7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Snowflake, Kaseya, Windstream, Tanium, More
The Clop ransomware gang claims hundreds of organizations were compromised in its recent MOVEit Transfer attacks.
July 7, 2023
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Cloud database provider Snowflake is building out its new online application marketplace with the launch of its Snowflake Native App Framework. Snowflake rolled out the public preview of the new framework in the AWS cloud at Snowflake Summit 2023 in Las Vegas.
Snowflake’s new cloud-native app framework is among numerous announcements throughout the weeklong event that included partnerships and previews by the company. Many of the announcements focused on advancing the development of AI and machine learning training into applications that can tap the Snowflake cloud database. Among them were Document AI, Snowpark Container Services and the release of various APIs.
Frank Slootman, Snowflake’s CEO, made waves when he compared the Snowflake Marketplace to Apple’s mobile app store in his keynote at the conference.
“There is now such a thing as a Snowflake application,” Slootman said. “And we’re now building applications as Snowflake applications. We’re super excited about that because they’re using all the common services, common governance frameworks, and obviously the database engine, which is really the centerpiece to the entire platform.”
Find out more about the multiple announcements Snowflake made during the conference.
Many business leaders are concerned about what the future holds, and channel partners are feeling squeezed between rising vendor prices and the increased cost of doing business.
And yet, demand for IT managed services remains high, and expectations for growth in 2023 are strong. Cybersecurity is at the top of the executive agenda for many companies and is one area in which businesses are unwilling to cut spending.
Mark Romano, senior director of channel success at WatchGuard Technologies, outlined three trends shaping how activity within the cybersecurity channel will look throughout the rest of this year. One of them was XDR, which enables centralized oversight, alert automation, faster recovery, cost savings and improved margins for businesses.
Get more of Romano’s take on the industry, including why M&A remains strong among MSPs.
Hundreds of thousands of Fortinet FortiGate firewalls remain vulnerable to a critical security issue, almost a month after the company released an update that addresses the problem.
The vulnerability, CVE-2023-27997, is a remote code execution (RCE) with a severity score of 9.8 out of 10. Bishop Fox, an offensive security provider, internally developed an exploit for CVE-2023-27997. There are 490,000 affected secure sockets layer (SSL) VPN interfaces exposed on the internet, and roughly 69% remain unpatched.
Timothy Morris, chief security advisor at Tanium, made waves when he said the seriousness of this “cannot be understated.”
“This FortiOS … vulnerability is rated as critical and requires a firmware update,” he said. “That is reason enough to patch. However, the fact that exploit code exists and that these security appliances are typically on the perimeter requires immediate attention.”
Find out why patching firmware is more cumbersome and is riskier when dealing with appliances that run application gateways.
Kaseya has been fielding an influx of MSPs’ questions, concerns and comments since announcing its acquisition of Datto in 2022. Now, a full year after the deal went final, the company is setting the record straight. The MSP software vendor hosted DattoCon Europe, its first in-person customer event in the region since the acquisition. CEO Fred Voccola sat down with Channel Futures at the event in Dublin, Ireland.
“As the CEO of a business, the worst thing someone said to me was, ‘I didn’t know that you did all the things that you do.’ It’s like we’re failing at communicating to our customers. And that’s tough,” he admitted.
Discover more about what Voccola had to say about that and other customer concerns.
Windstream Enterprise has unveiled the latest iteration of its channel partner program. The aim of the One partner program is to create greater long-term value and simplicity for thousands of channel partners nationwide by supporting teams across all sales channels with a suite of cloud-enabled connectivity, communications and security solutions. It also provides managed IT services, helping partners operate and optimize these technologies.
Ben Team, head of channel at Windstream Enterprise, said partners are a central part of Windstream Enterprise’s long-term success. It’s about offering them a one-stop shop to meet their needs to reach their business outcomes, he said.
