July's Top 20 Stories: CrowdStrike Outage, Avaya CEO, VMware Rebrand

Gartner released its latest Magic Quadrant report on June 28, but it remained a leading story for Channel Futures in July. The report details the rankings of successful CPaaS providers. The company listed a number of familiar names as leaders, including Twilio, Infoblip and Sinch.

The companies offered a multitude of services, from OTT messaging to advanced email messaging and APIs.

Take a look at the Gartner report in our slideshow.

IBM Consulting and Microsoft both announced that they are bolstering their cybersecurity collaboration to provide additional technological tools to those who require them.

These include the bringing together of IBM's Threat Detection and Response service and Microsoft Defender's Extended Detection and Response.

"To successfully navigate the ever-evolving and increasingly complex digital landscape, security can no longer be an afterthought — it must be a foundational part of every organization's core operations," said Mark Hughes, IBM Consulting’s global managing partner of cybersecurity services. "Our collaboration with Microsoft provides clients with a simplified, efficient and cost-effective approach to protect cloud workloads, and effectively manage the proliferation of threats organizations confront on a regular basis."

Read about the IBM/Microsoft collaboration here.

Another of the major stories in August was a longtime industry leader and her decision to step down at Broadcom.

Broadcom head of OEM sales Eileen Gibson announced in July that she was stepping down from her role at the company after spending 42 years working in technology.

Gibson worked in the indirect channel for more than 20 years. She also spent 12 years at IBM, and several more years at Avnet, TechData and TD Synnex. Many veterans of the channel expressed their support for Gibson and their eagerness to see what she does next.

Learn more about Gibson's legacy.

A ransomware attack on CDK Global reportedly cost auto dealerships more than $1 billion in damages, according to reports from the Anderson Economic Group.

The attack affected more than 15,000 auto dealerships in North America, damaging the software that they use to manage vehicle sales and track products. CDK estimated that it would have repaired the damage by early July, but car dealerships were still reporting issues in the middle of July. This is anticipated to generate a heavy loss for multiple dealerships.

Read about the ransomware attack and its economic impacts.

ServiceNow's president resigned in late July after an internal investigation determined that he had violated the company's policies during the hiring of a public sector executive.

ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott stated during the company's second-quarter earnings call that president and chief operating officer Chiratan "CJ" Desai would step down from his role at the company. Desai's departure was mutually agreed upon.

Learn more about Desai's departure in our article.

The Broadcom acquisition of VMWare has had longstanding implications for the channel, leading to many companies adapting their practices.

One of the latest examples of this is Veeam, which used to build most of its products around backing up VMware machines. The company is now expanding its support for other virtual machines to ensure they have hypervisor support.

You can learn more about Veeam's new product plans and their implications for the channel.

Optiv partners have a new channel leader to help them get the best rate of success. Scott Goree, a former executive from Skyhigh Security, will replace Alan Mayer as Optiv's SVP of partners, alliances and ecosystems.

“I am incredibly excited and honored to share the news of my new role at Optiv as senior vice president of partners, alliances and ecosystems,” Goree said. “My journey thus far has prepared me well for this opportunity with one of the leading names in cybersecurity partnerships. I look forward to collaborating with top vendors in the industry, safeguarding the interests of more than 6,000 clients in this vital space.”

Learn more about what Goree's role means for partners.

The 2024 Channel Futures MSP 501 remained one of our most popular stories in July. The listing was initially released in June, but channel partners remain interested in the listing and what it means for the channel as a whole.

The list continues to offer a snapshot of what the MSP market looks like in 2024 as well as who are the most impactful IT service providers in the entire industry.

ICYMI, see who ranked in our top 50 this year.

Broadcom's acquisition of VMWare remains a constant issue in the industry, leaving partners to decide how to advise customers.

Channel Futures' timeline offers a clear and descriptive outline for how things progressed and how partners and competitors have responded.

You can read our detailed timeline here.

Google proposed acquiring the company Wiz for an enormous amount of money, a purchase that would have undoubtedly had a huge impact on the market. But it also risked antitrust scrutiny from federal regulators.

Some analysts believe that Wiz's rejection was due to better support from public capital.

“Wiz has momentum in an industry growing by double digits (for the foreseeable future) and could leverage public market capital in a way that Google wouldn't provide,” said Jay McBain, chief analyst at Canalys.

