perks don’t always prevent people from leaving. You have to provide an environment where people like to work, collaborate and be creative–a place where they feel their contributions are valued.

Traditional workspaces–think silos, closed-doors and rows of high-wall cubes–resemble a mousetrap and were originally designed to support the hierarchy and individual tasks, not teamwork and collaboration. Today’s employees–especially workers from a younger generation–want flexible, open-air workspaces and the ability to collaborate on the fly, or see people who may be working remotely or dialing in from someplace else.

With so much emphasis on the mindset of today’s workers, businesses big and small stand to benefit from a mix of open and controlled spaces where employees can choose how best to work. Some may want to lean on a wall, perch on sofa arm or just sit on the floor. Some will look for a controlled, quiet environment in which to work heads-down, while many thrive on the idea that seats and surfaces can be moved around. One thing all generations seem to share is they want technology that helps them accomplish their tasks in collaboration with peers.

How the workspace is set up has a major impact on employee participation, productivity, satisfaction, retention and, ultimately, the company’s overall performance. Solution providers can help customers set up dynamic workspaces that encourage collaboration and creativity. There is an upsell opportunity that actually begins when solution providers talk about space.

In the course of selling technology and services, there’s no reason that solution providers can’t tell clients about how to set up collaborative spaces to enhance the employee experience. Remind them that a gratifying employee experience is always important–and ever more so when recruiting skilled employees is a big challenge and unemployment is low.

Remove the Obstacles

Step into an office, and you’re more likely to find neatly arranged cubicles or offices that cut off occupants from their teams. Team members usually come together at scheduled times in conference rooms laid out with chairs arranged around a large table and a screen somewhere on the wall.

The 2019 Steelcase Active Collaboration Study found that most organizations (70%) still use traditional conference rooms for collaborative sessions. According to 75% of respondents, meeting spaces are enclosed, and 81% of the time meetings are scheduled. But most respondents (71%) would rather meet in more open, flexible settings where they have the freedom to move around.

Adding to the problem, 73% of respondents say they don’t have access to the right people to collaborate, and 70% cannot access the information they need in real time. Visual distractions, interruptions and noise make matters even worse for 68% of respondents. Almost as many (66%) say they lack good, flexible technology to visually display work. Only 38% of workers are able to move furniture as activities change, although 54% would welcome it.

Solution providers can work with customers to overcome these obstacles by advising them on how to set up spaces and delivering office and technology solutions designed for the modern worker. For instance, Microsoft’s Surface Hub 2S is now mobile, thanks to the Roam Mobile Cart that Steelcase designed specifically for the Hub.

With the Roam, the Hub doesn’t have to be stationary, forcing people to come to it when they need to use it. Instead, the Hub now goes where team members happen to be huddling to come up with ideas.

These kinds of tools will go a long way toward encouraging collaboration and making employees feel their contributions matter and can make a difference to the organization’s overall purpose. And when they feel appreciated and accomplished, employees are less likely to leave.

For solution providers, helping customers to create a gratifying employee experience translates to stickiness. The more you can help customers address challenges, the more they will rely on you in the future.

Jennifer McCready is global channel chief for Steelcase, a provider of architecture, furniture, and technology products and services designed to help people reach their full potential. She has more than 18 years of professional experience successfully managing sales teams, marketing teams, project teams and technology/devices strategy for enterprise, as well as managing partner programs and partner/sales enablement for companies including Microsoft.

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March 05, 2020 at 01:03AM

FortiSOAR Empowers Security Operations to Accelerate Incident Response
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/fortisoar-empowers-security-operations-to-accelerate-incident-response/

Network attack surfaces continue to expand due to evolving threats and new digital innovations. To keep up, many organizations add point solutions. However, this creates several problems. The addition of security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) capabilities to the security architecture can alleviate these pressures.

This document covers how FortiSOAR allows security operations teams to create a custom automated framework that pulls together all the organization’s security tools while eliminating alert fatigue and reducing context switching. Learn how to not only adapt but optimize your security process.

via Blog https://mymarketlogic.com/blog
March 05, 2020 at 02:53AM

The Balancing Act of an Incident Responder
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/the-balancing-act-of-an-incident-responder/

Incident response is like running a fire department.

Ransomware attacks throw organizations into chaos, and incident responders like Rob Morrow are thrust right into the middle of it to help regain control while navigating among terrified staff as an outsider.

Morrow is a network security engineer/incident response at Beyond Computer Services, an Atlanta-based provider of managed IT services. He didn’t start out in IT, but found his calling after an organization he worked for experienced a cyberattack. His diverse background has allowed him to look at both IT and incident response through a unique lens — that of a victim.

In a recent blog, Morrow chronicled his recent experience responding to a ransonware attack. The following is an excerpt:

Beyond Computer Solutions’ Rob Morrow

“I walk into the office of said undisclosed location, at which point I only had an address and point of contact. I still had no idea of what was waiting for me once I was able to settle in. I get the usual “oh … who is that and why is he here” looks I have come to love and hate. I know what I have in store from a personal standpoint, yet I still have very limited knowledge of what I am actually there for. I make the rounds and introductions, and start to realize the depth of the hell that I have just walked (voluntarily) into. While a lot in my position would say ‘oh, it is just another ransomware attack,’ I have the problem that will lead to my eventual burnout and downfall, the dreaded empathy. I feel for these people, they have been working night and day trying to make sense of what happened, and finally the hopelessness set in and I got the phone call. This of course means I am already behind the proverbial 8-ball. This is never a good place to be. I understand the embarrassment that comes with an attack, the feeling of what did we do wrong, what could we have done differently, etc. The questions are endless. Now not only do I get to fight the battle of containment, I have to fight the battle of people hating me right out the gate because they feel I am there to pass blame or say what they did wrong. This is the part of the job I always dread.”

Addressing the incident, which involves containing the network and recovering data, requires gaining the trust of overworked and demoralized staff members, and in this case, communicating with two CIOs who didn’t get along.

“[I] have to get these two to understand that the betterment of the company comes first and nothing else matters at this point until it is rebuilt,” Morrow wrote in his blog. “Sounds easy right? Not so much, these two were not having it and trying to sabotage each other at every turn. Option B, keep them separate, have them delegate projects listed by priority, cross reference lists, build my own and try to keep them happy in the process. This includes finishing bits and pieces of what they want interspersed within what needed to be done. OK, challenge accepted, I like to multitask. Not the way I wanted to do things, but when does leaving backdoors for access ever go as first planned. It works so between getting work done, I now have to answer to both separately, have separate meetings and alternating phone calls. Plus, help fix a problem with a third-party program that tested my development skills. For those that don’t know me I am in no way a developer, but Google and GitHub are my friends.”

Chris Noles, president of Beyond Computer Solutions, said his company services businesses in an industry that is being widely compromised because …

via Blog https://mymarketlogic.com/blog
March 05, 2020 at 04:50AM

The Countdown to Channel Partners Las Vegas Is On
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/the-countdown-to-channel-partners-las-vegas-is-on/

We understand concerns about coronavirus are top of mind, but we’re moving forward with #CPExpo. Here’s why.

We understand concerns about coronavirus are top of mind, and we want to be as transparent as possible and share information about what we are doing to prepare for the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

We also understand our attendees and exhibitors rely on Channel Partners Conference & Expo to aid business growth throughout the year. Therefore, we’re happy to report that Channel Partners Conference & Expo is still all systems go for Vegas, March 9-12.

Despite some sponsors and exhibitors choosing to forego their participation due to company instituted travel bans, we are confident the event will remain beneficial, as we are still on track to host the largest independent channel event of the year.

With that in mind, here’s what you need to know:

Our top priority is the health and safety of all participants of the show.

We are proceeding as planned to hold a safe and successful event in Las Vegas, March 9-12.

There are no known cases of COVID-19 in the area. In addition, all 11 Las Vegas airports have screening protocols in place.

