Channel Bytes May 13, 2022 – Zomentum supports NCE; Egnyte enhances MSP program; Computer Golf Classic announced; and more

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.

38th annual Canadian Computer Golf Classic announced

The Canadian Computer Charity Golf Classic 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. This year’s event is on Thursday, September 8, 2022, at Lionhead Golf and Conference Centre in Brampton, Ontario. Sponsorships are still available; corporate partners continue to play a key role in the success of the Canadian Computer Charity Golf Classic by taking advantage of this opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to support children with physical disabilities and cancer research.

Palo Alto Networks announces Zero Trust Network Access 2.0 solutions

Cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks has urged the industry to move to Zero Trust Network Access 2.0 (ZTNA 2.0), the foundation for a new era of secure access. ZTNA was developed as a replacement for virtual private networks (VPNs) when it became clear that most VPNs did not adequately scale and were overly permissive, but the first-generation ZTNA products (ZTNA 1.0) are too trusting and can put customers at significant risk. ZTNA 2.0 solves these problems by removing implicit trust to help ensure organizations are properly secured with a zero-trust solution that actually follows zero trust principles. The company says that Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access meets today’s ZTNA 2.0 requirements, protecting the hybrid workforce with the superior security of ZTNA 2.0 while providing exceptional user experiences from a simple, unified security product that protects all application traffic with best-in-class capabilities while securing both access and data to dramatically reduce the risk of a data breach.

Egnyte enhances MSP program 

Cloud content security and governance solution provider Egnyte has enriched its partner program based on feedback from active partners to better serve its channel and its customers. Enhancements to the program include unique packages, faster response time for invoicing, and dedicated training for new solutions. Among its features:

  • Dedicated pricing and packages for partners. With two plans designed exclusively for managed service providers (MSPs), partners can now provide a profitable replacement for on-premises file servers with the added benefit of secure collaboration through ransomware detection and recovery from any device, anywhere.
  • A designated team of experts. Egnyte offers a dedicated team, including solutions engineers, marketing support, account managers, and professional services. These team members help MSPs select security, governance, and industry solutions to serve their customers.
  • Expanded partner portal and enablement solutions. The Egnyte Partner Program offers marketing services and sales enablement tools, including co-branded marketing materials, sales playbooks, training tracks, professional services support, and billing capabilities.

Zomentum Connect now supports Microsoft New Commerce Experience (NCE)

Zomentum has announced that its Zomentum Connect license reconciliation and automated billing solution integrates with Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE).

Microsoft launched NCE in January 2022 to create a consistent purchasing experience for partners and customers. Part of this multiphase transition includes changes to licensing through Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. As of March 10, 2022, new seat-based offer subscriptions can only be purchased through the NCE. Beginning in July 2022, legacy subscriptions can only be renewed in NCE, and legacy CSP seat-based offer incentives end on December 31, 2022. The Zomentum Connect integration for Microsoft NCE automatically manages the complexities of transitioning to Microsoft NCE license costs and calculations, and also factors in NCE’s different subscription levels, including monthly, annual and tri-annual plans, plus combinations thereof. Once partners update their clients to Microsoft NCE in their Zomentum Connect account, license calculations are updated accordingly and synced with their Autotask PSA for accurate billing. In addition to managing licenses, Zomentum Connect can help partners bill for Microsoft Azure compute resources.

Black Box Achieves Gold Partner Status in Genesys Ascend Partner Program

IT solutions provider Black Box has announced it has been named a Gold Partner by Genesys, a global cloud provider of customer experience orchestration. As a Gold Partner in the Genesys Ascend program, Black Box is better positioned to create value for customers across sales, delivery, success, and support. Operating in 140 countries around the globe, Black Box has a more than 45-year history of cutting through customers’ complex environments to determine the best cloud integrations for delivering marked business success.

The Genesys Ascend partner program is for global systems integrators, channel partners, technology partners, and independent consultants who are eager to participate in the ecosystem developing around Experience as a Service, the Genesys vision to deliver personalized, seamless customer experiences integrated across sales, service, and marketing.

Cloudflare announces Workers for Platforms

Cloudflare has announced Workers for Platforms, a new offering that will allow any organization, from Fortune 100s to hyper-growth startups, to turn their product into a platform. Workers for Platforms exposes a new set of tools and APIs to integrate directly into the deployment flow users want to design. Using Cloudflare’s APIs, whenever a developer wants to deploy a script on a platform, the provider can call the APIs to deploy a new Worker in the background. The company says that, unlike the traditional Workers offering, Workers for Platforms is designed to be used at scale, to manage hundreds of thousands to millions of Cloudflare Workers.

SAS and Cosmo Tech partner on supply chain solution

Analytics provider SAS and Cosmo Tech, creator of complex simulation and digital twin supply chain technology, have become partners to build a hybrid artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital twin solution that helps connect demand planning and forecasting with production and inventory planning to create more resilient end-to-end supply chains. The companies say that the new solution will help build flexibility back into an organization by analyzing the data flowing off IoT devices like RFID tags, production lines, and vehicle telematics. The partners will focus initially on supply chains for manufacturing, consumer goods, and retail, but say the benefits of digital twins apply to many vertical industries from health care to financial services.

Avaya rolls out turnkey virtual agent

Cloud communications provider Avaya has announced an update to its Avaya OneCloud platform, in which its Virtual Agent is available as a ready-to-deploy, turnkey, configurable service. This would let customers quickly deploy artificial intelligence (AI)-powered virtual agents that could be used immediately. It complements Avaya’s current Google Dialogflow-based agent, which requires developers to create a virtual agent from scratch.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Lynn Greiner
Lynn Greiner
Lynn Greiner has been interpreting tech for businesses for over 20 years and has worked in the industry as well as writing about it, giving her a unique perspective into the issues companies face. She has both IT credentials and a business degree

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