March's Top Stories: Zoom, Ingram Micro, Intelisys, Google Cloud, T-Mobile
From a controversial new ScanSource subsidiary to a deep dive with Google Cloud and layoffs at Ingram Micro, March was packed with channel news. But what is No. 1 on our countdown?
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One of the biggest announcements from last week's Enterprise Connect communications and collaboration conference in Orlando was Avaya doing a native integration with Zoom's newly launched Zoom Workplace, a workplace optimization solution. (Channel Futures' parent company, Informa, also owns Enterprise Connect.)
The tool adds AI to meetings, chat, scheduling and Zoom's whiteboard experience; plus, it gives users access to Zoom AI Companion, the generative AI assistant.
Learn more about this and the growing trend of UC&C vendors teaming up.
Speaking of Zoom, the seemingly ubiquitous conferencing provider unleashed the Zoom Up 2.0 partner program and introduced Mark Jenkins as its new channel leader.
Jenkins is a Palo Alto Networks alumnus who has been with Zoom for a year.
With the growth of Zoom contact center as a service, Jenkins told Channel Futures that this is the perfect time to update the partner program.
Get the full scoop on the update as well as Jenkins' plans in his new role.
The Channel Partners Conference & Expo/MSP Summit was a hotbed for news that had you flocking to Channel Futures to explore.
The very first keynote panel cracked our top 20 for March. Led by Canalys' Jay McBain (Canalys is owned by Channel Futures' parent company, Informa), attendees learned about the massive opportunity that AI will provide MSP businesses in the year to come.
McBain told the crowd that there's $158 billion in available AI services. In all, managed services in 2023 was a $500 billion industry, he said.
Here's where you can get more insight into the state of managed services and the AI opportunity.
Our full highlights from day one of the CP Expo/MSP Summit land at No. 17.
Partner attendees not only learned about AI, but also cybersecurity from ThreatLocker's Danny Jenkins; saw one-on-one interviews with SonicWall and Google Cloud; learned from fellow partners about the opportunities with the hyperscalers; and much more.
We hope you didn't miss it, but if you did, here's the recap.
Later in the event, Paul Spencer, channel leader from event title sponsor T-Mobile for Business, announced the launch of a 5G laptop that will focus on the future of connectivity and security for the enterprise user. Naturally, there's a significant partner opportunity with the new product.
The goal is to make it easier "to do secure work from anywhere," Spencer told the crowd.
Learn more about the 5G-connected laptop and why T-Mobile says there's reason for the channel to be excited about mobility.
Our coverage of industry layoffs has declined over the past month, but one article we published on the last day of February cracked the top 20.
We learned that distribution giant Ingram Micro was the latest to cut workers; fortunately, the company said the layoffs only accounted for a "small fraction" of its workforce. Among them were 60 people impacted by the shutdown of a facility in Missouri.
Read more about what promped the cuts.
Our No. 1 story in February, Channel Futures' Channel Influencers for 2024 remains on our countdown for another month.
This year we recognized AT&T's Chris Jones and Broadcom's Tock Han as the two people who influenced the channel the most in 2023.
But we also named 48 other influencers. Check them out here.
Our interview with Google Cloud VP Colleen Kapase, fresh off her on-stage appearance at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo/MSP Summit, made it to No. 13 on our countdown of March's top stories.
Kapase relayed her excitement for AI, the latest with Google Cloud Partner Advantage, what partners are asking for, and much more.
Our monthly wrap of the hottest mergers and acquisitions impacting the channel is always a crowd-pleaser, and this latest edition didn't disappoint.
The highlight was Cohesity's mega purchase of Veritas' data protection business in a deal that Cohesity says makes it worth $7 billion.
But we also included acquisition news about Carbon Black, Delinea, 1Password and multiple other security providers; plus, companies such as Upstack and Genesys that court a technology advisor audience.
Another recurring monthly feature is our wrap of new and changing channel programs, which sits just outside the top 10 for March.
This edition featured a new residual commission model at Cox Business, Cisco's inroads reaching OT-focused partners, 8x8 fine-tuning its program for different partner types, and many more.
So what big news is coming from Kaseya this year?
We're still on pins and needles, as CEO Fred Voccola said at an MSP event in London in December that the upcoming news “will make the announcement of buying of Datto seem insignificant.”
That indeed would be huge, considering the purchase of Datto was one of the channel's biggest news stories in recent memory.
It was quite the tease from Voccola, considering this article from 2023 is still catching your eye.
The saga that is Broadcom's purchase of VMware and its the various resulting ramifications on the channel introduced a new chapter at the end of February that you read about in March.