Learn more about Wiz and its rejected Google deal here.

Avaya's new CEO is ready to execute his vision for the company when it comes to sales.

Patrick Dennis, who is taking over as chief executive, has proposed a balanced approach to direct and indirect sales, a "listen-first" approach when it comes to Avaya's channel, and other new changes.

Read Channel Futures' interview with Dennis.

The channel is watching Vonage closely after parent company Ericsson issued a write-down for the company. The $1.1 billion write-down came after weak guidance for the UCaaS provider.

Several analysts have also noticed how there has been very little news out of the Vonage part of Ericsson's operation, which had led them to begin wondering if the acquisition was a mistake.

Learn more about Ericsson, Vonage and what channel analysts are saying about the company.

Information management and security company OpenText announced that it was laying off 1,200 workers. The cuts were announced as part of a July 3 SEC filing.

The layoffs will reportedly result in a net savings of $150 million in fiscal year 2025, and is part of a larger reorganization plan.

Learn more about OpenStack's layoffs here.

One of our most popular stories this month was our July 10 cloud computing roundup, highlighted by layoffs at Microsoft. We also told you how Broadcom was seeking some post VMware-refinancing; plus, news around Google Cloud's relationship with AI, AWS experimenting with technology, and so much more.

Read about the state of cloud computing here.

Layoffs were a common theme in the stories that Channel Futures covered this month. Communications giant Avaya announced on July 24 that it was laying off 3% of its workforce, or 180 jobs in all.

The decision was made a week after Avaya's CEO stated that he intended to continue his predecessor's vision of "innovation without disruption."

Learn about Avaya's layoffs and what they mean for the company.

ScanSource-owned Intelisys appointed a new president in early July. Ken Mills, a 25-year veteran of the channel, recently at Epic iO Technologies, took over the role after his predecessor, John DeLozier, stepped down from his position last August and moved on to C1.

The role has been managed by interim leadership since DeLozier's appointment. Veterans of the industry we talked to are hopeful about Mills' appointment.

Read more about Mills and what his presence means for Intelisys.

This month's People on the Move featured leadership changes from TD Synnex getting a new CEO to Intelisys hiring a new VP of marketing. There's also Telarus' new director of partner enablement, Avant's director of channel sales and Pax8's newly created chief AI officer.

You can read more about the July People on the Move here.

The business formerly known as VMware EUC (end-user computing) announced in early July that it was rebranding as Omnissa. This decision, CEO Shankar Iyer (pictured) said, was intended to help recognize that his company is an "independent software company."

The division met its end almost immediately after Broadcom's acquisition in November 2023, only to be sold off and acquired by private equity firm KKR. Now Omnissa is making strides to build its brand and ensure clients know they're the same company they were as VMware EUC.

Learn more about Omnissa's transition here.

The Crowdstrike outage was one of the biggest technology stories anywhere last month, with the software's failure affecting thousands of computers in airports, banks, hospitals and more.

One thing people desperately want to know is who is to blame. At least one cybersecurity executive believes that CrowdStrike is to blame for the faulty software update. Others claim that Microsoft shares blame for what took down Windows systems globally.

See what executives in the cybersecurity space are saying about the Crowdstrike outage.

The top story this month was Channel Futures' coverage of Juniper Networks and its intent to battle Cisco through its AI architecture, Mist.

Juniper, whose acquisition by HPE should go final in the next few months, hopes this will give the company a fighting chance to steal Cisco market share.

Mist recently went from "nowhere to No. 3 behind Cisco and HPE," according to Juniper VP of campus and branch networking Tom Wilburn. Now the company hopes to race to the top.

Learn more about Juniper Networks and Mist's race to take on Cisco.

The top story this month was Channel Futures' coverage of Juniper Networks and its intent to battle Cisco through its AI architecture, Mist.

Juniper, whose acquisition by HPE should go final in the next few months, hopes this will give the company a fighting chance to steal Cisco market share.

Mist recently went from "nowhere to No. 3 behind Cisco and HPE," according to Juniper VP of campus and branch networking Tom Wilburn. Now the company hopes to race to the top.

Learn more about Juniper Networks and Mist's race to take on Cisco.