Top 20 Stories in January: CPaaS List, Sexual Harassment, Windstream Channel Chief
The latest SASE trends and changes at Rackspace also made the list. But what was No. 1?
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Just about anything Microsoft does is usually a crowd-pleaser with the Channel Futures audience. And in January, that was no exception.
The company announced that its New Commerce Experience (NCE) has fully gone into effect.
What does that mean? Well, Microsoft CSPs have for months been preparing customers for a change to a per-seat model, applicable to Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Windows 365 and Power Platform subscriptions. Most notably, NCE shifts subscriptions to annual and 36-month terms. The new terms are fully in place.
Learn more about what this means for the channel.
The log4j vulnerability that reared its ugly head at the end of the year became a concern for VMware.
The U.K.’s National Health Service issued an alert of Log4Shell attacks on VMware software. The agency said an unknown threat group was trying to exploit a log4j vulnerability in VMware Horizon servers to establish a network presence. That could result in stolen data, or worse, a ransomware deployment.
Read why the CEO of Ntirety calls VMware a “natural target.”
There were big changes at the top of Rackspace‘s channel in January.
The story cracking our top 20 was the departure of Michael Stephens (pictured), the former global partner channel chief at the managed cloud computing vendor. He told us he had “eclipsed all his goals” and was taking some time away from the business.
But also noteworthy was the departure of Lisa McLin, head of Rackspace’s global channel and alliances program, the following week. She landed as channel chief at Unisys, the global IT services company.
Rackspace filled those roles with Vicki Patten and Renee Taylor, respectively.
Another change at the top of a popular partner program went down at Windstream.
Longtime channel vet Rob Westervelt, a GTT, NTT, XO and Broadview Networks alum, took over as SVP and head of channel. He will work alongside Brad Smith, SVP of strategic channels, at Windstream Enterprise.
We thought this made for a great Q&A opportunity.
Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec, also a cybersecurity mogul, merged his company with Fishtech Groupto create a mega managed security service provider.
The deal is backed by private equity company Apax Partners.
The companies say the merger brings together the complementary strengths of both organizations.
Learn more about the impact.
Our quarterly update on the happenings at technology service brokerages (TSBs, formerly “master agents”) and traditional technology distributors was as popular as ever.
This edition featured a new partner community at D&H, a deal between Avant and Logix Fiber Networks, and a new job at TD Synnex for a well-known Lenovo veteran.
We’ve written extensively about the remarkable surge in merger and acquisition activity in the first month of 2022. That made us wonder what’s behind the frenzy.
Our Kelly Teal posed that question and got some interesting responses.
Just what role will the recently coined “metaverse” play in the channel? Probably too early to tell, but it’s certainly generating some interest.
No longer are these online 3-D simulated environments featuring avatars and holograms only in the purview of gamers and futurists. We explored the various metaverse developments in the past year to get you thinking about what might be.
What kind of year is in store for security giant Palo Alto Networks?
Our Edward Gately got an exclusive scoop in his new feature, The Gately Report. He sat down with Karl Soderlund, channel boss at Palo Alto, to talk about joining the Microsoft 365 Networking Partner Program, among many topics.
Check that out, plus news surrounding Huntress, Devo Technology and Check Point.
More technology services brokerages are turning to private equity funding as these financial powerhouses increasingly want a piece of the channel pie.
Case in point: To the tune of $100 million, Bridgepointe Technologies accepted one of the largest private-equity investments the IT/telecom advisory channel has ever seen.
It makes sense then, that our James Anderson would want to sit down with Bridgepointe co-founder Scott Evars, who acknowledged that Bridgepointe would be looking to expand via acquisition.
Our on-camera interview with Avaya from November’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo picked up a whole lot of steam in January.
The company’s national partner managers director, Marci Allen, told us why, two years after initiating a historic deal with RingCentral, it’s still just as important.
We also explored why Avaya says its OneCloud product is a major differentiator for partners.
Check out the video here.
Gregory Bryant, longtime leader of the client computing group at Intel, left the company at the end of the month. That paved the way for a promotion for Michelle Johnston Holthaus.