Broadcom sold VMware's end-user computing unit to KKR, a private equity firm. Then we learned that the company had a change of heart about Carbon Black, the security firm it got in the VMware buy; it wouldn't sell it after all, at least not yet.
And that wasn't all. We learned that CEO Hock Tan doubled his compensation package last year.
All of the details are in Kelly Teal's roundup.
AWS bowed to the pressure of keeping up with the Joneses, or in this case, Google Cloud, by vowing to eliminate egress fees, the penalty for taking data out of its cloud and moving it to another.
Google Cloud had made the decision previously, and as it turns out, Microsoft Azure would make a similar call for certain fees just days later.
Learn more about the strategy of one hyperscaler following another's lead in a decision that most businesses surely will laud.
We profiled Check Point CEO Gil Shwed on the eve of his company's CPX 2024 event in Las Vegas.
The cybersecurity icon made news earlier this year when he said he would step down from day-to-day operations as CEO, but remain executive chairman of the company.
“I want to look at how I shape a little bit more the future of Check Point and how I focus on maybe fewer projects that would make a big impact,” he told Channel Futures' Edward Gately. “Now, I've been dealing with this question for many years. People ask me, 'What's your next step, when are you [stepping down], for many, many years. And I did decide that I want to stay with Check Point. I did decide that I want to be in this business, in this company. It excites me. It's great.”
One more highlight from the Channel Partners Conference & Expo cracked our top 20, landing at No. 6.
Channel Futures' James Anderson and Moshe Beauford learned from Microsoft's Kevin Peters on stage at the event the various ways that channel partners will be able to benefit from Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant.
There are a lot of new relevant features for the channel, Peters told the crowd.
The Channel Partners Expo Hall in Las Vegas featured some of the biggest and brightest booths the event has ever seen.
In fact, Telarus, taking up 3,600-square feet of floor space, showcased the largest booth in the history of the event.
Check out our image gallery for some of the biggest names represented at the show.
It would not be a top 20 countdown without Channel People on the Move.
This edition of the recurring monthly segment featured new hires and promotions at AT&T, Mitel, TD Synnex and many more.
There remains one month to submit your application for the Channel Futures MSP 501, the world's most comprehensive survey and ranking of managed service providers.
And as MSP 501 season heats up, we always see renewed interest in who made the list last year. You've got your chance to do the same by downloading 2023's list of winners.
You got fired up when you heard about the news our James Anderson broke at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo: Distributor ScanSource said it plans to create a subsidiary that will operate alongside tech services distributor Intelisys, which it bought several years ago.
This goal of this customer-facing agency, for now called "NewCo," is to drive more value to the supplier community that Intelisys serves with its agency model, ScanSource CEO Mike Baur told Channel Futures.
But how, exactly, will Intelisys and NewCo coexist? Will there be conflict? We answered 10 burning questions about "NewCo" for you.
The Technology Advisor 101, our list of the best technology consultants and telecom agents in the business, was the runaway No. 1 in March.
Nominated by peers and by Channel Futures editors, the TA 101, now in its second year, also recognized a Lifetime Achievement winner and a pair of Rising Stars.
The Technology Advisor 101, our list of the best technology consultants and telecom agents in the business, was the runaway No. 1 in March.
Nominated by peers and by Channel Futures editors, the TA 101, now in its second year, also recognized a Lifetime Achievement winner and a pair of Rising Stars.
The 2024 Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas was the catalyst for a lot of the news that made our countdown of top 20 stories for March.
Nothing was bigger (at the event, anyway; we're not giving away what was No. 1 just yet) than ScanSource unveiling what for now it's calling "NewCo," a planned subsidiary that has tech advisors who work with Intelisys wondering exactly how it will impact them.
Another big news item from the show was T-Mobile introducing the 5G-connected laptop to the Channel Partners crowd. The company will rely on the channel for a bug chunk of revenue from the offer.
We also published images from the Channel Partners Expo Hall that had you scrolling for the biggest and brightest booths at the event.
CP Expo of course wasn't the only highlight in March. Zoom introduced a new channel program and promoted someone from within to run it. And we caught up with security legend Gil Shwed for a Q&A at the Check Point CPX 2024 event in Las Vegas. We wanted to know more about his plans for the future since announcing he's stepping down as CEO of the company.
We encourage you to sign up for our daily, biweekly and weekly newsletters. That's one of the ways to influence what makes our monthly countdown. To assemble our top 20, we combine results from our newsletters with online traffic to the Channel Futures website.
See the slideshow above for Channel Futures' top 20 stories in March.
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