Basketball fans are gearing up for the true harbinger of spring: the NBA playoffs. Tonight, the play-in tournament concludes as the Cavaliers face the Hawks, and the Clippers battle the Pelicans. Winners of those two games will have the honor (yeah, right) to face the number one seeds in their conferences. Then a “title” wave of playoff games start Saturday.
Security news. Hello to the new GravityZone XDR, a native extended detection and response product from Bitdefender that extends threat visibility across infrastructures, workloads, and applications.
Hybrid work locations continue, so it’s a good time for the new Palo Alto Networks Okyo Garde Enterprise Edition (pictured) that protects businesses from home network vulnerabilities to hit general availability.
The folks at iboss announced a new Zero Trust Policy Manager to help organizations add zero trust protection to data and resources. Follows NIST 800-207 guidelines.
MFA provider Beyond Identity now integrates with single sign-on tools from CyberArk, Google Cloud, OneLogin by One Identity, Shibboleth, and VMware.
Other product news. Remote tech support always needs to improve because users constantly invent new ways to screw things up. Maybe the new Splashtop AR (pictured), which lets techs see, with augmented reality overlays, issues through mobile camera sharing will help.
Broadvoice added a Virtual Seat option to its Broadvoice b-hive Cloud PBX integration with the Microsoft Teams collaboration hub.
Reinvent Telecom flipped the switch on new SIP trunking that handles two-way business messaging traffic on Zultys and 3CX PBXs with messaging clients.
Have some huge Java apps you need to transform to microservices and run on Microsoft Azure? Check out the new Java Refactoring Service from the teamup of vFunction and Microsoft Services Industry Solutions.
Non-product vendor news. The red carpet at ScalePad was for Eric Torres (pictured), formerly of Datto, who takes on the newly created role of vice president of channel.
Nerdio appointed Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft’s former global channel chief, to its board of directors.
New business cards are on the way to Axcient since the promotion of Ben Nowacky to chief product officer.
After joining Malwarebytes earlier this year, Laura Whitt-Winyard becomes chief information security officer.
Arista Networks has a new subsidiary: Untangle. They did not disclose terms.
Augmentt and 7 Figure MSP did the tighten up dance, and now Augmentt’s SaaS auditing and monitoring tools are available to 7 Figure MSP’s members.
Intermedia products are now available to Intelisys partners, including Unite, Contact Center, and SIP Trunking.
Nextiva unveiled its new partner program, NextivaONE, with improved training, a partner team, updated portal, and more marketing and demand generation support.
Granite Telecommunications pulled the curtain on its new VAR partnership program focused on resellers working with Cradlepoint, Fortinet, and Juniper Networks.
NYNJA introduced its new channel partner program to better server SMEs and enterprises. But wait! There’s more! NYNJA also signed a partnership deal with ROI Communications for its products.
Need speed? Always, so check out the new AT&T Partner Solutions channel offerings of new multi-gig speeds of AT&T Business Fiber.
This week’s stats ticker:
According to the Canalys PC Market Pulse: Q1 2022, worldwide PC revenue was up more than 15% even though shipments fell 3% during the same timeframe. More than 80.1 million desktops and laptops were shipped despite all the constraints of geopolitical turmoil and softening consumer demand. Desktop shipments grew 13% to 16.8 million units compared to laptop shipments shrinking 6% year over year to 63.2 million units. Outlook continues to be positive, as customers forced to delay purchases due to supply limitations or higher prices will soon trigger a large wave of device refresh orders. Even if consumer and education purchasing slides, commercial demand will remain strong. The top five sellers were, in order, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple, and ASUS.
Over at the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker for 1Q22, similar results are noted. Experts expected a decline in PC volumes because of logistics and supply chain issues along with lingering pandemic challenges and new geopolitical developments. IDC added Acer to its top five list, showing it tied with ASUS for the fifth spot.
The 2022 ConnectWise MSP Threat Report paints a gloomy ransomware picture, with continued financial losses in the MSP industry through a rise in MSP-focused attacks. There was a 10-15% increase in ransomware attacks by quarter. Other findings include the rise amid the “super-MSP” as mergers and acquisitions, including interest from private equity partners. Cybersecurity will remain the focus and become even more critical, to the point the tight-fisted SMBs will need to make significant investments in cyber detection, response, and automation.
Dollars to donuts. Sure, gas prices are too high for a variety of reasons, but at least one good thing has come of this. No, not lower pollution, but lower doughnut prices.
A dozen of the original Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts cost around $10. Every Wednesday from April 13 to May 4, that same dozen glazed will cost the AAA national average price for a gallon of gas. This week, that prices was $4.11. Bingo: $6 bucks saved.
You read that correctly. For another few weeks, Krispy Kreme will sell a dozen glazed doughnuts for the cost of a gallon of gas each Wednesday. Hey, any excuse for extra doughnuts is a good thing, right?
