Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.
Nominate now for the CDN Women in the IT Channel awards
Nominations are open for the Women in the IT Channel awards, to be presented at the Women in the IT Channel recognition luncheon at the Aga Khan Museum on Aug. 24. Celebrate the accomplishments of the women in your organizations by nominating them for one of two awards.
The Rising Star award will be presented to an outstanding young woman working in the solution provider community for less than six years who is making a significant difference to an individual company, or the industry as a whole. The Mentor of the Year award will go to an outstanding role model who exemplifies the ideal image of a mentor. The award will be given to an individual who has established a record of consistent outreach to individuals in the channel over a number of years.
Nominations close on Jul. 14.
Bulk of MSP customers want to consolidate their security tools: Survey
OpenText this week released the findings of its OpenText Cybersecurity 2023 Global Managed Security Survey.
The survey of over 1,000 Managed Service Providers (MSP) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) reveals as more businesses experience resource and cost constraints, a majority (86 per cent) of MSPs’ and MSSPs’ customers are outsourcing their security needs to consolidate security tools.
“Staffing issues that have plagued the security industry for years are getting worse due to today’s complex economic environment. As a result, already short-staffed teams must find creative ways to do more with less,” says Geoff Bibby, senior vice president of marketing and strategy at OpenText Cybersecurity.
“With limited time and security resources, simple and effective security must be a priority. MSPs equipped with a comprehensive cyber-resilient portfolio of cloud-based data security and data management solutions are uniquely positioned to help clients gain efficiencies without compromising security.”
Other key survey findings revealed that:
- An overwhelming majority (88 per cent) of respondents think security and compliance tools are merging.
- Small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) are most interested in outsourcing data security, infrastructure monitoring, and risk reduction.
- Eighty-two percent of MSPs and MSSPs report the need for comprehensive, on-demand security as the top reason customers use their service.
- MSPs and MSSPs cite the biggest challenges facing their customers are cost savings (28 per cent) and the need to simplify security programs (26 per cent). Staffing shortages or reductions and lack of security expertise are also key customer challenges.
Accenture, Microsoft expand collaboration with new GenAI initiatives
Accenture and Microsoft Corp. say they are collaborating to help organizations adopt the disruptive power of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), accelerated by the cloud, to fundamentally transform their businesses. Together with their joint venture, Avanade, the companies are co-developing new AI-powered industry and functional solutions to help clients harness generative AI across the enterprise.
“Generative AI is driving innovation and reinvention, transforming work across industries, and changing the ways we access information,” said Julie Sweet, chair and chief executive officer (CEO), Accenture. “Our expanded partnership with Microsoft will help our clients find the right ways to responsibly build and scale this exciting technology across their enterprises and realize the value it can create.”
The companies said in their announcement that they “have already engaged with numerous clients across industries around generative AI. For example, (they) worked with Radisson Hotel Group, using a combination of Microsoft Cloud technologies and Azure OpenAI to create an intelligent, automated system that manages guest cancellations, and creates draft responses to guests’ reviews, addressing feedback with a full understanding of specific positive and negative elements.
“The system learns from each interaction, making every response more intelligent than the last.”
Zift Solutions launches ZiftONE Global for driving revenues through channel
Zift Solutions, a provider of Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Through-Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) software, this week announced the latest enhancement to its ZiftONE portal: ZiftONE Global.
“The global functionality makes it easier for international channel programs selling through partners, resellers, and distributors to thrive,” the company said in a release.
New features of ZiftONE Global include:
Global channel management: A centralized platform offers complete visibility into channel activity across all business units. The easy-to-understand dashboard provides decision makers and stakeholders with accurate insights and analytics showing the performance of all partners by marketing campaigns, revenue forecasts, sales, and other key performance metrics.
Support for global growth and expansion: The platform is designed for easy onboarding of new partners and partner programs as organizations grow through acquisitions and expansion into new regions and sectors.
Streamlined organization of products and services: Customers can easily group products and services by reseller, distributor, business unit, country, region and more. Presenting only relevant information to distinct audiences in a highly organized way avoids confusion, enabling partners to successfully move forward with their go-to-market strategies.
