Channel Bytes October 6, 2023 – Trend Micro revamps partner program; New channel chief at Dell; Zoom bolsters partner program; 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.

Trend Micro launches redesign of its Trend Partner Program

Cybersecurity vendor Trend Micro Inc. has announced a complete redesign of its worldwide partner program, which it said will accelerate business growth for partners and “allow them to further deliver exceptional value to end customers.”

The program is built around the Trend Vision One platform, which the company said in a release “creates opportunities for partners to deliver services and assessments for both enterprise and SMB-focused partners.

“Customers are facing increased risks as threat actors derive greater monetary value from criminal activities. As cybersecurity demand grows, the need for in-house skills to protect data, companies, brands, industries and governments grows as well.”

Partners, it said,  “can close this gap by delivering value via crucial services: MSSP, MSP, SOCaaS, XDR, Incident Response, and much more. To address this need, Trend is improving the ability for partners to offer assessments to customers, including Cyber Risk Assessments, new additions of External Attack Surface, Cloud Posture, and Azure AD Assessments.”

According to the company, more than 800 partners “have already leveraged Cyber Risk Assessment Services to complete 1,400+ customer assessments – and more new services are on the way.”

Dagher leaves Dell, Millard named firm's new channel chief in reorg

In a blog post yesterday, Bill Scannell, president of global sales and customer operations at Dell Technologies, announced an immediate reorganization of the company’s channel organization, with Denise Millard adding leadership of global channel strategy and programs to her current role heading the global alliances and industries organization.

Rola Dagher, former channel chief, has left the company.

“As customers embrace the enormous opportunities presented by multicloud, work from anywhere, edge and AI, they’re turning to a trusted set of partner allies to help them quickly transform and set the pace for their industries. In turn, these newly formed relationships across solution providers, distributors, global systems integrators, cloud solution providers and others are creating a mega opportunity for acceleration,” Scannell said in his post.

“To unleash the potential of these cross-partner synergies, we need to think big picture; align across all selling motions, partner types and revenue streams.”

In a statement, he added, “We will combine our world-class partner program, strategy and operations teams with our global alliances and industries team, under the leadership of Denise Millard, to drive tighter cross-partner synergies. Denise’s strategic partner vision and depth of experience, combined with Diego Majdalani’s strong channel sales execution, will accelerate our partner momentum into the digital era”

To that end, Diego Majdalani remains head of global channel sales, and Darren Sullivan will join the channel leadership team with responsibility for global partner strategy, program and operations.

Zoom bolsters partner program with new enhancements

Zoom this week unveiled the next evolution of its Zoom Up Partner Program – a development and reward model that, it said, makes it easy for partners to pursue their ideal path to success with the company.

“Because partners play a critical role in Zoom’s growth, we recognize that they must have the right tools and resources readily available to forge a clear path to expand and succeed,” said Todd Surdey, head of global channels and business development at Zoom.

The next phase of the program, the company said, will be available to all partner types, and is centered around empowering partners to grow their practice alongside Zoom,

Scheduled to launch in early 2024, it will include revamped Partner Levels to better align rewards with the level of investment partners make in Zoom. Zoom Up will launch three new levels: Silver, Gold and Platinum.

In addition, the company said it will “provide significantly greater rewards of profitability, access to resources, and Zoom investments.  Partner rewards are tiered in accordance with the Zoom Up level achieved, which provides in-kind, stackable benefits aligned to both partners’ investment and performance.”

Procure IT appoints Jordan Solender to head up its CX platform

Procure IT, a data-driven IT procurement and management company, has announced that managing partner Jordan Solender, “an expert in systems integration and process automation,” will lead the development of the company’s customer experience (CX) platform.

The platform enables technology advisors and decision-makers  to track, manage and optimize the cost, performance and risk across their IT environment in real time. Version 1.0 is expected to launch in the fourth quarter.

In his new role, Solender will lead the development team, outlining critical functionalities required to meet the needs of federal and commercial clients.

Cohesity expands Data Security Alliance

AI-powered data security and management vendor Cohesity has announced it is expanding its Data Security Alliance ecosystem with six Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) vendors, including long-standing partner BigID, as well as CyeraDig SecurityNormalyzeSentra, and Securiti.

Cloud adoption continues to increase, it said in a release, but copies of data are often shared between clouds without oversight by IT or security, putting data security, cyber recovery and compliance at risk, as evidenced by 82 per cent of breaches involving data stored in the cloud according to IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach report.

DSPM gives customers a deep understanding of where their sensitive data is, who has access to it, how it is being used, and where it is stored.

With these partnerships, Cohesity said it expects to integrate with the broadest and most comprehensive selection of DSPM solutions in the industry. Collectively, this group represents the majority of the DSPM market, providing Cohesity customers with the flexibility to choose the solution that best fits their needs.

The Cohesity Data Security Alliance was founded in November 2022; its 15 members include BigID, Cisco, CyberArk, Mandiant, Netskope, Okta, Palo Alto Networks, PwC UK, Qualys, Securonix, ServiceNow, Splunk, TCS, and Zscaler.

The addition of the six DSPM security vendors brings the total membership to 21. Through this alliance, cyber security, data security and management, and services vendors partner to bridge enterprise IT and security by sharing context and enabling new workflows, the release said.

AgileBlue launches chatbot to augment SOC analysts, updates SOAR platform

Autonomous Security Operations Center (SOC) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platform vendor AgileBlue has announced the launch of Sapphire, its generative AI chatbot designed to augment the role of SOC analysts.

The company said in a release that Sapphire allows organizations – and the channel partners and MSPs that support them – to automate and streamline tasks such as installations and threat intelligence while freeing up SOC analysts to focus on escalated investigations that could be more detrimental to the business, and as a result require more human-led attention.

Additionally, new features added to the Cerulean SOAR platform include updated automation to block IP addresses and disable active directory accounts, as well as an AI-driven dynamic playbook to respond to anomalous activity before a breach occurs.

Kaseya adds capabilities to IT Complete platform

Kaseya, a global provider of unified IT management and cybersecurity software for managed service providers (MSPs) and small to mid-size businesses (SMBs), has announced new capabilities for its IT Complete offerings which, it said in a release, will “enable customers to optimize their business operations and revenue through the power of AI and workflow integrations, all while minimizing compliance risks and making the tools completely flexible and adaptable to customers’ needs.”

Highlights include:

  • CooperBots, a fully automated workflow that combines the power of integration with an AI assistant conducting work on customers’ behalf. With CooperBots, technicians are free to do more meaningful work.
  • Secure Payments, a new Kaseya product, secures MSPs and their downstream customers to eliminate non-compliance risks.
  • FLEXspend for Backup, part of Kaseya’s Backup Suite, allows customers to easily switch Datto backup products from on-prem to cloud and vice versa.

Register now for MapleSEC

Registration is open for ITWC’s annual security event, MapleSEC, a hybrid event spread over two days: Oct. 18-19.

Day One will offer in-person attendance at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto as well as be available online, and feature discussions on the evolving cybersecurity landscape in Canada, survival strategies for cybersecurity leaders, and real-world case studies. Get ready to dive deep into the world of AI for security.

Oct. 19 will be online only, and offers interactive workshops covering cybersecurity evaluation, ethical hacking, generative AI, and more. It’s your chance to gain practical knowledge and engage with experts in the field.

Register here.

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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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