“We have made significant investments in ensuring the One partner program is beneficial and rewarding for [partners],” Team said. “Today’s growth companies require the most modern, advanced technology to combat cyberthreats, improve efficiency and lower operational costs. Windstream Enterprise has that advanced technology and services, and with our partners’ help, we can best address this strategic market. I am excited to roll out this incredible opportunity to, and for, our partners.”
Find out why the One partner program is a reaction to market needs.
The Clop ransomware gang claims hundreds of organizations were compromised in its recent MOVEit Transfer attacks.
That’s according to Brett Callow, ransomware expert and threat analyst at Emsisoft. Earlier this month, several U.S. government agencies including the U.S. Department of Energy were hacked via a MOVEit Transfer software vulnerability.
So far, about 148 organizations have been compromised in MOVEit Transfer attacks, Callow said. And that number continues to climb.
“Eleven of the 148 have confirmed the number of individuals whose personal information was compromised, which currently totals 16,212,552,” he said.
Why is the attack not over? The experts weigh in.
Innovation means different things to different companies. For some, it’s about implementing cutting-edge technologies or upending a stale business model. For others, it means doing more with what you have or less with the things that distract from a core focus. Whatever their version, the Channel Futures NextGen 101 winners embraced innovation as they strengthened their companies in the wake of COVID to deliver the solutions clients needed to succeed far into the future. (Click here to see this year’s Channel Futures NextGen 101, an MSP 501 list.)
“In 2022, we had to rebuild from the pandemic. Nobody wanted to spend money; there was a lot of shrinkage,” said Tim Taylor, CEO of TaylorWorks, an MSP in the Orlando area, where tourism and the money it generated ground to a halt. “But we’re coming back, and this year we’ll do more than we did before the pandemic.”
The NextGen 101 Class of 2023 did far more than their competitors to land on this year’s list. Find out why they made the cut, as well as which organizations made the top 50.
Innovation means different things to different companies. For some, it’s about implementing cutting-edge technologies or upending a stale business model. For others, it means doing more with what you have or less with the things that distract from a core focus. Whatever their version, the Channel Futures NextGen 101 winners embraced innovation as they strengthened their companies in the wake of COVID to deliver the solutions clients needed to succeed far into the future. (Click here to see this year’s Channel Futures NextGen 101, an MSP 501 list.)
“In 2022, we had to rebuild from the pandemic. Nobody wanted to spend money; there was a lot of shrinkage,” said Tim Taylor, CEO of TaylorWorks, an MSP in the Orlando area, where tourism and the money it generated ground to a halt. “But we’re coming back, and this year we’ll do more than we did before the pandemic.”
The NextGen 101 Class of 2023 did far more than their competitors to land on this year’s list. Find out why they made the cut, as well as which organizations made the top 50.
The week has come to an end, and we have another edition of Channel People Making Waves. The individuals we highlight are featured in the most-read stories of the last seven days, and that includes leaders at Snowflake, Kaseya, Windstream, Tanium and more.
Let’s get the scary news out of the way first. The Clop ransomware gang has compromised hundreds of organizations in its recent MOVEit Transfer attacks. This includes the U.S. Department of Energy and other governmental organizations. And the attack isn’t over, experts warn. Stay tuned to Channel Futures and reporting from Edward Gately for ongoing coverage regarding this cyberattack.
It’s been one year since Kaseya bought Datto. In that time, company CEO Fred Voccola has fielded a range of questions from customers about the impact of this deal. In reporting from Christine Horton at DattoCon Europe, we get a better picture of Voccola’s response to customer concerns.
Finally, editors at Channel Futures unveiled the publication’s NextGen 101 winners, executives at some of the most innovative companies in the channel. Despite getting to the top, many of these leaders faced challenges in recent years, including the pandemic. So how did they rise up? Check out our slideshow above.
And that’s a wrap. If did you didn’t catch our last segment, you can find it here.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Claudia Adrien or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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