This week in the SMB channel features news from Sophos, Spiceworks, and ZeroStack, big conferences for anyone interested in Lenovo or the Internet of Things, and one of the unluckiest days of the year.
Monday, May 9th
Sophos makes a major partner program announcement.
Reader ROI: Come back to the ChannelPro website later today to find out what makes that announcement so major. We’ll have complete details for you shortly.
- Private cloud vendor ZeroStack makes an announcement that anyone interested in the OpenStack cloud platform will want to check out.
Reader ROI: Once again, you’ll have to revisit us later today to learn more.
The Lenovo Accelerate partner conference gets started in Orlando. It concludes on Wednesday.
Reader ROI: Today’s agenda includes breakout sessions and a welcome reception, but the real action begins Tuesday morning, when a parade of top execs (including North America Channel Chief Sammy Kinlaw, pictured) will map out the year ahead for Lenovo and its partners. Our own Matt Whitlock will be live blogging those presentations from his perch in the audience, so come on back to this website tomorrow for near-real-time updates on what’s new and notable.
- Rackspace publishes its latest quarterly earnings report.
Reader ROI: Concerns about Rackspace’s future in a market increasingly dominated by even bigger players like Amazon and Microsoft had the infrastructure hoster’s stock price down some 30 percent in 2016 alone back when it last posted earnings in February. Investors must have liked the looks of the double-digit revenue gains the company disclosed, because Rackspace shares are up nearly 23 percent since then. The multiple OpenStack initiatives the company has announced in recent months, not to mention its joint server development venture with Google, have probably helped too.
Tuesday, May 10th
- Spiceworks equips its professional IT network with some cool new tools.
Reader ROI: Come back to our website tomorrow to find out what kind of tools and why they’re so cool.
Internet of Things World gets underway in Santa Clara, Calif. It wraps up on Thursday.
Reader ROI: If you’re planning to be there, you’ll be among a projected 10,000 attendees hungrily soaking up information from 350 speakers about one of the biggest emerging market opportunities in IT. Some 200 exhibitors will be there as well, competing eagerly for your attention. Avnet, to take but one example, will be demo-ing a simulated IoT-enabled Mars Rover at its booth and co-hosting a smart cities hackathon.
- StorageCraft’s 2016 Blastoff Tour makes the first of three stops this week in Mississauga (near Toronto). It moves on to Burlington, Mass. (near Boston) tomorrow and Valley Forge, Pa. (near Philadelphia) on Thursday.
Reader ROI: The free half-day live events include content on StorageCraft’s solutions, partner program, and product roadmap, as well as an hour of technical training.
Thursday, May 12th
- LOGICnow hosts its second MAX on the Move partner conference of the year in Cincinnati.
Reader ROI: Training sessions for LOGICnow’s MAX product line are on the agenda today, with a full day of market forecasts and product roadmap updates to follow on Friday. Attendance both days is free of charge.
- Symantec posts its latest quarterly earnings.
Reader ROI: No surprises here. The security vendor lowered its revenue guidance for the quarter from between $885 and $915 million to $873 million a few short weeks ago, the same day it announced the resignation of president and CEO Michael Brown. The only question today is how successfully Symantec will reassure nervous investors and partners about its future.
Friday, May 13th
- It’s a rough day for people with friggatriskaidekaphobia.
Reader ROI: That’s the official (well, semi-official) term for the irrational fear of Friday the 13th. Although maybe that fear isn’t entirely irrational. After all, there’s at least some scientific evidence to suggest that you’re more likely to get into a car accident on Friday the 13th than other Fridays, especially if you’re a woman. And the so-called Jerusalem virus is also known as the Friday the 13th virus because it deletes files on infected devices every time that date rolls around. Might be worth keeping an eye on when Friday the 13th happens at that. And yes, there’s an app for that.