On the attendee side, there have been no cancellations due to travel restrictions or the coronavirus, though we do anticipate we’ll see some impact at the show.

Of our 263 sponsors and exhibitors, our title sponsor, AT&T, as well as 13 other exhibitors have company-instituted travel bans and had to exit Channel Partners Conference & Expo. Of these, five exhibitors were based in China. The others are due to corporate travel bans.

This event will have a no-handshake policy. Feel free to use a CP elbow bump or a simple smile and nod instead.

We will be providing hand-sanitizing stations, as well as frequent sanitizing of commonly touched areas, including door handles, counters, water dispensers, etc., and strongly encourage all participants to wash their hands throughout the day.

Ultimately, we expect everyone to make responsible decisions and stay home if they are sick. For those at the event, we encourage you to practice healthy habits, including those recommended by the CDC:

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.

If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

Always wash hands with soap and water if hands are visibly dirty.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

Stay in your hotel or at home when you are sick.

Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.

The health safety of our audience and staff is our utmost priority, and we will remain attentive and continue working with the Venetian & Sands Expo to utilize precautionary measures to protect the health and safety of all of our guests. You can find all FAQs and information from WHO and the CDC on our Health & Safety page.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact our team at [email protected]. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you at Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas next week. As always, drinks are on us!

Cheers, and we’ll see you soon.

via Blog https://mymarketlogic.com/blog
March 05, 2020 at 04:50AM

Scale Computing Webinar: Datacenters at the Edge
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/scale-computing-webinar-datacenters-at-the-edge/

Cybercriminals Stepping Up Mobile, Bot Attacks
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cybercriminals-stepping-up-mobile-bot-attacks/

Fraudsters are working in hyperconnected, global networks.

A new report by LexisNexis Risk Solutions shows a global, networked pattern of cybercrime that is further reflected in the mobile attack rate growth, which is heavily influenced by a global bot attack targeting mobile app registrations.

The cybercrime report covers July-December 2019 and shows how fraud increasingly has become borderless on a global scale. Cybercrime is a well-organized, global endeavor powered by networks of fraud.

While consumers enjoy access to goods and services from all over the world, fraudsters are able to harness stolen identity data to launch corresponding cross-border fraud attacks, according to the report.

LexisNexis’ Kimberly Sutherland

Kimberly Sutherland, LexisNexis’ vice president of fraud and identity management strategy, tells us there is opportunity for sharing confirmed fraud data in near real time to prevent or help reduce the number of fraud attacks that penetrate an organization.

“Overcoming the organizational and cultural challenges associated with creating regional or cross-industry shared intelligence will better equip these networks to counter networked cybercrime,” she said. “We have seen positive results when organizations work together to share fraud data and additional context on confirmed fraud attempts through our Digital Identity Network.”

Of the 19 billion transactions recorded by the Digital Identity Network in this six-month period, for the first time, mobile attacks outpaced desktop attacks, with a 56% growth in mobile attacks year over year.

“This is an important finding that we will continue to monitor in coming reports to determine if this will become a trend,” Sutherland said. “Despite this increase in volume, the overall mobile attack rate of 2.5% remains slightly lower than the overall desktop attack rate of 2.7%. Yet when we further analyzed this, our report showed that [the] mobile app attack rate is the lowest, at 1.9%, and mobile browsers are the highest at 4.2%.”

Key findings from the report include:

Fraudsters are working in hyperconnected, global networks, targeting businesses across country borders and industries. In just one month, 73,000 devices associated with a fraudulent event at one organization were later recorded at another organization within the Digital Identity Network.

Globally connected bot attacks target new account creations. During the six-month period, bot volumes saw strong growth from key regions, as fraudsters use automation to maximize success. Bot volumes can be very volatile given that one bot attack can represent millions of individual attacks.

The Digital Identity Network recorded strong growth in bot attacks from Canada, Germany, France, India and Brazil. Furthering the notion of fraud without borders, bots from Canada, France and Germany all targeted the same group of organizations, which were mainly in financial services and media.

“With bot activity expanding its focus beyond on account takeover (ATO) attacks at login, the fraud attack rate during new account creations is now at its highest rate of 17% — the most ‘at risk’ use case” Sutherland said.

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March 05, 2020 at 06:52AM

MSPs Under Heavy Ransomware Attack
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/msps-under-heavy-ransomware-attack/

Cyberprotection requires three things: people, process and tools.

CrowdStrike‘s latest research shows a disturbing trend in ransomware increasingly attacking MSPs

The cloud-native endpoint protection platform provider’s 2020 Global Threat Report observed activity using remote management software to target many companies through a single point of entry in MSPs and cloud service providers, while also seeing a string of health care attacks by first breaching an MSP.

While the attention is often on protection for organizations, CrowdStrike found that it’s critical MSPs plan ahead to combat these attacks.

CrowdStrike’s Jennifer Ayers

Jennifer Ayers, vice president of OverWatch and security response at CrowdStrike, tells us protection requires three things: people, process and tools.

“A critical component is having the right team mix with the right skill sets and knowledge to understand the types of threats that may be targeting not just the MSP but also their customer,” she said. “In an ever-changing threat landscape, the need to understand the what and why an MSP may be a target is important. Second is ensuring that environments have the right security applied. For example, we know taking advantage of remote desktop protocol (RDP) is a very common technique used by adversaries. Are the right tools in place to monitor and reduce RDP usage?”

In addition, MSPs can use a comprehensive solution that unifies next-generation antivirus (AV), IT hygiene, endpoint detection and response (EDR), cyber threat intelligence and proactive threat hunting, Ayers said.

“They can also standardize their threat intelligence, a critical security tool in today’s threat environment, to have better visibility into adversary activity and the assets being targeted so that they know what and how to protect them,” she said.

CrowdStrike saw an increase in ransomware incidents, maturation of the tactics used and increasing ransom demands from e-crime actors. Increasingly these actors have begun conducting data exfiltration, enabling the weaponization of sensitive data through threats of leaking embarrassing or proprietary information.

Moving beyond e-crime, nation-state adversaries continued unabated throughout 2019, targeting a wide range of industries, according to CrowdStrike.

Another key trend in this year’s report is the telecommunications industry being targeted with increased frequency by threat actors, such as China and North Korea. CrowdStrike intelligence assesses that various nations, particularly China, have interest in targeting this sector to steal intellectual property and competitive intelligence.

“In 2019, big-game hunting (BGH), another term for enterprise-scale, targeted ransomware operations, was the most lucrative enterprise for e-crime adversaries,” Ayers said. “More than a dozen of the largest ransom demands reported were in the millions compared to the hundreds of thousands the year before. Numerous adversaries specializing in the delivery or development of malware benefited from supporting customers or partners conducting BGH operations. Of all e-crime threats, ransomware represented 26% of what was reported in 2019. The number climbs to 37% of threats when ransomware reports are combined with reports of banking trojan malware operated by BGH adversaries (e.g., TrickBot).”

The trend toward malware-free tactics accelerated, with malware-free attacks surpassing …

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March 06, 2020 at 12:04AM

Mailprotector’s Channel Partners to Benefit from $5 Million Funding Boost
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/mailprotectors-channel-partners-to-benefit-from-5-million-funding-boost/

Mailprotector goes to market through MSPs, VARs, ISV and VADs.

Mailprotector, the email security, management and hosting provider, has raised $5 million in growth equity funding from Ballast Point Ventures (BPV).

MailProtector’s portfolio of services is sold exclusively through the channel to businesses, government and nonprofits globally. The company will use the funding to accelerate product development, grow sales and marketing efforts, and expand services to its network of MSPs.

David Setzer, Mailprotector’s CEO, tells us his company goes to market through MSPs, VARs, ISV and VADs.

Mailprotector’s David Setzer

“This funding means we will have substantially more resources to enhance our current product set and launch new products like Bracket more quickly,” he said. “It also means we will be able to continue to resource our top-ranked service, and provide our partners with more sales and marketing tools.”

