8 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Avant, Cisco, Databricks, More
We reported on the same story three times this week because of its importance to the channel. Can you guess which topic?
May 13, 2022
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AT&T has unveiled its Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) with Cisco Meraki.
It helps organizations improve network performance, enable access and defend sensitive data. In addition, it helps protect against unauthorized use and loss.
AT&T SASE with Cisco Meraki combines services to provide businesses access and with cloud-based security and SD-WAN capabilities to help protect users from malicious web-based threats.
Danessa Lambdin is vice president of AT&T Cybersecurity. She made waves for emphasizing that there is often little margin for error in network connectivity and security.
“For many businesses, the expertise to get it right is hard to come by. AT&T SASE with Cisco Meraki is a completely managed service that puts our experts in the driver’s seat, giving growth-oriented businesses an integrated solution that can address their needs today, and scale up right alongside them going forward,” she said.
Read more about the AT&T SASE portfolio expansion.
The commissions agents use to build books of business are shrinking. Even UCaaS commissions, which helped lift partners through the COVID-19 pandemic, are dropping. Agencies are scrambling to build practices and teams around profitable technologies like contact center and cybersecurity, but not all of them possess the necessary resources and expertise. Vendors, by many accounts, continue to perform poorly on customer support, forcing partners to make operational investments. Some agents even report that channel conflict is worsening.
ARG chief strategy officer Randy Jeter has returned to the partner side of the channel at what he says is just the right time. More than 15 years ago, Jeter was president of Premiere Worldwide, a fast growing agency that was racking up awards from Intelisys and looking to scale. However, Jeter said he felt the limitations of the agent model at the time. He made waves for writing in a blog that if the channel wanted to become “indispensable,” it would need to buck the stereotype that agents always sold on price. If the industry were to truly grow, agents would need to evolve into “true full-service brokers.”
But the shift wasn’t occurring as Jeter saw it. Partners simply weren’t selling advanced services.
“The biggest issue that I had fundamentally was that the space wasn’t ready, because the space was really only selling circuits,” Jeter told Channel Futures. “It wasn’t selling SD-WAN, it wasn’t selling UCaaS, it wasn’t selling cloud, and it wasn’t selling apps. It wasn’t selling any of the things that I felt like you needed in order to get into the channel and build a long-term profitable business.”
Learn more about how Jeter navigated the situation and why that’s relevant to agents going forward.
Ransomware may be grabbing most of the headlines, but other cybersecurity threats and issues are keeping partners and their customers up at night.
So, beyond the ransomware headlines, what threats are facing partners and their customers?
Malwarebytes’ Brian Thomas made waves when he said that when it comes to threats, his company looks at it more from an SMB perspective.
“Forty-three percent of SMBs don’t even have a cybersecurity game plan whatsoever,” he said. “And then you couple that with if there’s a ransomware attack, the average payout for an attack is $4.2 million. It’s a check that SMBs can’t cash. And I think that’s the reason why we exist. That’s why the channel program and the MSPs that we support really exist. It’s that low security maturity market that simply cannot afford a ransomware attack like that in that particular space.”
Discover what the other experts had to say about threats beyond ransomware.
Shelly Blackburn, vice president of the Cisco global security sales specialist organization, made waves for reportedly stepping down from the position. Blackburn had logged 22 years at Cisco. She came to the company as a consulting systems engineer for voice after working at Siemens. At one point she served as senior director of business development sales and engineering for Cisco’s Americas partner organization.
Learn more about who will be replacing Blackburn.
Jay Morris, chief aggregation officer at MoreComm Solutions, couldn’t have been clearer about rumors surrounding POTS replacement and that’s why he made waves this week.
“There are 38 million POTS lines still out there on various ILECs and CLECs, and none of them are mandated by the FCC to be shut off or transitioned to IP telephony. Not previously, not now, not in the near future.”
According to many parties in the telecommunications industry, the FCC mandated the decommissioning of plain old telephone services (POTS) lines by Aug. 2.
However, an FCC representative confirmed via email that the FCC has not mandated POTS replacement by that date.
Read more background about the FCC and misinformation surrounding a full-scale POTS decommissioning.
AWS and Databricks, the cloud data software provider, have expanded their longtime collaboration. That means AWS managed service providers, global system integrators and resellers benefit, primarily by being able to deliver a “pay-as-you-go” option. Users pay only for the resources they consume and bill against their AWS Enterprise Discount Program commitment.
Joel Minnick is vice president of marketing at Databricks. He made waves for explaining how users gain “seamless integration” between existing AWS configuration and security and Databricks’.
“This new offering not only benefits the end customer but also lowers barriers and makes it easier for partners in our ecosystem to better support their AWS customers with new deployments of Databricks’ Lakehouse,” Minnick said.
How does this collaboration impact the channel? Read here.
It was an M&A stunner. Avant is buying PlanetOne in a landmark deal for the technology advisory space. The story was our most read of the week.
Chicago-based Avant’s merger with PlanetOne brings PlanetOne’s team as well as its business intelligence platform – Sentient – into the fold.
“The acquisition of PlanetOne is an instant multiplier for the people, partners and providers working with and for Avant and PlanetOne,” Avant CEO Ian Kieninger said.
The transaction, whose financial details were not disclosed, offers synergies between the Sentient and Avant Pathfinder applications, the companies said.
“The synergies gained from merging the sales excellence and technical talent of Avant with the back-office, operational efficiencies and partner enablement energy of PlanetOne were undeniable — it was the right deal at the right time and for the right reasons,” said PlanetOne CEO Ted Schuman said.
Go here for the partner perspective regarding the deal. For continued coverage of the merger, visit here and here.
It was an M&A stunner. Avant is buying PlanetOne in a landmark deal for the technology advisory space. The story was our most read of the week.
Chicago-based Avant’s merger with PlanetOne brings PlanetOne’s team as well as its business intelligence platform – Sentient – into the fold.
“The acquisition of PlanetOne is an instant multiplier for the people, partners and providers working with and for Avant and PlanetOne,” Avant CEO Ian Kieninger said.
The transaction, whose financial details were not disclosed, offers synergies between the Sentient and Avant Pathfinder applications, the companies said.
“The synergies gained from merging the sales excellence and technical talent of Avant with the back-office, operational efficiencies and partner enablement energy of PlanetOne were undeniable — it was the right deal at the right time and for the right reasons,” said PlanetOne CEO Ted Schuman said.
Go here for the partner perspective regarding the deal. For continued coverage of the merger, visit here and here.
Channel People Making Waves highlights eight individuals at Avant, CIsco, Databricks and other companies who made an impact in the industry this week. We associate our picks with the most read stories of the week.
First up, we write about a 22-year veteran who just stepped down from her role at Cisco. Read more about who will be replacing her in the company’s global security sales specialist organization.
Next, we look into the rumors surrounding plain old telephone service (POTS) replacement and why social media contributed to misinformation. We interviewed Jay Morris from MoreComm who seemed to have his facts straight about any FCC mandate regarding POTS.
Then, we explore the AWS-Databricks expanded collaboration, which makes it easier for partners to better support their AWS customers with new deployments of Databricks’ Lakehouse.
Finally, the top story of the week involved a both surprising yet somewhat expected merger. Can you guess which companies made a deal?
To see the individuals affiliated with our most popular stories, click on the slideshow above. Also, don’t forget to check out last week’s roundup, which you can find 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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