8 Channel People Making Waves This Week at ZeroFox, Arctic Wolf, CDW, OpenText, More
VMware has new portfolio options thanks to the debut of VMware Cross-Cloud.
April 21, 2023
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ZeroFox is acquiring LookingGlass Cyber Solutions, the provider of external attack surface management and global threat intelligence, for $26 million.
James Foster, ZeroFox’s CEO, said this acquisition benefits ZeroFox partners by enhancing his company’s existing solutions and accelerating the development of future products. Partners can resell a broader range of offerings to solve for external cybersecurity risks.
“With the acquisition of LookingGlass, ZeroFox partners and customers will have increased visibility and vulnerability intelligence for digital assets outside the perimeter,” he said. “We are excited about the expanded capabilities of our end-to-end external cybersecurity solution.”
Learn how the acquisition will lead to additional scale and capabilities.
Arctic Wolf partners will get new channel program benefits this summer to create more customer demand.
That’s according to Will Briggs, Arctic Wolf’s senior vice president of global channels. Arctic Wolf serves more than 3,000 customers that range from large enterprises to SMBs. It works with more than 1,100 channel partners worldwide.
“We will have new partner program benefits in fiscal year 2024, which starts May 1,” Briggs said. “I can’t talk about those yet. But I want to have, the Arctic Wolf channel team wants to have, and the Arctic Wolf organization wants to have the best partner program in the world. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job at that today.”
Check here how Artic Wolf is making waves with its recently released threat report.
Managed service providers working with midmarket customers have new portfolio options thanks to the debut of VMware Cross-Cloud.
The package targets experienced partners helping organizations with more than 100 people.
“It’s not designed for small companies that maybe have 50 people, 100 people, even [fewer] than that,” Zia Yusuf, senior vice president of strategic ecosystem and industry solutions at VMware, told Channel Futures. “That technology environment is, of course, quite different. So this is where there’s a little bit more complexity and breadth. It’s about expanding customer choice.”
Once MSPs secure the new MSS designation, they can earn, potentially, up to 40% more rewards for providing assessments and proofs-of-concept; up to 100% more than non-badged partners for deployment services; and “significantly” more back-end rebates for selling VMware Cross-Cloud managed services through the new Sell incentive in Partner Connect, VMware said.
Learn more about the benefits from the VMware Cross-Cloud services.
The pandemic caused the rapid expansion of UCaaS, a rise in technologies that does not seem be faltering.
“I do not see UCaaS slowing down at all. And it’s not just because of my blind faith in the solution,” said Cynthia Ferrell, vendor agnostic technology consultant at TeamKC Telecom.
However, Ferrell made waves when she said there is a caveat.
“There’s going to be consolidation,” she said. “[UCaaS] is an ‘overbloated’ market. It’s like what we’re seeing with cybersecurity right now.”
Ferrell will be a panelist at “The Present & Future State of the UCaaS Channel: Meet Today’s Challengers,” May 2, at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.
To get a sense of what the panelists will be discussing, click on the preview of the event here.
CDW revenue and earnings sank 10% below expectations in the first quarter, “disappointing” preliminary first-quarter numbers just revealed by the company. The tech giant also lowered its outlook for fiscal year 2023, from flat IT spending to a single digit decline.
While CDW did not mention declines in specific product categories, PC shipments and sales took a huge hit in the first quarter, as some analysts have recently reported.
MSPs expected a slowdown in the sales of PCs and other products this year, especially following the big uptick in sales during the pandemic. Inflation, high interest rates and tumultuous markets have also caused a pullback in corporate spending and forced some MSPs’ customers to close.
Tom Andrulis, CEO of Las Vegas-based Intelligent Technical Solutions, defined the economy as a bit “wobbly.” But MSPs with a strong horizontal position, he said, are built to weather most economic storms.
Get more insight here from Christine Leahy, CDW president and CEO, about the company’s economic outlook.
Sometimes our analytics at Channel Futures can seem like a mystery. Our second most-read story of the week is apparently making waves again. We published in January a story about OpenText laying off workers because of its acquisition of Micro Focus. Now the story has resurfaced. At the time of publication, Mark Barrenechea, OpenText CEO & CTO, made waves when he said: “Digital life is life, and with Micro Focus’ great products and talent, we will help organizations of all sizes accelerate their digital transformation.” It seemed like a lot of positivity during a time of job cuts.
Read more from the article here.
Holding company Capteon is positioning itself as the alternative to private equity-funded agent M&A strategies.
Companies in Capteon’s portfolio will pay 7% of their net commissions to Capteon and receive legal, tax and commission support resources from the holding company.
“We seek like-minded, like-spirited people who don’t want cash now and are also on the rise – they are in massive growth mode. They become part of the holding company, and they’re pledging the equity of their company to a qualified liquidity event in the future. Our horizon is three to five years; it’s in the contract,” said Capteon CEO Vic Pepe, who also serves as managing partner at the technology advisor D&M Enterprise Group.
Chief partner success officer Jay Bradley said he found Capteon’s model attractive because it enables agents to earn a higher multiple on a future sale without sacrificing their independence and lifestyle in the near-term.
“This gives them all of those opportunities to build something for the future that will pay off handsomely and allow them to continue to live the life they love right now,” said Bradley.
Find out why partners are unwilling to give away their autonomy as business owners.
Holding company Capteon is positioning itself as the alternative to private equity-funded agent M&A strategies.
Companies in Capteon’s portfolio will pay 7% of their net commissions to Capteon and receive legal, tax and commission support resources from the holding company.
“We seek like-minded, like-spirited people who don’t want cash now and are also on the rise – they are in massive growth mode. They become part of the holding company, and they’re pledging the equity of their company to a qualified liquidity event in the future. Our horizon is three to five years; it’s in the contract,” said Capteon CEO Vic Pepe, who also serves as managing partner at the technology advisor D&M Enterprise Group.
Chief partner success officer Jay Bradley said he found Capteon’s model attractive because it enables agents to earn a higher multiple on a future sale without sacrificing their independence and lifestyle in the near-term.
“This gives them all of those opportunities to build something for the future that will pay off handsomely and allow them to continue to live the life they love right now,” said Bradley.
Find out why partners are unwilling to give away their autonomy as business owners.
Channel people making waves this week include folks at ZeroFox, Arctic Wolf, CDW, OpenText and more. Every edition features the people behind the most-read stories of the last seven days.
CDW made the list because its revenue and earnings sank 10% below expectation in the first quarter. The tech giant had to lower its outlook for fiscal year 2023. (A day later we learned of layoffs at the company.) However, we didn’t highlight officials from CDW but rather the CEO of Las Vegas-based Intelligent Technical Solutions for his assessment of the situation.
It’s weird when this happens, but sometimes a story in our archives resurfaces. That was the case with an article we ran in January about OpenText’s layoffs and acquisition of Micro Focus. It was our second most-read article of the week.
It’s not a sexy story, but it’s an important one. Arctic Wolf partners will get new channel program benefits this summer. A company official said they want Arctic Wolf to have “the best partner program in the world.” Here’s to ambition.
See our slideshow above for top news from Arctic Wolf, CDW and more. If you didn’t catch our last edition, 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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