The company has more than a decade of experience providing email solutions to organizations globally. As a cloud-based email security, compliance, encryption and hosting platform, Mailprotector’s solution is engineered with partners’ management needs as a “top priority,” according to the company.

Mailprotector’s stack includes CloudFilter, SafeSend, SecureStore, XtraMail, CloudMail, Exchange+ and Bracket, the company’s patent-pending flagship email encryption product.

“We feel our product philosophy of high-security simplicity gives us an advantage,” Setzer said. “This funding will allow us to more fully develop that philosophy through our product set and partner management tools. From our association with GetChanneled, we have [more than] doubled our partner base in the last few years without sacrificing service. We expect an even greater level of growth moving forward.”

Nothing is changing in regard to Mailprotector’s partner commitment,” Setzer said.

“This was a paramount in our discussions with potential investors, which is why we were thrilled to find Ballast Point, who respects and values those partner relationships,” he said. “So much so that they have also recently invested in a Tampa-based MSSP, Abacode.”

“BPV has a long history of supporting high-growth software companies throughout the Southeast, and we have been impressed with David and his team as they have built industry-leading email security tools with limited outside capital investment,” said Robert Faber, partner at BPV, who will join Mailprotector’s board of directors.

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March 06, 2020 at 12:50AM

Partner with Scale Computing
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/partner-with-scale-computing/

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March 06, 2020 at 12:50AM

Beating Burnout: MSP Self-Care for Long-Term Success
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/beating-burnout-msp-self-care-for-long-term-success/

Getting burned out from a job occurs in every industry, from the corner office to the assembly line to the sales floor.

Like any job, working for or running an MSP has its pluses and minuses. It’s uplifting to see clients thriving and saving money thanks to the superior technology solutions you’ve helped put in place and support.

However, supporting customers comes with plenty of challenges. You’re often interacting with them when they’re unhappy because something’s not working correctly or they’re in a crisis. Tempers are short, emotions are raw, and you’re staring at seemingly unachievable deadlines.

And then there’s the tedious nature of some tasks that could suck the will to live out of the cheeriest workers. Repeating the same things over and over certainly isn’t inspiring, but sometimes you’ve just got to provision 100 endpoints or set up 50 new Office365 accounts day after day.

Burnout Is a Real Problem 

Getting burned out from your job isn’t something just for entitled millennials. It occurs in every industry, from the corner office to the assembly line to the sales floor. But it’s most common in jobs that require monotonous work, helping people and heavy workloads.

While it’s not an actual medical condition, the International Classification of Diseases includes it as an “occupational phenomenon.”

“Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: 

feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion

increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job

reduced professional efficacy”

According to the Mayo Clinic, signs you might be experiencing burnout include:

Becoming cynical or critical at work

Having to drag yourself to work and having trouble getting started

Becoming irritable with coworkers, customers or clients

Lacking energy to be consistently productive

Lacking satisfaction from your achievements and feeling disillusioned about your job

It can also manifest itself in physical symptoms, including changing sleep patterns, headaches, and digestive issues. If left unaddressed, it can create real health issues, plus some sufferers use food, drugs and alcohol to improve moods or just become numb to it all.

Taking Burnout Seriously 

Both employees and their managers must acknowledge that there is a real risk of staff getting burned out. This won’t just result in some grumpy workers; it also can have a real impact on the business itself.

Burned-out staff are more likely to make careless mistakes, work slower and have negative interactions with customers. This can lead to real impacts on customer satisfaction, as customers are counting on their MSP to perform flawlessly and professionally.

There is also a much higher likelihood of staff calling it quits when they “hit the wall.” This leaves MSPs in a lurch, as they not only lose the manpower, but they also see experience and institutional knowledge walking out the door. They’ll need to spend time and money recruiting and training replacements while suffering productivity and performance hits in the interim. Not to mention that high staff turnover could shake the confidence of clients looking for a stable MSP partner.

Adopting Proactive Prevention  

In our industry, we are constantly urging–if not lecturing–our clients to put protections in place before a problem occurs. We list off the numerous threats that can provide irreparable damage to a client’s operations, livelihood and reputation–from phishing to malware to hacked data being sold on the Dark Web.

We can take the same approach to protecting the mental health of our staff and ourselves by creating environments that reduce the likelihood of burnout and are prepared to deal with it when it occurs. This requires a parallel strategy of creating a workplace where managers take a proactive interest in the emotional well-being of employees while simultaneously leveraging resources that reduce the causes of burnout to begin with.

Managing Workloads 

The most common driver for employee burnout is

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March 06, 2020 at 12:50AM

HP Rejects Yet Another Xerox Attempt to Acquire the Company
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/hp-rejects-yet-another-xerox-attempt-to-acquire-the-company/

HP offers Xerox a multitude of reasons for rejecting its offer.

It appears that Xerox won’t take no for an answer. Just three days after it launched a tender offer to acquire all outstanding share of HP for $24 per share, HP slapped back at Xerox with a stern “no.”

Xerox’s latest strategic move comes on the heels of HP’s announcement outlining a multiyear plan to grow earnings and the company, maintaining its steadfast commitment to shareholders. Not only did HP reject Xerox again, citing that its latest offer was not in the best interests of HP shareholders, but the HP board unanimously recommends that shareholders reject the offer and not tender their HP shares pursuant to the Xerox offer.

HP’s Chip Bergh

“Our message to HP shareholders is clear: The Xerox offer undervalues HP and disproportionately benefits Xerox shareholders at the expense of HP shareholders,” said Chip Bergh, chair of HP’s board of directors. “The Xerox offer would leave our shareholders with an investment in a combined company that is burdened with an irresponsible level of debt and which would subsequently require unrealistic, unachievable synergies that would jeopardize the entire company.”

Why does HP’s board not love Xerox’s offer? Let’s count the ways — more than a dozen of them, which the vendor detailed in a Schedule 14D-9 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

The Xerox offer, in effect, principally offers HP shareholders something they already own, and would disproportionately benefit Xerox shareholders relative to HP shareholders.

The Xerox offer would use HP’s balance sheet as transaction consideration for the benefit of Xerox shareholders.

The Xerox offer meaningfully undervalues HP by failing to reflect the full value of HP’s assets and its standalone strategic and financial value creation plan.

HP has a track record of execution that has resulted in strong, consistent operational and financial performance.

The HP board believes that HP’s standalone plan has positioned HP for significant value creation.

HP’s strong balance sheet and financial flexibility provide multiple levers for value creation.

The HP board believes that the Xerox Offer would compromise the future of HP and the value of shares of HP common stock by transferring value to Xerox shareholders and leaving HP shareholders with an investment in a combined company with an irresponsible capital structure, premised on unrealistic synergies estimates.

HP believes that Xerox’s “synergy” estimates, including cost cuts, exceed reasonably achievable levels.

The Xerox Offer includes a significant equity component, the value of which the HP Board believes would be subject to significant risks and uncertainties.

Xerox does not have experience operating businesses in the sectors in which HP operates, including within Personal Systems, Home Printing, and 3D and Digital Manufacturing.

Xerox has been experiencing declining sales and its recent sale of its interest in the Fuji-Xerox joint venture raises significant concerns about its future position.

HP believes that Xerox’s cost-cutting has come at the expense of long-term value creation, and Xerox has demonstrated a lack of focus on research and development.

The quantity and nature of the conditions of the Xerox Offer create significant uncertainty and risk.

The HP board believes that Xerox’s urgency in launching the Offer, while simultaneously running a full slate of director nominees for election at HP’s 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, evidences Xerox’s desperation to acquire HP to address its continued business decline.

“At HP, we’re creating value, not risk,” said Enrique Lores, HP’s president and CEO. “HP is a trusted brand with a strong track record of value creation and we’re executing a clear plan that will drive significant earnings growth. We’re well positioned in our categories, aggressively attacking costs and pursuing the most value creating path for our shareholders.”

