Pivoting in response to the coronavirus pandemic, ChannelPro transformed the second of five planned regional events to a live, online forum aimed at helping MSPs and IT solution providers build an action plan for surviving—and thriving—in these uncertain times.

Unveiled last fall and now in general availability, the edge and endpoint security system comes with recently-added functionality designed to help partners and end users tackle new challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak.

The new dual-socket ThinkSystem SR645 and SR665 are aimed at businesses that want to run advanced analytics, virtualization, artificial intelligence, and other performance-sensitive workloads at higher speeds with lower total cost of ownership.

New virtual desktop goodies from Microsoft, new Azure backup goodies from Veeam, a new partner program from Acronis, and the tale of a man who went grocery shopping for mom but came home with a surprise instead are among the stories we’re finally bringing your way.

According to CEO Tim Weller (pictured), the managed services vendor sees doing more of what worked in the past as the key to succeeding in the future—and advises MSPs to think the same way.

Technology Marketing Toolkit CEO Robin Robins reminded the MSP virtual attendees at the annual event that the fundamentals of business have not changed despite the coronavirus impact, and growth opportunities still exist.

Think COVID-19 can’t make things much worse? Wait until people without access to a barber start showing up in big 70s-style mustaches again. That’s just one of the dangers Matt and Rich discuss this week with their guest host, cloud entrepreneur and consultant Jamison West. In an interview with Forrester analyst Jay McBain, they also explore the sobering potential impact of the coronavirus recession on the channel’s long-term future.†

Erick and Rich (who are both wearing pants, we think) chew over NetApp buying CloudJumper, the coronavirus-fueled opportunity to sell managed services to midsize businesses, and why eating more french fries has become every Belgian’s patriotic duty.

New functionality provided at no charge lets people working remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic scan personally-owned PCs, and then issues color-coded, letter-graded report cards that MSPs can use to identify vulnerabilities in need of remediation.

The acquisition is designed to help NetApp combine virtual desktop infrastructure services from Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Google with its own cloud storage and backup platforms to deliver complete “modern workplace” solutions.