Top Stories in June: 'Master Agent' Controversy, MSP 501, Top Security Providers
Plus, Microsoft's new channel chief speaks. And a big new security IPO. But what was No. 1?
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It just so happens that a fair amount of you use Microsoft products. It’s true!
So it’s no surprise that our review of enhancements to Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop struck a chord with you. But perhaps the most compelling reason to read our article was the rebranding to Azure Virtual Desktop.
Philippe Courtot, known in the tech industry as an early investor and CEO of Qualys, as well as the founder of cc:Mail, died at the age of 76. Courtot sold cc:Mail, then the market-leading PC email platform, to Lotus in the early 1990s.
He stepped down from his post as Qualys CEO in April to take medical leave.
Learn more about the legacy left by Courtot.
Published in April, you might call this the flagship of our “CF List” series.
This was the fourth annual release of 20 Top UCaaS Providers You Should Know,” which made its debut on the old Channel Partners Online site in 2018.
We once again polled some of the top analysts in the channel to weigh in on who in the UCaaS space is worth your attention. Each year some of the names are the same, but many are different when it comes to this evolving technology.
In our ongoing pursuit of finding out what keeps partners up at night, we got an earful.
Not surprisingly, cybersecurity threats were No. 1 on the list of the partners we queried. Also ranking high is the competition for top talent.
Read what else your peers had to say.
Growing your business was the primary topic on day one of Empower, the virtual conference hosted by N-able, the provider of MSP tools and resources.
N-able, the former SolarWinds MSP, introduced some partner program changes that it designed to benefit partners in the coming year. They include technologies that help with procurement and management, managing sales and marketing leads, and more.
Catch up on what you might have missed at N-able.
Just four months away now, we are drooling at the possibility of seeing you at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in November.
So much so, that we published a gallery of photos from past CP Expos to get you psyched for the event. We bet you’ll see people you know … maybe even yourself!
Registration is open, so get your ticket for the return of CP Expo now!
You were able to keep up to date in a big way on the newest and biggest updates to the channel’s most prominent partner programs via our roundup.
This edition featured changes at Dell, Spectrum Enterprise, Vonage, IBM, NetApp and more that could put more money in your pocket.
Similarly, as we do every month, we got you up to speed on the hottest new products and services across the telecom and IT channels.
Our latest roundup featured offers partners can get their hands on from 8×8, Microsoft, RingCentral, Dell, Verizon and more.
Our first-ever quarterly MSP survey revealed some interesting results.
The most important takeaway appears to be the stability of the market considering it battled a year of COVID-19. For the most part, respondents say they’re doing better than they were a year ago.
Read our take on the results; then, peruse our slideshow on the findings and why Forrester’s Jay McBain calls the results “challenging.”
A story we published in late May caught fire in June.
A follow-up to our original story on an egregious case of workplace racism and bullying, the alleged victim of said bullying filed a $9.3 million (U.S.) damage claim against Exertis, the U.K.-based distributor.
He says colleagues referred to him as an “Arab shoe bomber” who was working for Isis.
Read more about the damages claim, and how Exertis is responding to the scandal.
Targeting the increasingly hybrid workforce, Cisco unveiled its revamped calling, messaging and virtual meeting solution with its new Webex Suite.
It’s Cisco’s effort to grab customers who flocked to Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other platforms during the pandemic. The IT giant claims Webex Suite is 40% less expensive than getting all of its components piecemeal.
Learn more about what composes Webex Suite.
Our series on the appropriateness of the term “master agent” drew a whole lot of eyeballs last month.
From the word master’s connection to slavery to those who argue it simply doesn’t describe the agent relationship correctly, we got quite the reaction from some big players in the channel.
Read parts one and two of our series; then, check out what Eclipse Telecom’s Dave Dyson had to say in a fiery blog on the topic.
It also got a lot of reaction on social media.
We sat down for a Q&A with new Microsoft channel chief Rodney Clark, and you tuned in.
Read what he had to say about filling Gavriella Schuster’s shoes, ties with the IAMCP, the growth of digital marketplaces and more.
In conjunction with Pride Month, we told you about a number of LGBTQ tech pioneers.
From Apple’s Tim Cook to supercomputer pioneer Lynn Conway to English computer scientist Alan Turing, we explored the genius of some technology legends.
SentinelOne is one of the latest in a growing number of cybersecurity companies going public. Its goal is to raise $100 million.
We thought there were several things you should know about the IPO. Six, in fact.
The enigmatic John McAfee got your attention posthumously when the industry started to break down his final tweets.
Among them: “In a democracy, power is given not taken. But it is still power. Love, compassion, caring have no use for it …”
The software pioneer died of an apparent suicide in prison just hours after a Spanish court ruled he could be extradited to the U.S.
It’s the second, and most recent, entry in our “CF List” series to make this month’s countdown.
It goes without saying that cybersecurity is red hot, so it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that you wanted to learn who some of the industry’s top analysts consider to be 20 of the top endpoint detection and response providers in the business.
Bitdefender, CrowdStrike and Fortinet made it.
Find out who else the likes of Forrester, Omdia, S&P Global and Frost & Sullivan consider worthy of this prestigious list.
We mentioned cybersecurity was hot; well, so are acquisitions.
So when you combine the two, there’s a good chance it’s going to land high on our list.
Case in point: A consortium led by Symphony Technology Group (STG), the acquisition-hungry private-equity company, said it would by FireEye‘s products business, including the FireEye name for $1.2 billion.
The deal separates FireEye’s network, email, endpoint and cloud security products from Mandiant’s controls-agnostic software and services.
Learn more about this significant acquisition.
Crushing it again in June was our monthly roundup of new hires and promotions in the channel.
You wanted to learn which channel people were on the move at Forecpoint, Avant, AWS, TBI, Pax8, Equinix, Cisco, VMware, Cox Business and more.
Our 2021 list of the top managed service providers in the world dominated the competition in June.
You took a stroll through our numerous slideshows to see where your company, or a company you know, ranked in the Channel Futures MSP 501.
You can take a look at the top 25 here or download the entire list here.
Our 2021 list of the top managed service providers in the world dominated the competition in June.
You took a stroll through our numerous slideshows to see where your company, or a company you know, ranked in the Channel Futures MSP 501.
You can take a look at the top 25 here or download the entire list here.
You made June a record month for Channel Futures traffic thanks to your interest in a bevy of topics. What? You thought I was going to give away what was No. 1? No way! But I will tell you that lists featured prominently in our top 20 stories in June.
For instance, take our “CF lists.” Edward Gately’s monthly feature of analysts identifying 20 top providers landed two spots on our countdown. The newest – his review of endpoint detection and response providers – featured some big names and some you’re less familiar with. Furthermore, Gately’s breakdown of 20 top UCaaS providers, published in April, was still going strong.
Also, we debuted the 2021 Channel Futures MSP 501 in June. The most comprehensive survey and ranking of global managed service providers brought you to our site in droves.
Moreover, you were more than ready to weigh in on the debate over the term “master agent.” Should we ditch it due to slavery connotations? Is it simply not representative of the true relationship among agents?
As always, you have your say in which stories make the countdown. We balance traffic to our website with how these stories do in our weekly newsletters, which you can sign up for here.
Which story was No. 1 among top stories in June? Our slideshow above is waiting to tell you. Too busy in May to keep up with the news? If you missed that month ’s top 20 stories, go here.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Craig Galbraith or connect with him on LinkedIn. |
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