Clearly there’s no meeting of minds between HP and Xerox vice chairman and CEO John Visentin, who this week said “Our proposal offers progress over entrenchment. HP shareholders will receive $27 billion in immediate, upfront cash while retaining significant, long-term upside through equity ownership in a combined company with greater free cash flow to invest in growth and return to shareholders.”

This latest offer/rejection is the latest in an acquisition bid by Xerox that began in November.

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March 06, 2020 at 01:51AM

Next to No Salary Equality for Women in Tech
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/next-to-no-salary-equality-for-women-in-tech/

The war on wages continues for women in tech.

Women in tech jobs all over the U.S. continue to earn less than their male counterparts, with Utah representing the state with the highest salary differential at $16,871. Minnesota is the only state with women earning more than men, representing a $3,929 differential, according to Dice, the employment website.

In the just released report – The Gender Pay Gap in Tech – survey results find that women in tech are still paid less in 2020 in all eight regions across the country. Looking at the salary differential by region: New England –$6,444; Mid-Eastern – $7,074; Southeast – $6,471; Great Lakes – $8,653; Plains – $3,309; Southwest – $4,086; Rocky Mountains – $9,720; and Far West – $4,667.

The salary pay gaps exist between men and women, even when factors such as experience, roles, location and education, are controlled for. The research was conducted by Cypress Research Group.

Dice’s Michelle Marian

“The technology field continues to struggle to offer equal pay and applicable benefits to women. When employers work to build a fairly compensated gender-diverse workplace, they inevitably create a more positive work culture with a wider range of ideas and creative solutions to address business needs and challenges,” said Michelle Marian, CMO for DHI Group, Dice’s parent company. “In publishing our report, Dice aims to foster important conversations to aid in eliminating compensation and benefit inequity across tech occupations.”

Four other areas that the report delves into are the pay gap by occupation, how satisfaction levels differ between men and women, how men and women value different things in employers, and the way the tech industry struggles to eliminate bias.

Looking at the gender pay gap by occupation, while controlling for years of experience, education level and location, reveals an even wider pay disparity. Here’s what some of the pay differential data shows: data architect –$13,123; database administrator – $11,053; software engineer – $8,559; security engineer – $6,847; business analyst – $6,455; and product manager – $4,709.

Women-in-tech occupations such as systems architect, network engineer and technical writer fare the best — +$2,446, +$,4,836, and +$6,443, respectively.

So why should women in tech be satisfied? They’re not expressing greater dissatisfaction than their male colleagues.

Looking at compensation, 38% of women are dissatisfied with their compensation, compared to 33% of men. The average salary for a woman satisfied with her compensation is $93,591, while the average salary for a woman dissatisfied with her compensation is $69,543. Compare that to men: Average salary for a man satisfied with his compensation is $108,711, while the average salary reported for compensation dissatisfaction is $81,829.

“This could suggest that men expect to be paid more (hence the relatively high salary number for dissatisfaction), which can have an impact on whether they accept offers and negotiate for raises,” the report states.

Women also report being less satisfied with their team and managers compared to men.

Both men and women report feeling burned out or very burned out at their jobs — 31% and 33% respectively. However, women are more likely to attribute burnout to friction with a boss or team, as well as to lack of recognition for their work.

Both men and women put a high value on health insurance, dental insurance paid vacation days and 401(k) matching/pension. Women, however, are more concerned about paid volunteer opportunities, college tuition reimbursement, maternity leave, remote and flex options, and wellness programs compared to men.

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March 06, 2020 at 02:51AM

Red Hat Expands Hybrid Cloud Partner Certifications, Support Services
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/red-hat-expands-hybrid-cloud-partner-certifications-support-services/

Simplifying partner participation and assistance is the goal of the revamped Red Hat partner program.

Red Hat channel partners that aim to grow their hybrid cloud services for customers now can take advantage of a wide range of new partner benefits unveiled by Red Hat, including an enhanced OpenShift Operator Certification, improved Red Hat OpenShift promotional and market support, and updated tools and resources through the company’s Partner Connect website.

The new partner features also now allow certified containers based on the Red Hat Universal Base Image (UBI) to be included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux UBI-based container images for redistribution through the official Red Hat and third-party container registries, the company said.

In addition, Red Hat Linux channel partners will gain enhancements to the company’s OpenShift Operator Certification through increased technical assistance as well as more tooling and workflows that aim to help accelerate the certification process for Kubernetes Operators. Broadened promotional and sales support will also be provided through the Red Hat Partner Connect website to enable deeper customer adoption and deployments on Red Hat OpenShift, according to the company.

Red Hat’s Lars Herrmann

“We’re aligning how we partner with other companies with our open hybrid cloud strategy,” Lars Herrmann, the senior director of technology partnerships for Red Hat, told Channel Futures. “We want to make it easier for other companies to drive their businesses on Red Hat’s hybrid cloud strategy.”

The changes and improvements in the partner program are in response to requests and comments from partners, said Herrmann.

“A lot of our partners gave us the feedback that they think it was complicated to work with Red Hat,” while many businesses have been finding that it is challenging to bring together new technologies and make them work well together, he said. “We tried to make that easier for them.”

Another reason of the partner improvements is that more and more products and services are shifting to dynamic cloud consumption and to digital marketplaces, and the changes will make these transitions easier for partners, said Herrmann.

“We will try to give prescriptive guidance and best practices to help them do things more efficiently,” he said.

The changes in the container certifications process is one example of this, by allowing partners to make changes in container packages for customers and then distributing them to anyone without charge, said Herrmann.

“This is taking what Red Hat starts with and makes changes that customers need. This is new — it was introduced last year as a limited set of technologies and is now being extended to all Red Hat Enterprise Linux partners,” he added.

The partner improvements in the Partner Connect website also are seeing changes meant to make the site much easier to use by reorganizing it from its former layout, which was based on whether partners were resellers, VARs, systems integrators and other types of businesses. Those traditional partner categories and site organization have been changed to reflect a more direct build, sell or service portal, said Herrmann.

“We have recognized that this older approach no longer fits the way it used to,” he said. “Business models shift fast, so changing it to a build, sell and services methodology allows partners to choose how they want to work with the company.”

In the past, partners said they had struggled to figure out …

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March 06, 2020 at 05:03AM

Purdue University Launches Open Source, All-in-One Network Forensics Toolkit
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/purdue-university-launches-open-source-all-in-one-network-forensics-toolkit/

FileTSAR is free to law enforcement agencies, available for fee to other organizations including MSSPs.

Purdue University has introduced an all-in-one toolkit for law enforcement and companies to use to track down cybercriminals, stop insider threats, and to stop other abuses conducted via technology and moved over a network. Cybersecurity experts at Purdue collaborated with law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. to develop the toolkit.

The Purdue Toolkit for Selective Analysis and Reconstruction of Files (FileTSAR) includes in one complete package the top open-source investigative tools used by digital forensic law enforcement teams. (Provided by Purdue University)

The toolkit is called FileTSAR, an acronym for Toolkit for Selective Analysis & Reconstruction of Files (FileTSAR). The project was funded by the National Institute of Justice and is free to law enforcement agencies for three years. Organizations in the private sector can also use the toolkit for a fee.

Following the larger software industry trend of avoiding proprietary software, this toolkit is comprised entirely of open-source software. FileTSAR is considered an all-in-one package because it contains the best of the open-source investigative tools used by digital forensic law enforcement teams at the local, state, national and global levels.

“FileTSAR allows forensic investigators to capture, selectively analyze and reconstruct files from network traffic,” said Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar, an associate professor of computer and information technology in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, who helps lead the research team.

“The main functions of this tool are capturing data flows and providing a mechanism to selectively reconstruct documents, images, email and VoIP conversations,” Seigfried-Spellar added.