Bryant didn’t elaborate as to why he was leaving Intel after 30 years, but wrote on LinkedIn that it was a difficult decision to exit.
Prior to leading the client computing group, Bryant helped launch its vPro and Evo platforms, was IT director and led the Asia Pacific/Japan region.
See what the future holds for the client computing group.
Over the holidays we published a series of articles previewing 2022.
The hottest turned out to be predictions and trends surrounding one of the hottest technologies in the channel: secure access service edge (SASE).
Last month, you found this little gem and got the full scoop on what channel leaders at Cato Networks, Oracle, TBI, CommandLink and more think is in store for SASE this year.
Our monthly look at the biggest new and changing channel programs was a hit in January, probably due to the ginormous names it featured.
If you wanted to know about the latest moves at AT&T, Verizon, AWS, Zoom, Tech Data and more, this was the place to find them.
“We need to do better.”
So says Colotraq’s Dany Bouchedid, who wrote a compelling guest column for Channel Futures about sexual harassment in the channel. He says the topic is often pushed under the rug and it’s time it came to the fore.
“Where is your outrage when you hear about these horrible stories of sexual harassment and sometime even sexual assault?” Bouchedid asks in the column.
One of our very first stories published in the month of January involved the sale of CompuCom Systems by Office Depot. An affiliate of Variant Equity bought it.
Office Depot bought CompuCom less than five years ago for $1 billion.
Forrester analyst Jay McBain noted that this latest purchase represented an “extremely low valuation for MSP revenue with blue chip clients.”
It was hoped after Staples and Best buy failed in their attempts to tackle managed services at scale, that the third time would be the charm for a big-name retailer like Office Depot.
Turned out the answer was no.
Get more news about the sale here.
You might not think that seven months after its release, the 2021 MSP 501 list would remain such a hot commodity. I mean, we just opened up the application period for the 2022 list!
Ye of little faith! The list of 2021 honorees remains among our most popular articles every month.
Aren’t selling mobile device management? Apparently a whole lot of your peers are.
Either that, or you were really interested in finding out who the leaders in this space are. We’ve got you covered via a MarketsandMarkets report, which named VMware, Microsoft and IBM among the best in the business.
See the other companies the researchers named; plus, just how big the MDM market could become in the next few years.
Each month we poll some key channel analysts and ask them to name some of the best in the business in a particular technology category.
January it was CPaaS’ turn. Communications platform as a service turned out to be of huge interest to our audience, which tuned in to read about why the likes of Twilio, 8×8 and RingCentral made our list.
This is where to find out who else made it and what they’re doing to revolutionize this technology in the channel.
Often a bridesmaid, never a bride.
That’s not entirely true for Channel People on the Move, which always cracks our top 20. In January, it was the bee’s knees. The pièce de résistance.
Our monthly recap of the bigggest hires and promotions got the most unique visitors to our site — in addition to the most pageviews.
This edition featured movers and shakers at Intelisys, Telarus, SolarWinds, McAfee, Zoom and more.
Often a bridesmaid, never a bride.
That’s not entirely true for Channel People on the Move, which always cracks our top 20. In January, it was the bee’s knees. The pièce de résistance.
Our monthly recap of the bigggest hires and promotions got the most unique visitors to our site — in addition to the most pageviews.
This edition featured movers and shakers at Intelisys, Telarus, SolarWinds, McAfee, Zoom and more.
With 2022’s first month in the books, we bet you’re wondering, “What were the top channel stories in January?”
At least that’s what we’re hoping. We compiled our monthly countdown based on Channel Futures’ online pageviews and what you clicked on most in our weekly newsletters. (You can sign up for those here.)
For a preview, Colotraq’s Dany Bouchedid wrote an eye-opening guest column about sexual harassment in the channel. We broke down 20 top CPaaS providers you should be keeping an eye on. (The channel loves rankings!). And you wanted to know what Palo Alto Networks has planned for the rest of 2022.
You’ll have to check out our slideshow above for the rest, and to find out what was No. 1 among top stories in January.
If you missed our list of the top, most-read channel stories for all of 2021, it’s 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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