Channel Bytes September 2, 2022 – Partner support for vSphere 8; Almost half of SMBs involve partners in SaaS decisions; Boomi enhances 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.

Blumira launches Managed Service Provider (MSP) portal

Automated threat detection and response technology provider Blumira has announced the launch of new managed service provider (MSP)-specific product features, including a new MSP Portal, product enhancements to MSP offerings, and a Partner Marketing Kit to help automate, streamline, and further support MSPs as they manage IT and security for their small and mid-sized business (SMB) customer base in an increasingly challenging threat landscape.

The new MSP Portal enables service managers and help desk technicians to quickly add and edit customer accounts. It also provides MSPs with a global view of their customers by organization and individual user. New email alerting enhancements allow MSPs to scale their security management and streamline their Professional Services Automation (PSA) ticketing workflow with updated notification email subject lines, enabling MSPs to easily map tickets to their different customers.

Survey finds that 48 per cent of SMBs involve partners in SaaS buying decisions

Research conducted by market research firm Bredin for Zomentum revealed that almost half (48 per cent) of small and medium businesses (SMBs) involved their technology consultants and service providers in software-as-a-service (SaaS) evaluations, and 40 per cent involved them in their final purchase decision. The report was co-sponsored by Partnership Leaders, the industry association for partnership, channel, alliances and business development leaders.

The report further noted that 66 per cent of the 350 IT decision-makers surveyed view SaaS technology as essential to their business success,  and 40 per cent said they would buy SaaS solutions through a partner.

The final report covers:

  • Key Trends in SMB SaaS Buying
  • Technology Investments for Scalable Growth
  • The SaaS Buying Process
  • Why Partners Are Critical to the SMB Buying Process
  • How to Influence SMB Technology Decision Makers

VMware partners throw support behind vSphere 8

This week’s launch by VMware of its vSphere 8 enterprise workload platform has received a firm thumbs up from a host of companies including AMD, Dell Technologies, HPE, NVIDIA, Intel and Lenovo.

Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager, data centre solutions group at AMD, said, “modern enterprise workloads are evolving to become more cloud-like and distributed across multiple systems. VMware is helping customers deliver infrastructure services that support this evolution.”

“AI and Zero Trust security are pushing the boundaries of computing and networking for enterprise data centres,” said Manuvir Das, head of enterprise computing at NVIDIA. “VMware vSphere 8 on NVIDIA BlueField DPUs will boost infrastructure security, offload infrastructure services and free computing resources — all to enable enterprises’ intelligence factories.”

Meanwhile, Patty Kummrow, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel’s Ethernet products group said, the company’s “collaboration on VMware vSphere 8, the enterprise workload platform, brings the additional performance and security benefits of network accelerated cloud infrastructure to an extended community of enterprise customers.”

Icicle Technologies scores major win at AgTech Breakthrough Awards

Food manufacturing ERP software company, Icicle Technologies Inc. has won the ERP Software of the Year award at the 2022 AgTech Breakthrough Awards. The annual event honors excellence in agricultural and food technologies, services and products from around the world.

Headquartered in Richmond, B.C., the company describes its offering as a means to elevate “growing food manufacturing companies to become world class operations with food safety at their foundation. Members of the Icicle Community simplify complex food production data management.”

AgTech Breakthrough, a market intelligence firm, conducts an analysis and evaluation of agricultural and food technology categories, including Internet-of-Things and AI-based agricultural technologies, farm management, food quality and data analytics.

The program attracted over 1,600 nominations globally, with each company evaluated for innovation, performance, ease of use, functionality, and impact, Icicle said in a release.

Boomi announces new partner program

Intelligent connectivity and automation vendor Boomi has announced it has expanded its global partner program to include new opportunities for its approximately 800 partners worldwide to submit Partner Accelerators to the recently launched Boomi Discover Catalog. Partners can now create their own accelerators for customers to set up in their Boomi accounts to address specific use cases, providing additional revenue opportunities while further speeding customers’ time to value. In addition, Boomi also announced simplified training, shortening the time it takes for partners to leverage Boomi’s technology.

These additions follow investments in Boomi’s partner program over the past year, which included the expansion of its Partner Resource Center and simplifying program requirements. The Boomi partner program provides a clear onboarding path and streamlined learning for accreditations and certifications.

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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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