The toolkit can be used to uncover network traffic to track cybercriminals, discover employees sending out trade secrets or other sensitive information, or to recreate incriminating conversations or activities by employees or outside activities. In short, it’s a cyber forensics toolkit.

Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar, an assistant professor in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute’s Department of Computer and Information Technology, works on a computer in the Tippecanoe County High Tech Crime Unit in Discovery Park. (Purdue University file photo/Rebecca Wilcox)

“Knowing that we created an affordable tool that will help law enforcement with their network forensic investigations is incredibly rewarding,” Seigfried-Spellar said.

More than 100 law enforcement agencies have requested the technology thus far, and the final count is expected to rise much higher.

MSSPs working with clients in law enforcement need to be aware of the toolkit and its high adoption rates in order to integrate it with other tools the MSSPs sell to or use in behalf of these clients. Additionally, it is prudent for MSSPs to consider this toolkit for use by or for their client organizations in the private sector. While the toolkit is not free for organizations outside of law-enforcement agencies, it is being billed as affordable to all. An affordable price adds to the toolkit’s overall attractiveness as a comprehensive forensic tool.

However, specific pricing information was not publicly available as of this writing. Law enforcement agencies and other interested parties can learn more specific information about licensing and gain access to the toolkit via the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC).

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March 06, 2020 at 06:53PM

Cybersecurity Roundup: Women in Leadership Roles, Atlas VPN, Verizon-Securonix
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cybersecurity-roundup-women-in-leadership-roles-atlas-vpn-verizon-securonix/

Mentorships are often part of the process of growing into leadership positions in cybersecurity.

U.S. companies will add nearly 550,000 new jobs in computer and IT through 2028, a rate higher than the average for all occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Of those jobs, the bureau predicts a 32% growth rate for information security analysts. Women are emerging as cybersecurity experts, with the expectation of a much larger influx of women entering the field.

Women are ascending into senior or leadership positions within their companies, often through different pathways, according to the results of the Women in Cybersecurity Survey to be presented by SANS Institute in two webcasts later this month.

Some 41% of respondents credited being in the right place at the right time for their rise into senior or leadership positions. That means they had to make themselves visible to decision-makers. Others credited having varied experiences (38%) or pursuing certifications (34%) with their rise into a senior or leadership positions, both of which are within the control of the individual.

Mentorships are often part of the process of growing into leadership positions and continuing to grow once taking on such a role; however, only 7% of women in cybersecurity have been mentored by another woman, with 37% mentored by both men and women, and 31% by men alone, which leaves 25% who have never benefited from being mentored.

SANS Institute’s Heather Mahalik

Most survey respondents have done just that, with just 26% not participating in a mentorship relationship. Interestingly, the majority (57%) report mentoring both men and women, a positive sign for growing the leadership role of women in cybersecurity.

To find out more about the growing influence of women in cybersecurity, we spoke with Heather Mahalik, SANS analyst and survey author.

Channel Futures: Why is it important for more women to obtain leadership roles in cybersecurity?

Heather Mahalik: Why not? We have been in the field for quite some time and are gaining traction, so obtaining a leadership role fits the bill. Women taking more leadership roles also promotes attention to younger women who want to enter the field and have career goals to climb the so-called corporate ladder. It’s important to show that leadership in cybersecurity is gender neutral.

CF: How important is mentoring in attracting and opening more doors for women in cybersecurity?

HM: Mentoring is important to everyone. Meeting and knowing the right people can really open doors for you and someone entering the field. I have mentored many people in my life and made introductions for them that have really launched their careers. We need more mentors. Please reach out to someone new to cybersecurity and help pave the way for them.

CF: Are there fewer barriers to women becoming cybersecurity leaders? If so, how?

HM: I would say yes. In my opinion, most companies realize that your work is what matters, not your gender. I know many women who run companies and who have started their own. The days of “she is a woman and doesn’t deserve this” are over.

CF: How does getting more women involved help in the fight against cybercriminals?

HM: Bottom line — we need people, women and men included. There is always a shortage of women in cybersecurity and the focus often goes to why. We are trying to push the message to any woman wanting to get involved, learn and have a career that matters. Cybersecurity is important and there are so many facets and specialties one can dive into. I took the plunge into digital forensics 18 years ago and have never looked back.

Women can have a big impact in their organizations regardless of …

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March 06, 2020 at 10:56PM

Cisco Senior Exec Takes Top Slot at Western Digital
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cisco-senior-exec-takes-top-slot-at-western-digital/

Cisco regroups and replaces David Goeckeler with Todd Nightingale.

Data storage company Western Digital’s search for a new CEO, announced in October, has come to an end with the appointment of David Goeckeler, Cisco’s executive vice president and general manager, networking and security business. He’ll replace Stephen D. Milligan, who is retiring.

Western Digital’s David Goeckeler

Goeckeler, a 17-year Cisco veteran, was in charge of the company’s $34 billion global networking and security business and a team of more than 25,000 engineers. He was responsible for security strategy and market acceleration, including development operations for Cisco’s technology portfolio and strategic acquisitions. Cisco has named Todd Nightingale, formerly senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Meraki, as his successor, earning the new title of senior vice president and general manager, enterprise networking and cloud.

“David is a transformative leader with an exceptional track record of driving highly profitable, core businesses at scale while innovating successful business strategies that expanded into new markets and generated new revenue sources,” said Matthew Massengill, chairman of the board for Western Digital. “With experience as a software engineer as well as running large semiconductor development projects, his breadth of technology expertise, business acumen and history of building and operating world-class organizations make him the right person to lead Western Digital in a world increasingly driven by applications and data.”

Cisco’s Todd Nightingale

A nearly $20.7 billion company, Western Digital earlier this week announced new WD Gold NVMe SSDs to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) transition to NVMe. This latest addition to the vendor’s WD Gold family of products will be available in four capacities to channel partners and end customers early next q8arter, the company said.

“The industry is facing an exciting inflection point where customers of every size, vertical and geography are deploying business infrastructure that is software-driven, enabled by data and powered by the cloud. This megatrend has only just now reached an initial stage of adoption and will drive a massive wave of new opportunity,” said Goeckeler. “In this IT landscape, the explosive growth of connected devices will continue fueling an ever-increasing demand for access to data. With large-scale hard disk drive and semiconductor memory franchises, Western Digital is strongly positioned to capitalize on this emerging opportunity and push the boundaries of both software and physical hardware innovation within an extremely important layer of the technology stack.”

Cisco, as reported by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, held an internal meeting on Thursday, announcing the next phase of strategy for the company, including executive leadership changes and a new engineering team structure.

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March 06, 2020 at 10:56PM

Google Cloud, Telcos Pursue Lucrative ‘Edge’ Opportunities
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/google-cloud-telcos-pursue-lucrative-edge-opportunities/

Find out what the partnerships mean for channel partners.

Google Cloud has a series of new announcements that point to new sales opportunities for the indirect channel.

The deals – with AT&T, Vodafone, Italy’s Wind Tre and two back-office providers – likely will have a trickle-down effect for managed service providers, independent software vendors, VARs, agents and other partners.

In other words, the telco collaborations do not appear to yield immediate benefit to the indirect channel; right now, they focus on helping service providers themselves achieve digital transformation.

Down the road, however, Google Cloud and AT&T, in specific, will allow ISVs, developers, solution providers and similar entities to build platforms for their enterprise customers, much like creating apps for end users via Google Play. Channel Partners was still waiting for more insight from Google Cloud at the time of publication.

The thrust of the various deals comes down to this: monetizing 5G for business while bringing cloud capabilities to the network edge, where computing takes place at or near the source of the data. (Or, as The Verge so aptly assesses the “edge” buzzword, “It means the cloud is coming to you.”)

Thus, to that point, AT&T in particular will pair its network with Google Cloud’s expertise, relying on the new Anthos for Telecom platform. Anthos, as many channel partners know, hosts applications that can run on existing on-premise hardware and in the public cloud; enterprises then choose the optimal environment on a case-by-case basis.

