ICYMI: Our Channel News Roundup for the Week of November 28th

As most folks are aware, the tryptophan in turkey doesn’t actually make you drowsy. Or at least it doesn’t make you any more drowsy than the tryptophan chicken has in even greater amounts. So what then explains the fact that more than a week after Thanksgiving, none of us here at ChannelPro can keep our eyes open long enough to write about so much of what’s going on in the technology industry? It’s a question we’d explore in greater depth if we didn’t feel another nap approaching.

Before it arrives, though, here’s a rundown of some stories we would have covered for you this week if we’d been awake a little more often.

So close yet so far. Somehow, despite all the gravy we ingested last week, your ChannelPro news team managed to make it to Las Vegas for the Ingram Micro ONE conference, and even file a few stories. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to waddle over from that show to any of the three venues right up the street where Amazon Web Services was holding its massive re:Invent confab. And there was a lot going on at that event, it turns out.

Now this is where we’d congratulate ourselves for having prognosticated that artificial intelligence would figure significantly in the news from re:Invent, if not for the fact that it was kind of a no-brainer prediction given how many other serious players in IT have been talking about that topic lately. AWS did its best to one-up its peers, however, by announcing not one or two but three new AI services that developers can use to:

• Create conversational interfaces that allow users to control applications via voice and text commands.
• Equip applications to respond to those commands just as conversationally.
• Build image recognition capabilities into their cloud-based solutions.

And that, it turns out, was just a warmup. There were also seven new additions to the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, two new services for connecting the AWS platform to Internet of Things gizmos and other connected devices, a new SQL querying tool for the Amazon Simple Storage Service, and new compatibility between the Amazon’s Aurora database and the PostgreSQL open source database.

Yet they still weren’t finished! All of the above came to light on Wednesday. The very next day, AWS revealed an incredible 13 more features and services.

Their partners got in on the act too. To site just five representative examples:

• Actifio released an AWS edition of its OnVault long-term data retention application.
• Aviatrix and Megaport unveiled a joint solution offering secure, direct remote connections to AWS resources.
• Barracuda made its Web Application Firewall (pictured) available on a metered, on-demand basis via the AWS Marketplace.
• Dataguise announced that its DgSecure data governance solution can now discover sensitive information like PCI and healthcare records in Amazon Redshift, Amazon RDS, and Amazon Simple Storage Service.
• Riverbed and Verizon teamed up to deliver a new solution for efficiently, securely, and reliably connecting branch offices and data centers to AWS-based infrastructures.

How exactly was Hewlett Packard Enterprise supposed to compete with all that? They had the European edition of their Discover partner event going on this week after all, and while they didn’t quite match Amazon’s news gusher headline for headline they did make some pretty significant announcements. We told you about the software and switches their Aruba subsidiary rolled out to make managing and securing Internet of Things hardware easier, but not about:

• The extension of HPE’s composable infrastructure initiative to its hybrid cloud and hyperconverged infrastructure offerings.
• The sale of HPE’s OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Cloud Foundry Platform-as-a-Service assets to SUSE.
• The demonstration of a next-generation “Memory-Driven Computing” platform (pictured) supposedly capable of accelerating some workloads by as much as 8,000 percent.
• The announcement of plans to offer hybrid cloud proof-of-concept workshops and open a joint hybrid cloud innovation center with Microsoft.

Oh yeah, Microsoft. Can’t leave them out, now can we? It wasn’t a big week for the gang in Redmond, but they did:

• Release a new version of BizTalk Server.
• Add new cloud storage options for Office on Android.
• Put the Azure Active Directory Access Panel, which lets users with Active Directory accounts view and launch cloud-based applications, into general availability.

That can’t be all the product news made this week, can it? Nope. In addition to all of the above:

• Avnet, on top of announcing a new partnership with Internet of Things middleware provider relayr, added Trusted Platform Module capabilities to its MicroZed Industrial IoT Kit.
• Google disclosed several new ways to customize and extend its G Suite productivity tools.
• IGEL shipped a new edition of its Universal Desktop Converter (pictured), which turns graying PCs into youthful thin clients.
• LG introduced a new line of clinical and surgical monitors for the medical imaging market.
• Sharp shipped some affordably priced new signage displays for use by SMBs.
• Toshiba added call recording integration, softphone trial licensing, group instant messaging enhancements, and more to its UCedge unified communications solution.

Thinking there may be a little more yet to come? Good for you! Because there were plenty of developments in the vendor community not involving products this week. For instance:

• Cloud and telco master agent AVANT inked a deal with Interactive Intelligence Group to distribute the latter's ProCloud Engage hosted call center software.
• Avnet (which quietly put together quite a little news week, didn’t it?) announced that it now distributes Internet of Things-oriented products from Central Semiconductor.
• 2016 ChannelPro All-Star BlackStratus revealed that its CYBERShark next-generation security solution is now available via Tech Data.
• Intel named Tom Lantzsch (pictured) the senior vice president and general manager of its IoT Group.
• Jenne revealed that it now distributes audio visual gear and software from Kramer Electronics.
• Juniper Networks announced its intention to purchase cloud ops management vendor AppFormix.
• Lexmark let the world know that its acquisition by Apex Technology, PAG Asia Capital, and others is complete.

This week’s stats ticker:

• Global spending by SMBs on IT hardware, software, and services will rise from $564 billion this year to $668 billion in 2020, according to IDC.
• Tablet sales will drop 12 percent this year but grow in the “low single digits” next year, according to IDC once more.
• Global PC shipments will decline 6.4 percent in 2016 and 2.1 percent next year, according to IDC yet again.

He’s clearly not in it for the money. Santa Claus, that is. Because according to no less an authority than Zillow, the Claus family’s North Pole estate is currently valued at precisely $656,957. Not bad for a 2,500 square foot, 194 year old house within walking distance of nothing but a barn full of reindeer, but you’d think the brand equity Santa has built over the years would translate into something a little more grand. Then again, you have to wonder where that “Zestimate” even comes from? I mean, it’s not like there are a lot of comps to draw on in that neighborhood.