Zero Networks, Agilitas IT Solutions Among Latest COVID-19 Offers

Zero Networks, Agilitas IT Solutions and ManagedMethods have new offers to help partners and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zero Networks is giving its automated network control service for free to companies in travel, entertainment, hospitality and other industries hit hard by COVID-19. It’s free through the end of the year.

Organizations in every industry have had to enable their workforce to connect to corporate networks remotely overnight. This process is not only costly, but it’s extremely dangerous, Zero Networks noted. It gives malicious actors new opportunities to infiltrate networks with commodity malware, ransomware and targeted cyberattacks.

The cloud-based service allows organizations to restrict the access to only what is required to do the job. This eliminates internal attack vectors that cyberattackers rely on.

Benny Lakunishok is Zero Networks’ co-founder and CEO. He says the free service is available to partners and businesses directly affected by the pandemic, he said.

Zero Networks’ Benny Lakunishok

“We’ll plan to do this until their businesses return to normal in 2021,” he said. “Organizations are facing a myriad of threats right now. As companies quickly enable their workforce to connect to corporate networks remotely, via VPN (which provides direct access to network resources), we’ve seen the attack surface and risk of exploitation rapidly increase.”

Agilitas IT Solutions

Global channel services provider Agilitas IT Solutions unveiled its new hardware maintenance promotion. The company created “Easy as 1-2-3” to help its channel partner customers.

This news comes shortly after Agilitas released its updated channel services pricing tool. AssureMeNow supports the increasing number of its partners working remotely.

With Easy as 1-2-3, partners using the AssureMeNow pricing portal get the first three months of maintenance services for new contracts free, with nothing to pay until the end of the free period.

Partners can either pass the terms on to end-user clients or use them to help with their own cash flows.

“During these unprecedented times, we want to help our loyal partners as much as we possibly can,” said Shaun Lynn, Agilitis’ CEO. “I’m delighted that we have been able to offer these generous terms to both our partners and the wider channel community. This will hopefully contribute in ensuring channel firms can continue to support their end-user customers through this difficult time, with the ability to use our updated online pricing tool, AssureMeNow.”

The Easy as 1-2-3 promotion requires a one-year minimum contract as the offer only applies for new business acquisition.

It only applies to quotes that are self-served on the AssureMeNow portal. As an added loyalty reward, the company will reduce the AssureMeNow price an additional 10% for multiyear contracts.

ManagedMethods

ManagedMethods is a Google G Suite and Microsoft 365 cybersecurity and student safety platform for K-12 school districts. It launched its new Google Meet & Google Chat monitoring and reporting features.

Due to increased remote learning and video conferencing in schools, district IT teams face new cybersecurity, student safety and data privacy challenges.

With these new features, ManagedMethods provides school districts full visibility and control into the activity taking place in Google Meet & Chat – in addition to Drive, Shared Drives, Docs, Sheets and Slides – to address challenges that come with dispersed students and staff.

Charlie Sander is ManagedMethods‘ CEO. He said resellers and service providers help school districts solve their most critical cybersecurity and student safety concerns.

Secure remote learning is a top priority now that schools have settled into their new environments, he said.

ManagedMethods’ Charlie Sander

“Google Meet & Google Chat usage have rapidly increased in schools, and our new features will help our partners ensure they can provide districts the visibility and control needed to successfully teach when using these apps remotely,” Sander said. “The features will also help IT teams make sure students and staff are safe from the external threats a new remote environment may bring.”

Unfortunately, a lot of districts may not have enough managed devices to give students and staff, Sander said. As a result, more unmanaged devices are accessing their apps and data.

During the pandemic, districts are more focused on securing school accounts. They are also closely watching cloud apps, and data being created, shared and stored when remote learning, he said.

“Our partners have been working diligently to help districts better protect their students and staff from afar,” Sander said. “These new Google Meet & Chat features will give district IT teams a peace of mind that students and teachers are better protected when video conferencing, and that district administrators have more insight into the activity taking place inside these apps to keep data secure.”