With Anthos for Telecom and other Google Cloud tools, AT&T will bring its apps to the network edge. This will reduce data costs and latency, and increase security, Eyal Manor, vice president of engineering for Anthos and developer products and tools at Google Cloud, told SiliconANGLE.

Google’s Eyal Manor

“The goal is to push the latest, most modern application development tools to run anywhere,” Manor said. “There’s a lot of rigid legacy infrastructure at the edge, and that slows down innovation.”

Combining cloud computing with 5G should eradicate those rigidities and “help enterprises address real business challenges,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said in a March 5 blog.

But first, the telecom providers themselves must embrace digital transformation; hence, Google Cloud’s newly announced partnerships and the new service it is calling the “Global Mobile Edge Cloud.” GMEC will feature a portfolio and marketplace of 5G solutions built with telcos; an open cloud platform for developing the applications; and a global distributed edge for deploying said solutions.

So far, Google Cloud and AT&T are testing all this in three key verticals: retail, manufacturing and transportation. As they refine the process and results, it’s easy to see how partners will pick up the work, crafting apps and services on behalf of their enterprise customers.

“Combining 5G with Google Cloud’s edge compute technologies can unlock the cloud’s true potential,” Mo Katibeh, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at AT&T Business, said. “This work is bringing us closer to a reality where cloud and edge technologies give businesses the tools to create a whole new world of experiences for their customers.”

Consider, too, that Google Cloud is helping telcos focus on data and analytics through artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“Not only are we able to gain analytics capabilities across … products and services, but also we arrive at …

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March 06, 2020 at 11:52PM

Nutanix Selling Cloud Bundles in Pilot Program in EMEA
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/nutanix-selling-cloud-bundles-in-pilot-program-in-emea/

The bundles, which were sought by partners, could expand to other parts of the world if they are successful.

Hyperconverged infrastructure vendor Nutanix has launched a pilot project in EMEA to test the sale of its new cloud bundles, which are combinations of the company’s flagship software designed to make it easier for small-to-medium-size business (SMBs) to use its products.

The Nutanix cloud bundles will be offered for sale through its distributors and channel partners in EMEA and will allow SMBs to deploy a unified management bundle for VMs and containers, files, computing resources, storage and networks, according to the company.

Nutanix’s Cyril Vanagt

“We are simplifying our offering for our channel partners to more easily and quickly propose a solution for customers,” Cyril Vanagt, the senior director of channel sales in EMEA for Nutanix, told Channel Futures. “Instead of having to give quotes on many products separately, we have created nine bundles for them to sell.”

The nine bundles come in three sizes for small, medium and large requirements, as well as in basic, standard and advanced packages, resulting in nine available configurations, said Vanagt. The basic package includes the company’s AOS enterprise cloud operating system, the AHV hypervisor, and Nutanix Prism end-to-end management. The standard package adds the company’s enterprise file storage solution, Nutanix Files, as well as administration automation features from Prism Pro. The advanced package includes all those components, as well as network security and microsegmentation functionality from Nutanix Flow.

“They are all software-only bundles that are compatible with any hardware we support today,” including from HPE, Fujitsu, Lenovo and others,” he said. “We are repackaging them in a simple way for our channel partners and customers.”

The cloud computing offerings are part of a wider focus Nutanix is planning for SMBs and come as an answer to market needs that partners have been sharing with the company, said Vanagt.

“They wanted to work in a more autonomous way, and we heard this mainly in EMEA,” he said.

The pilot program, which will continue for six months through the end of July in EMEA, will then be evaluated for its success by the company to see if it should be continued there and even expanded to other parts of the world, including North America, said Vanagt.

“It came about from strong requests from many partners in the EMEA region to be able to quote prices faster and to promote simpler packaging for our customers,” he said. “I am very confident in the success of this program because it came from requests from our partners.”

Nutanix is continuing to work with partners and distributors to train their staffs to sell and deploy the bundles, as well as provide lead generation and marketing help to boost sales. The bundles will only be available to new customers in EMEA.

Dan Olds, principal analyst with Gabriel Consulting Group, said the SMB-aimed bundles are a good idea for the company.

“This new Nutanix set of offerings gives their channel partners a much needed solution for smaller enterprise customers who are looking to have the same IT options and capabilities as their larger competitors,” said Olds. “To compete effectively, smaller businesses need to have access to more sophisticated IT infrastructures and functionality. This increases the value of their data because it is easier to manage and analyze and also reduces their time to implement new solutions to better acquire and service their customers.”

For EMEA partners who will offer the new bundles, they need to also focus on the business value of these products when talking to their customers, said Olds.

Gabriel Consulting’s Dan Olds

“This will allow them to convince a customer who is thinking, ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,’ by showing them that the opportunities for higher business profitability and gaining more customers outweigh the cost and effort of moving to a new type of enterprise infrastructure,” Olds said.

Another analyst. Laurie McCabe of the SMB Group, agreed.

“Nutanix cloud bundles align with what we are hearing from SMBs — they’re dealing with more complexity and data in the business so they need more comprehensive solutions,” said McCabe. “But they have to be affordable, and easy to set up and use. These types of bundles help address help these needs.”

Nutanix is also making the new offerings easy for its partners, which is a good move, said McCabe.

“It looks like Nutanix focused on making it very channel-friendly too, which is very important in this market because most SMBs rely on the channel to help them to figure out which solutions will best satisfy their requirements. But it can still be very confusing for SMBs — so hopefully Nutanix will also provide its partners with content and resources to help them better educate prospects on the business benefits that these solutions provide.”

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March 10, 2020 at 12:58AM

Coronavirus Concerns Prompt Industry Conference Cancellations, Postponements
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/coronavirus-concerns-prompt-industry-conference-cancellations-postponements/

Tech industry event cancellations mount.

The difficult but prudent decision to cancel tech events over health concerns about the spreading coronavirus, both here and abroad, has swept across the industry.

This began, most notably, when large vendors such as Amazon, Cisco, Facebook and Intel, to name a few, pulled the plug on their attendance, in early February, at Mobile World Congress (MWC), Barcelona, scheduled for later that month. MWC event organizers ultimately cancelled the conference.

Since that time, tech industry events that draw tens of thousands of attendees, sponsors and exhibitors are being cancelled with some vendors promising to reschedule; others will create a virtual experience to deliver some of the originally planned content.

This wave of postponements and cancellations certainly has impacted the Channel Partners/Channel Futures family, as we last week officially postponed our Channel Partners Conference & Expo, originally slated for March 9-12. Stay tuned for updates on when, where, and in what form, it will return.

IBM Think 2020, a client and developer conference, and PartnerWorld, for business partners, are being recreated as a global, digital-first event, May 5-7, the same dates that were planned for the now canceled, physical event in San Francisco. 

Late last week, Dell Technologies canceled is annual Las Vegas event, Dell Technologies World 2020, May 4-7, and will be posting updates about a virtual event soon.

“The core of what we set out to accomplish together is still important, which is why we will deliver keynotes, select breakout sessions and live chats with experts as a virtual experience,” the vendor posted on the event website. 

Red Hat cancelled its physical event (April 27-29) and is offering a virtual experience April 28-29. 

Other cancelled events: Aruba Atmosphere 2020 (March 22-27); Cisco Partner Connection Week (March 23-26); Cisco Live (May 31-June 4); F5 Agility 2020; Google Cloud Next (April 6-8); ImpartnerCon 2020; Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2020; (May 12-14); MSPAlliance’s MSPWorld conference (March 15-17); Synnex Spring Varnex and the Red, White & Your (March 29-April 1). 

There are many conferences of interest to partners that are still scheduled as planned. That said, the coronavirus situation is fluid and event planners are monitoring the situation, so attendees are advised to check status updates for cancelations. 

