Sprint, Ingram Micro One, Cyberattacks Lead the Weekly Wrap

What’s a stronger motivation: opportunity or fear? Politicians have mulled the question for years as they attempt to lure voters.

Political theory aside, you might be able to see where I’m going with this. Customers come to partners for different reasons. One might come to you asking for the ole “digital transformation” service in hopes of improving operational efficiency and their bottom line. But another group comes to you because they need to handle a negative. They read about Facebook getting breached and had a come-to-Jesus moment about investing in security, or they need you to get them through compliance because otherwise, the government will make them pay a fine. It’s sort of obligatory — you know, like Marshawn Lynch.

You get the point. The customer approaches you because they want to earn more money or because they don’t want to lose money. But the point is, people like money. People like money a lot. Yeah, that probably should have been my lead-in to this story. Oh well.

Just as the demand for money connects customers to partners, it’s, in part, the demand for money that leads readers to our website. We see in our most viewed stories of the week that readers want to learn about things that can help them and their clients earn more green. That’s the main reason why cybersecurity seems to strike such a nerve. People are terrified of losing money, but you, the partner, can move your customer from fear to seeing opportunity.

We’ve been compiling our top articles at the end of each week and presenting them to you so that you –  our esteemed Channel Partners reader – can go straight to the heart of the matter.

With that soapbox speech out of the way, here are our most-read stories from the week of Oct. 28.

7. AlienVault: Exploits Targeting IoT, Info Sharing on the Rise

There’s nothing cheerier than reading about all the ways cybercriminals could ruin your business.

AlienVault‘s Open Threat Exchange (OTX) Trends Report found that IoT remains the most numerous target for exploits — not a terribly surprising factoid if you’ve been reading about the vast cornucopia of unprotected targets IoT devices offer to the bad guys.

But there were a few surprises in the study. AlienVault’s “security advocate” told Channel Partners that although attacks on Microsoft systems remain prevalent, they decreased from the previous year. Somewhere, someplace, my high school classmate Kiffer is beaming. That guy hated Apple products before it was cool.

Check out our story to see more findings from the report.

6. Proposed Sprint-T-Mobile Merger Blasted by CWA, Advocacy Groups

Not a day goes by when the Communications Workers of America (CWA) isn’t raising red flags about the major carriers. While the union spent much of 2018 lambasting AT&T, its negative sentiments have expanded to include Sprint. The chief gripe is Sprint’s April announcement that it will merge with T-Mobile.

You can go to the link above to learn more about the transaction’s channel impact, but our industry obviously isn’t factoring much into the CWA’s rage. The union has warned of job cuts resulting from the $26 million acquisition.

Edward Gately was on the case to cover the controversy.

5. Sprint SD-WAN Goes Global

Negativity aside, the carrier announced that its SD-WAN solution is available on multiple new continents.

Sprint launched the platform a year-and-a-half ago, and it seems to have functioned as a bridge, as Sprint has invested in numerous IT projects in 2018 in addition to its traditional telecommunication services.

As I wrote Wednesday, the expansion matches a trend of SD-WAN providers showcasing their …

… international reach. CenturyLink, InSpeed and Aryaka did so in the previous weeks.

Read more about Sprint’s SD-WAN.

4. HYCU Targets Nutanix Velocity Partners with New Program

The enterprise software company unveiled the first of several custom programs that fit into its global channel program.

The company said the “Speed to HYCU” program complements the Nutanix Velocity Program by providing participating partners with a chance at an additional 10 percent margin when selling HYCU licenses with Nutanix Velocity opportunities.

You get one guess of who wrote the story. Edward Gately, take a bow. That guy’s a force of nature.

3. Webroot: Beware the Worst Malware of 2018

We served up a healthy serving of fear when we covered Webroot’s list of nasty malware methods.

I doubt I can properly convey the sobriety that came from reading the study, but I’ll just leave you with this: You’ve heard of ransomware, right? It’s pretty much our favorite topic when it comes to security, and considered one of the biggest threats.

But Webroot doesn’t observe ransomware as being the most frequent attack method.

Check out the summary of the study to read all of the nefarious and diabolical tactics the bad guys are using.

2. 8 Top Trends in Talent Retention

The business world lives in a time of increasing turnover.

The stats say that people don’t stay with their companies as long as they used to. And sure, you can’t expect to completely reverse that course within your company, but you’re going to have to fight it if you want to be efficient.

Our recent gallery argues that attracting new talent costs more than developing and keeping your in-house talent.

Contributor Kevin Casey stepped up to the plate with a gallery that describes this landscape of turnover.

1. Ingram Micro’s Compass Points to IP

And our top story of the week was … a distributor piece?

Lynn Haber was churning out stories at Ingram Micro One this week, and the highlight was a keynote session on the topic of intellectual property. Ingram Micro’s executive vice president of global cloud exhorted partners to create their own IP footprint in this age of software and cloud.

“Digitization is everywhere, and the other important thing is that IP is everywhere,” he said.

Read the rest of Haber’s recap.