Shared marketing assets: Each business unit or region has dedicated portals, content libraries and campaigns. Global admins and corporate marketing teams can place assets into specific portals to ensure consistent messaging and branding while allowing customization by language or product type. This allows partners to easily rebrand content and amplify marketing and sales campaigns using only approved materials.
Private AI selected as 2023 Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum
Private AI, a provider of data privacy software offerings, has been selected from among hundreds of candidates as one of the World Economic Forum’s “Technology Pioneers.” The Toronto-based startup, founded by Patricia Thaine and Pieter Luitjens, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect, redact and replace over 50 types of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in over 49 languages in text, PDFs, documents, transcripts, LLMs such as ChatGPT and more.
The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers are early-stage companies that “are at the forefront of new technologies and innovation and are poised to have a significant impact on business and society.”
Verena Kuhn, head of innovator communities at the Forum, said the firm and its fellow pioneers are at the “forefront of innovation and disruption needed to help us solve the world’s most pressing issues. We look forward to their contribution to the Forum’s content work that brings together public and private sector to tackle these global issues.”
As a Technology Pioneer, Thaine will be invited to engage with the World Economic Forum, working with global leaders to help address key industry and societal issues. Technology Pioneers will also be invited to join Forum events and discussions throughout the year, bringing together leading stakeholders from the public and private sector.
“It is a tremendous honour,” she said. “We are grateful for this recognition and look forward to engaging in the Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and continuing to drive meaningful change in the world of data privacy technology.”
More information on this year’s Technology Pioneers can be found here.
Mosaicx launches AI solution and service offerings, appoints new SVP
Cloud-based vendor of intelligent voice assistant (IVA) solutions Mosaicx this week announced both a new service and a new product at the Customer Contact Week (CCW) event in Las Vegas.
MosAIcx Expert is a phone and web-based generative AI solution that the company says answers frequently asked questions in a controlled manner through information derived from a company’s specific data, not the internet.
MosaiCX Advisor is a consulting program that it says “is designed to empower Mosaicx customers to rapidly respond to changes, drive solution optimization and deliver improved customer outcomes.”
Also this week, the company named Matt Whitmer as its chief revenue officer and senior vice president of sales and marketing.
Global data centre capex decelerates to 8 per cent growth in Q1 2023: Dell'Oro
Global data centre capex slowed to eight per cent year-over-year (Y/Y) growth in Q1 2023, according to a recent report from the Dell’Oro Group, with softness emerging in the enterprise IT market, and with some of the hyperscalers entering what Dell’Oro calls a “capex digestion cycle.”
Server and storage revenue growth is forecast to fall to three per cent, while network and physical infrastructure revenue growth will remain in double-digits.
“While data centre capex for the hyperscalers will decline significantly this year, we project some of the cloud service providers such as Microsoft and Google will continue to increase spending by double digits,” said Baron Fung, senior research director at Dell’Oro Group.
“Meanwhile, the beginning of the year witnessed a slow start in enterprise IT spending, with revenues for the server and storage OEMs down Y/Y. We anticipate that the demand will continue to deteriorate throughout the first half of 2023.
“The lower demand environment will have an impact of slowing systems pricing growth, which could prompt customers waiting on the sidelines to resume spending later this year. In addition, the recent server platform refresh from Intel and AMD, and the growing demand on AI/ML applications, is expected to motivate customers to upgrade their infrastructure.”
Time to sign up for the 39th edition of the CCCGC
The Canadian Computer Charity Golf Classic (CCCGC) taking place Sept. 7 is a premier golf tournament that brings the computer industry together to help raise funds for two worthy causes: Easter Seals Ontario and Princess Margaret Hospital.
Celebrating its 39th anniversary this year, the event is a perennial sellout, hosting an estimated 300 golfers who represent more than 100 corporations from the Canadian and the U.S. technology sectors.
It is taking place at Lionhead Golf and Conference Centre, and sponsorships and foursomes are still available. Move quickly to get your place before they sell out. Further information is available at computergolf.ca.