Here’s what we know: 

HPE Discover 2020, scheduled for June 23-25, in Las Vegas, is still scheduled, as is HPE Partner Growth Summit 2020, which runs June 22-24, during the Discover event. VMworld, scheduled for Aug. 31-Sept. 3, in San Francisco, is also still being held as scheduled. 

Others conferences still on the books through the end of May: Build IT 2020, May 17-19, Jersey City, N.J.; Citrix Synergy, May 19-21, Orlando, Florida; Enterprise Connect, March 30-April 2, Orlando; Kasaya Connect IT, May 4-7, Las Vegas; SapphireNow, May 12-14, Orlando; SuiteWorld for Oracle NetSuite, April 20-23, Las Vegas; ServiceNow Knowledge 2020, May 3-7, Orlando; TBI’s Big Event, May 14, Chicago; VeeamOn 2020, May 4-6, Las Vegas; ZertoCon, May 18-20, Hollywood, Florida.

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March 10, 2020 at 12:58AM

Channel Partners Conference & Expo Officially Postponed
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/channel-partners-conference-expo-officially-postponed/

After close consultation with our partners in the industry, we have made the difficult decision to postpone CP Expo 2020.

After close consultation with our partners in the industry and as the situation has changed rapidly, we have made the difficult decision to postpone Channel Partners Conference & Expo 2020. 

With the rapidly developing circumstances and in light of corporate travel considerations continuing to escalate, we’ve worked as quickly as possible to explore our options.

Having spent the past year preparing for the event with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors and event partners, we’re genuinely disappointed not to be able to host you this coming week, but the experience and safety of our community and everyone involved in the event continues to be our top priority.

Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, March 9-12, 2020, is officially postponed, with the intention to announce a new date shortly. Exhibitors and attendees will be contacted with further information regarding booth contracts and registrations. 

As always, we would like to thank everyone who helps to make the event possible and recognize that our event does not happen without your support. We appreciate the open discussions and encouragement. The conversations we’ve had over the last several days have proven how lucky we all are to be part of this supportive, tight-knit industry. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at Channel Partners events. 

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March 10, 2020 at 12:58AM

New Work. New Rules. 
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/new-work-new-rules/

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March 10, 2020 at 12:58AM

Aruba Declares Entire Wi-Fi 6 Line Now Certified by Wi-Fi Alliance
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/aruba-declares-entire-wi-fi-6-line-now-certified-by-wi-fi-alliance/

But Cisco has slight edge in the number of Wi-Fi 6 certified products.

Aruba Networks claims that it has delivered the “first and only” family of wireless LAN access points certified as compatible with the new Wi-Fi 6 standard, also known as 802.11ax.

The certification means that the Wi-Fi Alliance, the independent organization that governs wireless networking protocols, has tested all Aruba Wi-Fi 6 WLAN products for compliance with the standard. Wi-Fi 6 network equipment and endpoints that are certified should interoperate together, based on a certification program announced in September. The latest high-end laptops and smartphones – including Apple’s iPhone 11, and Samsung’s Note 10 and the new Galaxy 20 line – now support Wi-Fi 6.

“Aruba leads the industry with the official certification of all the Aruba 500, 510, 530, and 550 Series Wi-Fi 6 access points,” Aruba senior product marketing manager Dave Chen noted in a blog. “Undergoing certification is our commitment to customers that Aruba wireless networks can interoperate with Wi-Fi 6 client devices with no technical impact to your business.”

Aruba, however, didn’t actually launch any new Wi-Fi 6 equipment this week, as the company’s March 5 announcement implied. Rather, the gear certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance applied to Aruba WLAN equipment already shipping for some time, a company spokeswoman confirmed. Some of the WLAN equipment certified this week is relatively new, such as the Aruba 500 series, which the company released in November. Aruba never formally announced the product, according to the spokeswoman.

Effectively, Aruba claims to be the only supplier that can say all of its Wi-Fi 6 products are now certified as interoperable after going through testing by the Wi-Fi Alliance, which may matter to partners that want to assure customers that the gear they’re offering is compatible. Overall, Wi-Fi 6 still only accounts for a minority of wireless LAN products available today. The list of Wi-Fi 6-certfied infrastructure and endpoints started to grow incrementally in January.

As of today, Cisco has the most Wi-Fi 6 certified network products, nine, whereas Aruba has eight, according to a tracker maintained by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Meraki, a Cisco subsidiary that provides network equipment to small and midsize enterprises, also has a portfolio of Wi-Fi 6 gear, with three new models launched last month. As of this week, the Wi-Fi Alliance hasn’t included the new Meraki gear on its list of certified products.

The Wi-Fi Alliance this week also certified gear from Alpha Networks and EnGenius Technologies. Other WLAN suppliers that have successfully undergone Wi-Fi 6 certification include Linksys, Mercury and ZTE.

Certification is important to make sure handsets and access points are interoperable, said Neil Anderson, senior director of network solutions at World Wide Technology, which offers Wi-Fi 6 equipment from several suppliers.

“I think for Wi-Fi 6, the certifying body has taken an additional step to ensure that the OEMs not only comply with the protocols at Layer 1 and 2 but also implement the functionality that is unique to Wi-Fi 6 — like beamforming and wake time,” Anderson said. “This will allow Wi-Fi 6 to get to a fully functional state a lot faster than Wi-Fi 5, which let OEMs roll out capabilities in stages.”

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March 10, 2020 at 12:58AM

CompTIA Announces New Emerging Technology Community Members
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/comptia-announces-new-emerging-technology-community-members/

Diversity of perspective and industry was key to the council’s additions.

CompTIA, the trade association for the IT industry, has three new executive council members for its Emerging Technology Community.

Launched in 2018, the community focuses on trends such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and 5G wireless technology. The community analyzes these technology markets and helps companies parse how to use these technologies to drive revenue, reduce cost or bring efficiency to their operations.

“It is the role of CompTIA to digest these technologies and educate around their business use case,” said Maddy Martin, head of growth and education at Smith.ai and vice chair of the council. “We focus on the technologies that will move the needle and identify skill sets that will be needed [by the workforce] in the future.”

Three executives join the council: Jeff Benedetti, vice president for sale and marketing, Skout Cybersecurity; Matt Dukowski, senior manager, product management, SYNNEX Canada; and James Saldanha, client executive, Tech Data Canada.

Diversity of perspective and industry was key to the council’s additions.

“They all come to the table with a different perspective,” said Steven Ostrowski, CompTIA’s director of media relations. “That is the driving factor behind how we try and populate these different communities.”

Returning council members include Ted Cole, vice president of channels and strategic partners, GPS Insight; Paul Cronin, CEO, Apogee IT Services; Steven Estabrooks, general manager, Captec Americas; Frank Raimondi, chief consultant, Strategic Channel Concepts; John Rice, president, Think Channel; and Dave Sobel, host of the Business of Tech podcast.

The council produces whitepapers on these technologies, with case studies on company uses. And in just the past few months, the council has also used its research capabilities to craft an online assessment tool for companies that want to understand how to deploy them in their environment.

The Emerging Technology Innovation Assessment tool “helps companies gauge readiness to use some of the new technologies,” Ostrowski said. “You’ve got all this in perspective as to what it means for a business: ‘Can I make money with it? Can I make my business better?’ — not just taking about it at the professorial level. It comes down to the dollars and cents of operating your business.”

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March 10, 2020 at 12:58AM

Cybersecurity Risks Soar as Coronavirus Pushes More People to Work from Home
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/cybersecurity-risks-soar-as-coronavirus-pushes-more-people-to-work-from-home/

Asher de Metz of Sungard Availability Services describes the impact of COVID-19 containment protocols on cybersecurity.

As the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 continues to spread around the globe and throughout the U.S., companies everywhere are hurrying to take or follow containment protocols. Chief among them is the effort to stop people from gathering together, which includes steps to immediately cancel conferences and events, and to push more workers to work from home. And while those efforts are important in containing the highly contagious disease, they also open the doors to a sharp rise in cyberattacks.

