7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Google Cloud, Ingram Micro, VMware, More
Human error is behind a bug that reportedly exposed thousands of customer support tickets to an unauthorized individual.
April 9, 2022
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Columbia Capital-funded Bluewave Technology Group is enlisting the services of decorated channel sales leader Curt Allen.
His expertise is what made waves this week.
Allen will work as strategic adviser with the technology advisory and life cycle management company. He’ll advise on corporate development strategy and execution. That includes go-to-market, vendor relationship and M&A strategy, Allen told Channel Futures. Meantime, Allen will continue working at the EagleTEQ Advisors consultancy he runs with his friends.
Read what Allen had to say about the agent channel.
The major public cloud providers are bringing more managed security service providers (MSSPs) into their partner folds. Google Cloud amped up its approach this week, with the launch of the Chronicle MSSP Program.
To that end, Chronicle MSSP “will offer MSSPs around the world the ability to provide scalable, differentiated and effective detection and response capabilities with our cloud-native SIEM product, Chronicle,” said Sharat Ganesh, head of Google Chronicle product marketing.
Ganesh made waves this week for helping explain how Google Cloud is “turbocharging” MSSP partners with specialized services offerings.
Learn why Chronicle MSSP is happening now.
Human error is behind a bug that reportedly exposed thousands of Palo Alto Networks customer support tickets to an unauthorized individual. Exposed information included the names and business contact information of the person creating support tickets. It also included conversations between Palo Alto Networks staff members and the customer.
Mohit Tiwari is co-founder and CEO of cloud security provider Symmetry Systems. He made waves this week for putting the leak into perspective.
“Palo Alto Networks’ problem is not unique,” Tiwari said. “Most web applications have tens of millions of lines of code, most of it from the framework and libraries used to build the application. Making such a large application bug free is impossible.”
Find out the ways in which this type of leak could be useful for sophisticated actors.
Google is joining the Intelisys supplier portfolio to offer partners opportunities in the contact center market with its Chromebook Enterprise ecosystem. Paul Constantine is executive vice president of supplier services at Intelisys. He made waves this week for explaining how Intelisys is leveraging its unique position. It is proactively offering unprecedented access to hardware, software, connectivity and cloud services solutions so its sales partners can offer their customers complete solutions.
“We believe that Google’s Chromebook Enterprise offerings will enable our sales partners to deploy and manage their customers’ devices securely while increasing employee productivity,” Constantine said.
Several other partners for Chrome OS will be revealed at next week’s CP Expo.
Read about how Google has validated a select number of CCaaS vendors for Chrome OS. And look for more Google Chrome OS partnerships to be announced at next week’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo.
It’s exciting times at Ingram Micro. The organization is getting a digital makeover, as it’s using artificial intelligence, machine learning and digital technologies to “solve and simplify the complexity of doing business in … the IT sales channel.”
Ingram Micro EVP and chief digital officer Sanjib Sahoo made waves for spearheading the digital transformation.
“We are working to digitize one of the largest ecosystems in the world that is technological distribution,” Sahoo said. “Distribution needs an organization makeover in the way we service our customers, the way we build our platforms, use our data, machine learning, AI. There’s a lot to be done in this industry.”
Read the rest of Christine Horton’s article here.
VMware’s Sandy Hogan, senior vice president, worldwide commercial and partner sales, made waves for sharing several key areas of the company’s business philosophy in 2022.
For example, in the new SaaS and subscription world, “the role of partners has expanded beyond merely providing assessments and proofs of concept that help customers match their digital transformation/business critical needs. Partners are now instrumental in helping customers embrace and utilize cloud services post-purchase to maximize value. In keeping with these changes, VMware is offsetting partner service costs … through incentives in every step of the customer life cycle. This includes helping partners provide professional services for technical assessments, proofs of concept, activation/deployment of cloud services and driving their on-going consumption.”
Read Kelly Teal’s article about VMware’s new approach to partners this year.
Kate Woolley, general manager of IBM Ecosystem, is now Big Blue’s top partner executive. She made waves this week for her three month “listening tour” where she focused on learning how partners can do more with IBM.
A top priority for Woolley is advancing IBM’s promise to provide a modern digital experience for partners. IBM is delivering that through its new PartnerWorld portal, which IBM has launched in every country except the United States. Next week, it will go live in the U.S., Woolley explained. The new Salesforce-based portal provides faster deal registration quoting and other partner tools, including chatbot support using Chatter.
Read Jeff Schwartz’s article to learn more about the rollout of the portal.
Kate Woolley, general manager of IBM Ecosystem, is now Big Blue’s top partner executive. She made waves this week for her three month “listening tour” where she focused on learning how partners can do more with IBM.
A top priority for Woolley is advancing IBM’s promise to provide a modern digital experience for partners. IBM is delivering that through its new PartnerWorld portal, which IBM has launched in every country except the United States. Next week, it will go live in the U.S., Woolley explained. The new Salesforce-based portal provides faster deal registration quoting and other partner tools, including chatbot support using Chatter.
Read Jeff Schwartz’s article to learn more about the rollout of the portal.
Our weekly Channel People Making Waves counts down the top stories of the past seven days. We highlight the individuals behind the stories, this week featuring Google Cloud, Ingram Micro, VMware and more.
First up, Google Cloud launched the Chronicle MSSP Program. How will it offer MSSPs around the world the ability to provide scalable, differentiated and effective detection and response capabilities? A Google Cloud executive explains how and why the company is charging ahead.
Every organization could use a refresh. Ingram Micro is taking it to the next level by getting a digital makeover. Read on to learn how the company is utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve business complexities.
Also, Kate Woolley, general manager of IBM Ecosystem, is now Big Blue’s top partner executive. She made waves this week for her three-month “listening tour” and for her vision for the channel. Don’t miss Jeff Schwartz’s article and our most-read story of the last seven days.
Check out our slideshow above for the people who made the top stories of the week. Lastly, don’t forget to catch last week’s roundup, which you can find 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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