8 Channel People Making Waves This Week at AT&T, VMware, More
One company's layoffs are more about the macroeconomic issues affecting the tech market.
June 10, 2022
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VMware has added threat detection capability to its lineup. Called VMware Contexa, the technology discovers lateral network traffic. VMware claims that Contexa is more likely to discover lateral network traffic than current security information and event management (SIEM) and extended detection and response (XDR) solutions.
VMware Contexa is not a product; rather, it is analytics technology that monitors traditional virtual environments through VMware NSX and endpoints via VMware Workspace One and Carbon Black. For modern, cloud-native app environments, Contexa detects threats via VMware Tanzu. VMware is offering it at no additional cost.
Advances in silicon from AMD and Intel have resulted in 128 core servers, making it possible to run more than 100 VMs on physical host. Little of that traffic is actually analyzed.
Tom Gillis is senior VP and general manager of VMware’s Advanced Security Business Group. He made waves this week for explaining how Contexa works.
“By instrumenting the virtualization layer, we see every packet and every process,” he said. “And we understand them in context.”
Read more from Edward Gately’s reporting here.
Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) recently published data that mirror what various vendor-driven reports show: Multicloud is a big deal. Earlier this year, the research firm found that 86% of current public cloud infrastructure users rely on multiple clouds. Between two and four public clouds typically end up in the mix.
“Organizations are betting big on multicloud,” said Rob Strechay, senior analyst at ESG. “It is more than reality, but a necessity.”
Strechay made waves for underscoring the value of the multicloud.
“More organizations are deploying applications that span multiple clouds to get the job done, and it provides them more benefits than it does risks.”
Kelly Teal interviews more experts about the multicloud here.
CyberFox is new a global cybersecurity company launching this week. Its focus is on providing identity access management (IAM) solutions for MSPs. Channel veteran and ConnectWise alum David Bellini will lead the organization as CEO.
Bellini made waves for bringing together under a single brand two IAM security companies — Password Boss and AutoElevate. It gives MSPs a one-stop destination for security solutions that deliver better control over user access to critical information.
“The founders of both Password Boss and AutoElevate were MSP owners first who saw a need, leveraged their intimate understanding of an MSP’s challenges and built solutions specifically designed to meet that need. It is abundantly clear to anyone who uses either that ‘MSP’ is deeply entrenched in the DNA of both solutions,” Bellini said.
Learn more about how CyberFox will meet the security needs of MSPs.
AT&T has promoted two longtime company executives to even bigger channel roles.
Will Harvey, vice president of AT&T Business Solutions, becomes vice president, business planning and development – indirect channels. And Randall Porter, vice president of strategic alliances at AT&T Business, becomes vice president, indirect channel lead.
Both executives made waves for their tenures at AT&T. Harvey has worked for the company for 30 years and Porter has been in leadership roles there for 24 years.
Sarita Rao is senior vice president, integrated and partner solutions at AT&T.
“We are at a critical time in our evolution as a company. As we enter this new age, we are doing so in a way that recognizes the importance and value of our partners,” Rao said. “Because of our success as a channel and our sharpened focus on becoming America’s best broadband provider, we made a strategic decision to invest in scaling indirect.”
Learn more about the company’s vision for indirect sales here.
Rohit Ghai, RSA’s CEO, detailed the meaning behind the theme of this year’s RSA Conference USA: transformation across the cybersecurity industry.
Ghai made waves for asking the question: Is the cybersecurity industry really going to wait for a cyber pandemic to transform security?
“Transform, we must,” he said. “Our survival depends on it. We need to ditch the dogma of cyber. Identity is the No. 1 constant. The truth is what matters most. And we need to stop thinking of security and convenience as a constant trade-off.”
The RSA conference drew tens of thousands of attendees from across the globe to San Francisco. Read more from the experts at SolarWinds, IBM, Perimeter 81, Dell, Mandiant and more.
To get additional coverage from the conference, visit here, here and here.
Eric Parizo is principal analyst of Omdia’s cybersecurity operations intelligence service. (Informa is the parent company of both Omdia and Channel Futures.) He made waves for his insight into Cybereason’s staff reductions. (Cybereason operates in 50 countries and its workforce totaled 1,500. In February, the company reportedly filed for an IPO at a valuation of $5 billion.)
Parizo said the company’s layoffs are likely less about the company’s ability to execute and more about the macroeconomic issues affecting the tech market overall.
“In a matter of weeks, an overall solid economy has quickly taken a downturn largely due to inflation,” he said. “That is having a ripple effect throughout the global economy,” Parizo said. “And both tech and more specifically cybersecurity aren’t immune to those effects.”
Amid the current conditions, an IPO for Cybereason becomes much more challenging, he said.
To learn about the macroeconomic issues affecting the tech industry, click here.
The partnership between Upstack and Lumen has the entire channel talking.
The companies announced a direct partnership in a move that directly challenges the technology solutions brokerage (TSB) community that has historically mediated the relationship between Lumen and Upstack’s various partners. While most TSBs declined to comment publicly on the deal, sources in conversations with Channel Futures registered their frustration. Various channel partners, including members of the Channel Futures agent advisory board, weighed in on the partnership.
Kathleen Waters is the CEO of Creekview Group. She made waves for her bold prediction.
“I believe the end game for Upstack is to become a marketplace similar to the AppSmart model, thus creating this race to zero and eliminating the partners.”
Read commentary from other partners here.
The partnership between Upstack and Lumen has the entire channel talking.
The companies announced a direct partnership in a move that directly challenges the technology solutions brokerage (TSB) community that has historically mediated the relationship between Lumen and Upstack’s various partners. While most TSBs declined to comment publicly on the deal, sources in conversations with Channel Futures registered their frustration. Various channel partners, including members of the Channel Futures agent advisory board, weighed in on the partnership.
Kathleen Waters is the CEO of Creekview Group. She made waves for her bold prediction.
“I believe the end game for Upstack is to become a marketplace similar to the AppSmart model, thus creating this race to zero and eliminating the partners.”
Read commentary from other partners here.
AT&T, VMware, and Creekview Group are among the companies we feature this week in Channel People Making Waves. Each week we highlight our top news stories and the people behind them.
Who doesn’t like free goodies? VMware made this week’s list for providing its Contexa, which discovers lateral network traffic, at no additional cost. Tom Gillis, senior vice president and general manager of VMware’s Advanced Security Business Group, explained how it works. Scroll through our slideshow above to find out more.
Additionally, we feature Rob Strechay, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, for his rundown of the growth of the multicloud. More and more organizations are deploying applications that span multiple clouds, he said.
Finally, our most-read story involves the direct partnership between Upstack and Lumen. It hasn’t been received in the most positive light by some, including Kathleen Waters of the Creekview Group. Run through our list to find out why, and to see who else made waves this week.
That sums up this week’s edition featuring AT&T, VMware and the Creekview Group. Also, click here to catch last week’s roundup in case you missed it.
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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