Sungard AS’ Asher de Metz

We asked Asher de Metz, security consulting senior manager at Sungard Availability Services, to explain this correlation between disease containment and risk spread so that MSSPs will know what to look for, advise on – and possibly lock down – to protect their clients from a new cyberattack outbreak.

Channel Futures: What are the increased security risks when people start working from home?

Asher de Metz: The main security risks occur when technology is removed from a place that it can be controlled. Taking laptops home opens up risks of physical theft, so companies need to ensure that laptops are encrypted. It also means that remote access needs to be opened up, but this access should be controlled with limited rights, and multifactor authentication should also be utilized.

The most common mistake employees make during this transition is a lack of preparedness. As such, network access is opened up quickly without thought to security, leaving the company open and vulnerable to attack.

CF: Are some technologies riskier than others for remote workers?

ADM: Yes, remote workers are most at risk when using solutions that aren’t owned and centrally controlled by the company. One example of this may be when employees do not have a laptop assigned to them and they have to use their own personal computer to login to a VPN for work.

The personal computer may not have the right security in place with up-to-date security patches, AV or may already be infected, which can open up the company to a breach since it’s connected to the main network via VPN.

To mitigate this, organizations should provide company laptops to employees. Additionally, the VPN needs to be setup to ensure that connections can only be made from systems with a baseline security level. The system should then be placed into a space that is segmented, controlled and monitored so that it only has the minimum amount of access necessary to complete the employee’s job.

CF: Are there any best practices to manage a situation like the coronavirus?

ADM: From a cybersecurity perspective for remote workers, organizations must ensure that business continuity plans that include cybersecurity rules are in place. It is important that the plans limit access, and that all employees are trained to know how to act and use the technology in case of an emergency.

CF: What are the threats of someone tapping into a video conference launched or participated in by home workers?

ADM: All video conferencing should be encrypted, setup with MFA and be controlled from a central IT source. This will reduce the threat of it being hacked and eavesdropping on calls, which is critical if proprietary information is being shared on conference lines.

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March 10, 2020 at 01:53AM

WatchGuard’s Panda Security Acquisition Latest in Emerging XDR Segment
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/watchguards-panda-security-acquisition-latest-in-emerging-xdr-segment/

The Panda acquisition positions WatchGuard for an XDR play.

WatchGuard Technologies is beefing up its security platform with the acquisition of Panda Security, a Spain-based provider of advanced endpoint protection.

The combined company will provide centralized management of advanced threat detection and response functionality fueled by AI, behavior-profiling techniques and security event correlation. Financial details of the acquisition, which is expected to close next quarter, weren’t disclosed.

A WatchGuard spokesperson tells us endpoint detection and response, threat hunting, endpoint antivirus (AV), email security, patching, data compliance and encryption are all cited as top areas for investment by IT decision-makers.

“Short term, the acquisition of Panda makes these products accessible to our customer base through a trusted vendor and their IT solution provider of choice,” the spokesperson said. “Longer term, our customers will enjoy the additional benefits that come from these solutions being tightly integrated with the core WatchGuard offering — centralized management, security event correlation, etc.”

The full portfolio of WatchGuard and Panda products will be available to both customers and partners this year, providing opportunities for the combined organizations to take on new product offerings and work together to provide greater value to all sectors served by WatchGuard, the spokesperson said. The two leadership teams will begin work on a cross-selling timeline with the goal of having tentative dates soon after closing.

“WatchGuard has continued to deliver on its vision of providing a complete security portfolio of products and services that protect users both inside and beyond the network perimeter, including secure Wi-Fi solutions, multifactor authentation (MFA) and now most recently user-focused security services,” the spokesperson said. “The acquisition of Panda fuels that vision and expands the company’s portfolio of user-centric threat detection and response products and services.”

Rik Turner, principal analyst at Omdia, tells us WatchGuard is a well-known security vendor in the SMB market, where it offers network security, secure Wi-Fi, MFA and network intelligence. It also has ambitions in the enterprise segment, particularly with its Firebox next-gen firewall product. That said, a more serious foray into enterprise requires a broader portfolio, which is where the Panda acquisition comes in, he said.

The acquisition is the latest move in the emerging XDR segment, in which detection and response capabilities are offered across network, endpoint and beyond, he said.

“After a veritable explosion of endpoint security vendors in the mid-2010s, the last couple of years has seen considerable consolidation, with Invincea (bought by Sophos), Cylance (Blackberry), Bromium (HP), Endgame (Elastic), and Carbon Black (VMware) all being acquired,” Turner said. “WatchGuard’s move on Panda is the latest in this trend, and is recognition that enterprise security needs the XDR capabilities outlined by Omdia two years ago, rather than silos of endpoint, network and cloud security. The Panda acquisition certainly positions WatchGuard for an XDR play and thus makes it a more relevant competitor in enterprise security. Omdia will now be watching the enlarged entity to see how it expands its XDR offerings into security for the cloud.”

Panda was the first endpoint protection platform (EPP) vendor to offer a 100% attestation service, certifying the legitimacy and safety of all running applications. The company also recently launched a threat hunting service available for direct enterprise consumption and for MSSPs who resell Panda services.

WatchGuard’s Prakash Panjwani

“Businesses today face an increasingly sophisticated and evolving threat landscape, scarcity of trained security professionals and an increasingly porous perimeter,” said Prakash Panjwani, WatchGuard‘s CEO. “By bringing the companies together, we enable our current and future customers and partners to consolidate their fundamental security services under a single brand, backed by the innovation and quality that is a core part of both companies’ DNA.”

“We are thrilled to merge with WatchGuard because of the new scale and portfolio access it provides to our customers and partners,” said Juan Santamaria Uriarte, Panda‘s CEO. “We are also excited to see our innovative product portfolio be delivered via WatchGuard’s strong global network of partners. Together, we look forward to building a security platform that bridges the network and user perimeter, with capabilities that are unmatched in the cybersecurity market.”

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March 10, 2020 at 02:53AM

FASTCHAT: Securing the Future: The MSSP Opportunity in 2020 and Beyond
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/fastchat-securing-the-future-the-mssp-opportunity-in-2020-and-beyond/

Trend Micro is taking detection and response to another level and is asking its MSPs to come along for the ride.

The global managed security services market is surging as businesses scramble to neutralize cyberthreats and address a dearth of skilled IT talent.

In this Channel Futures FastChat, Stephan Tallent — Fortinet’s Senior Director of MSSP & Service Enablement — shares his insights on the evolution of the MSSP marketplace, outlining the critical steps to developing a healthy, profitable security business and identifying the key opportunities for growth in the months and years ahead.

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March 10, 2020 at 02:54AM

Channel Partners Conference & Expo Officially Postponed
https://mymarketlogic.com/blog/channel-partners-conference-expo-officially-postponed-2/

After close consultation with our partners in the industry, we have made the difficult decision to postpone CP Expo 2020.

After close consultation with our partners in the industry and as the situation has changed rapidly, we have made the difficult decision to postpone Channel Partners Conference & Expo 2020. 

With the rapidly developing circumstances and in light of corporate travel considerations continuing to escalate, we’ve worked as quickly as possible to explore our options.

Having spent the past year preparing for the event with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors and event partners, we’re genuinely disappointed not to be able to host you this coming week, but the experience and safety of our community and everyone involved in the event continues to be our top priority.

Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, March 9-12, 2020, is officially postponed, with the intention to announce a new date shortly. Exhibitors and attendees will be contacted with further information regarding booth contracts and registrations. 

As always, we would like to thank everyone who helps to make the event possible and recognize that our event does not happen without your support. We appreciate the open discussions and encouragement. The conversations we’ve had over the last several days have proven how lucky we all are to be part of this supportive, tight-knit industry. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at Channel Partners events. 

via Blog https://mymarketlogic.com/blog
March 10, 2020 at 04:53AM