AT&T, Comcast, Cisco, Microsoft, 8x8 Unveil New Products, Services

More and more technology vendors are incorporating SASE into their portfolios.

AT&T, Cisco and Comcast joined a number of companies who are tightly integrating security and networking capabilities. More and more customers are demanding products and services that reduce their number of security and networking endpoints, and ensure the success of distributed workers. In many cases, the carrier has teamed up with a security or networking vendor to enable the update.

Vendors enhanced their offerings in a variety of categories in addition to SASE. For example, UCaaS companies announced multiple product updates that will give channel partners new selling opportunities. RingCentral is bolstering its security capabilities with an acquisition, and 8×8 launched an integration with Microsoft Teams. Indeed, Teams integrations featured heavily in the month of March, as companies used Microsoft’s direct routing capabilities. Moreover, Microsoft announced an update of its own pertaining to its massively popular Teams application.

We also covered several IT-oriented news pieces, including IBM‘s cloud satellite and a new Menlo Security feature. Lenovo announced a tool that will help businesses manage their many PCs, and a data protection provider updated its DRaaS solutions.

In news we didn’t include in this gallery, the distributor/master agent Jenne announced a “Rapid Quote” capability for Extreme Networks products. Also, Vartopia added an online module that improves communications between channel partners and vendors.

The slides above feature important news updates from leading suppliers and distributors in the channel.