New Technology Products: Fortinet, 8x8, Starlink, Cisco, More

Agents have been asking for years to get Starlink's low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites into their portfolio. That dream has come true in the last year.

The SpaceX-owned satellite internet service has been available directly to businesses in the Americas since 2020, but its reseller program did not become available until 2022. With Starlink not transacting in the agent (residual commission-based) model, it was up to telecom aggregators to sign up as Starlink resellers to make those services available to agents.

Now multiple aggregators have launched LEO satellite services, including MetTel, Ntegrated and Epic IO. In most cases, these services are based on Starlink, but Channel Futures profiled two other LEO providers that are coming onto the scene.

Read Channel Futures' analysis of new Starlink-based services that aggregators have rolled out.

Vultr announced a private cloud offering to give organizations safe access to critical data.

Vultr Sovereign Cloud and Private Cloud has a special vertical focus for governments, research institutions and enterprises that need to ensure that their data and operations reside in and abide by "national borders." The vendor is working with government bodies and local telcos to deliver the solution.

Moshe Beauford covered Vultr.

8x8 now provides public switched telephone network (PSTN) connectivity for Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone.

The cloud communications supplier last month unveiled its 8x8 Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams program. 8x8 executives argue that their company sets itself apart from the many other Operator Connect vendors by offering its own contact center software.

The program is in an invite-only preview.

Read more about 8x8 Operator Connect.

Cisco announced a "distributed, AI-native system" for cybersecurity.

Cisco Hypershield uses open-source eBPF technology to embed security in virtual machines or publicly hosted Kubernetes clusters in public clouds. Building security into software and hardware can help safeguard "sensitive AI workloads" at the periphery of the network, executives said.

The vendor claims that businesses can "autonomously segment networks" and protect from exploits without patches.

Get details on Cisco Hypershield.

Microsoft made the security version of its famed Copilot AI solution globally available.

Copilot for Security can connect to users' Microsoft Defender external attack surface management solution to keep abreast of security threats. It also leverages integrations with various partners.

It's available in a provisioned pay-as-you-go model.

Learn about the implications of Microsoft Copilot for Security.

Nerdio upgraded its Nerdio Manager for MSP (NMM) cloud management platform.

NMM 5.0 is publicly previewing AssistPro, an AI assistant that gives MSPs help deciphering context. It's based on the Azure OpenAI Large Language Model (LLM) and trained with Nerdio-specific information.

Read Dave Raffo's reporting on the matter.

Gradient MSP is giving partner users new analytics capabilities through its StatTracker tool.

Leveraging 60-plus integrations with professional services automation (PSA) and remote monitoring and management (RMM) providers, StatTracker lets MSPs chart out numbers pertaining to spend in different product and vendor categories. Part of the benefit is to show MSPs how much money they are making through resale.

Learn more about StatTracker.

Fortinet brought on the latest version of its operating system.

FortiOS 7.6 reportedly uses generative artificial intelligence for threat analysis and product deployment. Fortinet executives said at the vendor's Accelerate conference that the new OS will mitigate more risk and reduce complexity.

In other news, Fortinet's Security Fabric now includes endpoint detection and response (EDR) features on its unified agent.

Edward Gately has the scoop.

Kaspersky unveiled a new product line for its cybersecurity offerings.

Kaspersky Next brings together endpoint detection and response (EDR) with extended detection and response (XDR).The cybersecurity provider is delivering its offering in three tiers, recommended in order of how well-staffed and resourced customers are in their cybersecurity posture. The solutions work for both on and off-prem.

Craig Galbraith was all over this news from Kaspersky.

AppDirect went live with its AI creation studio that technology advisors and end-user customers can leverage to make their own bots.

Those bots can perform roles like HR specialist and accounting assistant.

The company shared in December that it was running a beta version of the AI marketplace. At the time, the no-code bots helped partners traverse the AppDirect supplier portfolios and learn about different technologies.

Read AppDirect's announcement on its website.

Arrow Electronics added Copilot for Microsoft 365 to its portal for EMEA partners.

Cloud delivery and management platform ArrowSphere Cloud features Microsoft's popular generative AI brand, which launched in January. Arrow also announced an enablement program to aid VARs in selling and implementing Copilot.

Get details on what the distributor is doing from Christine Horton's article.

RapidScale added security operations center as a service (SOCaaS) through a new partnership.

The Cox Business-owned cloud solutions provider teamed with Proficio to monitor and respond to threats against midmarket and enterprise customers. Proficio's platform includes managed detection and response (MDR).

Read RapidScale's press release on its website.

Spectrum Enterprise is letting its technology advisor (agent) partners sell its Community Solutions portfolio.

Community Solutions targets businesses that have residents. Think of RV parks, apartments and dormitories. Those are verticals that many partners have not historically sold into with the cableco.

Channel leader Michelle Kadlacek explained more in an interview with Channel Futures.

Spectrum Enterprise is letting its technology advisor (agent) partners sell its Community Solutions portfolio.

Community Solutions targets businesses that have residents. Think of RV parks, apartments and dormitories. Those are verticals that many partners have not historically sold into with the cableco.

Channel leader Michelle Kadlacek explained more in an interview with Channel Futures.