Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) will move its headquarters across town by the end of 2018.
The company announced the headquarters move from Palo Alto, Calif., to nearby Santa Clara, Calif., on Thursday, almost two years to the day after the official split of the old Hewlett-Packard Co. into HPE and HP Inc. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on November 02, 20170 comments
The ongoing reorganization of the Microsoft channel operation, One Commercial Partner (OCP), includes a new concept called the "swarm," a pool of technical experts at Microsoft available to strategic partners.
The term came up during the most recent podcast in the "The Ultimate Guide to Partnering" series as host Vince Menzione was interviewing Scott Buth, director of partner development in the Microsoft U.S. OCP. Buth, a 10-year Microsoft veteran, is responsible for improving the capabilities of Microsoft Licensing Solution Provider (LSP) partners, an elite group that currently consists of 16 companies. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 30, 20170 comments
Investment firm Vista Equity Partners shook up the managed service provider (MSP) market on Thursday by announcing an agreement to acquire Datto and to combine that data protection specialist company with another of its holdings, MSP tools vendor Autotask Corp.
Assuming the deal closes as expected by the end of this year, it will create a powerhouse MSP tools company with offerings ranging from backup and disaster recovery (BDR) to remote monitoring and management (RMM) to professional services automation (PSA), along with file sync and share and SMB networking. Datto founder and CEO Austin McChord will serve as CEO overseeing a combined management team, while Autotask President and CEO Mark Cattini will act as a strategic advisor to the board of directors. Branding for the combined company has not been determined. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 26, 20170 comments
Cisco made a major move to expand its collaboration footprint within small and medium businesses worldwide on Monday with the announcement of its intent to acquire cloud-calling and contact center solution vendor BroadSoft for $1.9 billion.
"Following the close of the acquisition, Cisco and BroadSoft will provide a comprehensive SaaS portfolio of cloud based unified communications, collaboration, and contact center software solutions and services for customers of all sizes," said Rob Salvagno, vice president of corporate business development for Cisco, in a blog post about the deal. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 23, 20170 comments
A long-standing pillar of modern computer security sustained major damage on Monday when researchers revealed a serious weakness in WPA2, the gold-standard protocol for protecting wireless networks.
The Belgian researcher who discovered the weakness, Mathy Vanhoef of KU Leuven, dubbed the new category of attacks "KRACK" for "key reinstallation attacks."
More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 16, 20170 comments
The recent discovery of a botnet aimed at Office 365 customers puts a spotlight on a commonly overlooked category of system accounts.
Skyhigh Networks this month reported a botnet it dubbed "KnockKnock" that it discovered several weeks ago. Active since at least May, and especially active from June through August, the relatively small botnet seems to have been highly targeted in both the types of accounts it attacked and the types of organizations it went after. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 12, 20170 comments
The number of U.S. partners participating in the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program is up by about a third over the last half year.
"We're just over 8,000 partners who are selling in the program," said William Lewallen, who leads the Microsoft CSP program in the United States, in a podcast posted on Wednesday. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 11, 20170 comments
Hoping to capitalize on an anticipated explosion of cloud opportunities in Europe, channel-focused cloud management software provider SkyKick is opening a European office Thursday in Amsterdam.
The move will double SkyKick's European headcount, although the Seattle-based company did not provide precise employee numbers. SkyKick's European operations were previously concentrated in the United Kingdom, where the company will maintain a presence. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 05, 20170 comments
As the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforcement date approaches, major IT vendors are continuing to spin up tools and resources to help customers and partners ensure compliance and avoid potentially catastrophic fines.
GDPR is a European Union regulation for protecting the data and privacy of EU citizens. GDPR was approved by the EU Parliament in April 2016, and enforcement begins on May 25, 2018. It requires notifications within 72 hours of a breach, evidence of thorough efforts to protect customer data, and clear consent policies to allow EU citizens to opt out of data collection or have their data deleted. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 05, 20170 comments
Microsoft is adding one more big developer event to its calendar for 2017.
The company announced Thursday that it will hold Connect(); 2017 from Nov. 15 to 17 in New York City and live stream portions of the event. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on October 05, 20170 comments
Tech Data is simplifying its brand.
The sprawling, multi-faceted IT supplier with $16.5 billion in sales in the first half of this year announced on Wednesday a set of branding moves, which primarily serve to fold the Technology Solutions business acquired earlier this year from Avnet into a more cohesive Tech Data story. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 27, 20170 comments
Microsoft's subsidy program to attract partners to the five strategic cloud competencies in the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) will end later this month.
The move will raise annual U.S. partner fees for gold cloud competencies by $790 and silver cloud competencies by $140. More
Posted by Scott Bekker on September 19, 20170 comments