To keep up with the firehose of news, we’ve decided to deliver some extra channel news to you on the side. Some of it is an extension of our own reporting on the channel that didn’t make its way into a story, while others might be content we’ve bookmarked and thought of sharing with you. We’re doing a similar thing at IT World Canada – check it out here. Missed last week’s CDN Morning Briefing? Read it here.
What you need to know right now
It’s what you need to know right now in the world of IT and tech – ’nuff said. (Often taken with a side of Hashtag Trending and Cyber Security Today)
Datto’s Private Equity CEO Admits ‘Serious Crimes,’ But Avoids Prosecution [CRN]
Robert Smith, CEO of Vista Equity, which owns MSP tool provider Datto — “committed serious crimes” federal prosecutors said as part of his involvement in what they are calling “a $2 billion tax fraud” case. Read the full story in the link above.
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Hashtag Trending
A billionaire is indicted on charges of tax evasion and wire fraud, Zoom launches a new service, and a report shows Oracle’s CEO donated $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Sen. Lindsey Graham shortly after the TikTok deal. Read the full episode transcript here!
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Cyber Security Today
Learn these lessons from a ransomware attack. Listen to the full episode below or read the full episode transcript here!
In case you missed it
The edgy opportunity
A new report from Aruba says 72 per cent of global IT decision makers (ITDMs) in a recent survey are using edge technologies today, but while that number signals the technology’s positive adoption, some gaps linger around education and enablement. The survey was based on 2,400 global IT decision-makers. Here are some of the report’s takeaways.
- 33 per cent of IT decision-makers globally said “there is too much data for our systems to handle” and 28 per cent stated that “we cannot process the data quickly enough to take action.”
- Almost a quarter also highlighted problems with budget (23 per cent), a lack of skills (23 per cent), and an inability to collect data from so many different sources (21 per cent).
- By sector, the most popular edge use cases were tracking and monitoring individual items through the supply chain in retail (51 per cent), the use of facial recognition in the hotels/hospitality industry (49 per cent) and improving healthcare providers’ experience with always-on tools and applications (49 per cent).
- 32 per cent of ITDMs pointed to a lack of expertise, skill or understanding with regard to edge technologies as top concerns. Notably, the overwhelming majority (92 per cent) think they are missing at least some skills needed to help their organization unlock the value of data. That rises to 98 per cent and 99 per cent of ITDMs in the government and hotels/hospitality sectors respectively.
- AI and machine learning skills (43 per cent), analytical skills (41 per cent) and technical skills (37 per cent) ranked highest in terms of areas of expertise that companies are lacking.
- Overall, there were mixed feelings about the security implications of the edge. While 57 per cent of ITDMs said that connecting IoT or user devices at the edge had made or would make their businesses more vulnerable, 47 per cent identified improved security as one of the biggest benefits of capturing data from user devices.
Check out the full report here.
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Another financial boost for Sonrai
Sonrai Security launched with $18.5 million in Series A funding last year, and according to the New Brunswick identity and data governance firm, the good times continue to roll. Sonrai last week announced Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures with participation from Polaris Partners and TenEleven Ventures. “The increasing frequency of cloud breaches caused by identity and data access complexity has driven significant traction for our Sonrai Dig platform among large enterprises, who see it as the basis of their cloud security model,” said Brendan Hannigan, CEO and co-founder of Sonrai Security.
The Sonrai Dig platform automatically uncovers identity, data and cloud platform risks, automatically eliminates these risks and continuously monitors to ensure new risks and unusual activity are quickly identified.
Related:
- New Brunswick’s ‘hungry’ identity and data governance firm Sonrai launches new solution [Channel Daily News]
- Former IBM security and Q1 Labs execs launch new service through channel [Channel Daily News]
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Cohesity and AWS making moves
Data protection and management developer Cohesity this week unveiled a strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services meant to help bring Data Management as a Service (DMaaS) to joint customers. The two technology companies also revealed that Amazon and Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cisco Investments were strategic investors in Cohesity’s $250 million Series E funding round announced in April. It’s unknown at this time how much AWS or the other firms invested in Cohesity.
The foundation for this new DMaaS solution is Cohesity Helios, a SaaS-based data platform that serves more than 1,500 customers. [Full news release]
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Discover channel partners!
Finding the right channel partner for the right job is crucial. Filter search results by partner type, region, or solution type. Click here to begin your search today.
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University of Calgary launches master of data science and analytics degree [IT World Canada]
The University of Calgary is adding a new graduate program to help people with different disciplines become data scientists.
Reddit recap
The MSP subreddit community is growing rapidly. It’s also a chatty bunch. With more than 84,000 members as of today, it’s worth taking a look at what they have to say every once in a while. Here are the recent top posts. Click on the posts to view additional responses.
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