Our weekly round-up of the news you don’t want to miss.
Cogent launches its first channel program
Washington, D.C.-based Cogent Communications launched its first formal partner program. The move marks a strategic shift for the provider of IP networking, Ethernet transport and co-location services, which wants to see more of its enterprise sales going through the channel – ultimately as much as 50 percent of said enterprise sales. The company plans to roll out the program gradually, and plans to sign at least four or five master agent partners by the end of the year. The program launched with two such master agents in place: AB&T Telecom and WTG.
AVG introduces new Android administration console for AVG CloudCare
AVG Technologies expanded its CloudCare mobile management capabilities with an Android administration console that enhances the ability of MSPs/VARs to remotely manage security services on their customers’ IT systems. The new AVG CloudCare app for Android allows partners to carry out some of the most common admin tasks from their mobile device, including:View and acknowledge all or individual customer alerts as well as manage individual services, acknowledge/view the detailed data of alerts to find out more information and remotely deploy services such as antivirus, content filtering and online backup to customer devices via email.
Ingram Micro announces plans to lay off another 180 North American employees
The bad news cycle is continuing at Ingram Micro with the company announcing it will lay off another 180 North American staffers – and probably more globally. The move, which was previewed on its Q4 earnings call earlier this month, comes just a few months after the company announced its last corporate restructuring – something it calls the 2014 Global Organizational Effectiveness Initiative. The company claims the moves will cut $80 to $100 million and allow Ingram Micro to focus on new opportunities and growth areas. On the chopping block are the Specialty Solutions Division, AVAD, data capture/point-of-sale, mobility and consumer electronics. According to the company, those growth areas include healthcare, SMB, and the public sector, along with specific verticals where Ingram Micro wants to strengthen its position, like financial services. In fairness to Ingram Micro, the company claims to be recruiting as many as 300 people to focus on these areas.
NetSuite and Dell partner
Dell and NetSuite have entered into an alliance that will see Dell’s services organization resell and deploy NetSuite's ERP and e-commerce cloud applications for midsize customers. Through the deal NetSuite will gain access to Dell's customer base and while it could create opportunities for some NetSuite partners, the emphasis for NetSuite is getting access to Dell’s sales channel and professional services. The majority of NetSuite's existing partners sell NetSuite's standard ERP, CRM and e-commerce applications to SMB customers, but this deal could create competition for those few that are working with NetSuite's OneWorld cloud application suite, which is designed for larger organizations.
“NSA spying scandal will hurt U.S. businesses”
According to Richard Clarke, president of Good Harbor Security Risk Management and one of the members of President Barack Obama's surveillance review panel, US tech companies are feeling the guilt-by-association-fallout from the NSA spying scandal. Speaking at the Cloud Security Alliance Summit – essentially a one-day preconference attached to RSA 2014 – Clarke blamed the NSA leak scandal for the falling market shares of US tech companies in Europe, Latin America and Asia and said the full extent of that fallout is yet to manifest itself. According to Clarke, who served as special adviser to the president for cybersecurity, and national coordinator for security and counterterrorism for the last three U.S. administrations, the NSA leaks have given some countries propaganda fodder which they are using to boost the prospects of domestic companies. Clarke went on to say that trust in encryption needs to be re-established before the effects of the scandal can be overcome.
IBM acquires Cloudant, plans major cloud services push
IBM continued to add technology to its steadily expanding cloud portfolio by picking up Boston-based database-as-a-service firm Cloudant for an undisclosed sum. The news broke on the same day Big Blue said it would invest $1 billion over the next two years in cloud-software development as it tries to morph from a hardware, software and services company to a cloud-services company and compete with the likes of Amazon and Microsoft. Cloudant gained specific recognition for its ability to manage complex databases and big data processing.
ForeScout plans BYOD monitoring and policy enforcement
ForeScout Technologies Inc., will release a monitoring solution that will provide customers of its network access control solution, CounterACT, with the ability to monitor mobile devices and enforce security policies. According to the network security specialist, the CounterACT RemoteControl capability will be available by the middle of the year as a downloadable software upgrade at no cost for customers under active maintenance agreements.
Anturis updates its IT monitoring and troubleshooting solution
Anturis has added numerous features to its website monitoring and troubleshooting platform. Anturis Version 1.4, which provides organizations that don’t have advanced IT departments or a large IT budgets with enterprise-class IT infrastructure monitoring and troubleshooting cloud services, includes all the features an SMB needs – but is affordable and simple to set up and use. The updated solution introduces Parallels Plesk integration, dashboards and other features designed to help SMBs and web hosting companies manage their online presences.
