Welcome to Super Bowl weekend. The NFL, somehow, made it to the end zone after playing every scheduled game with no cancellations during a pandemic. The reward? Watching two quarterbacks, the G.O.A.T and the Baby G.O.A.T, duel on the field in a battle of generations. Predicted winner? Truck commercials.
Security news. Now available, RSA NetWitness Detect AI is a cloud-native advanced analytics and machine learning system that provides rapid detection and actionable insights on data scooped up by the RSA NetWitness Platform. High-value threat detection without relying on signatures or manual analysis.
Who’s that knocking on your front door? PingOne Verify from Ping Identity (pictured in action) will tell you, helping with rapid account onboarding, authentication, and fraud prevention. Embed identity verification directly into your mobile app.
It’s always phishing season on the Internet. A new product release from IRONSCALES ups phishing simulation and awareness training to keep your clients from getting hooked. Special mode for “”high-risk”” individuals, meaning those executives who think they’re too smart to get netted.
Infoblox updated its Network Identity Operating System (NIOS) to add DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS support. Helps prevent DNS-based attacks and forgeries, and blocks encrypted communications to unauthorized external DNS servers.
Trouble combining SASE and new SD-WAN links? Bitglass now integrates with SD-WAN providers Aruba, 128 Technology, Fortinet, and Silver Peak. Less setup and fewer resources needed to protect those endpoints.
Modern access control player Openpath announced a new Video Management System (VMS) integration with Cisco Meraki. Available through Cisco’s global sales channel to those who want cloud-first security tech and smart camera intelligence, all manageable in real time.
Cowbell Connect, from Cowbell Cyber, now bundles cyber-insurance coverage with risk assessment, quantification, and mitigation, plus pre- and post-breach services. Good for data aggregators, cloud providers, cybersecurity platforms, and more.
Cloud news. How refreshing, says the VMware vRealize Cloud Management portfolio of on-premises and SaaS solutions. Enhancements let customers deploy more securely and manage hybrid and multi-cloud environments more easily. Also supports NSX-V to NSX-T migration.
The folks at Cloudian say VMware customers will be able to use fully S3-compatible object storage software for both cloud-native and traditional applications. Manage them all with VMware Cloud Foundation with VMware Tanzu.
Cloud management enhancements in CloudBolt’s latest release include cost optimization advancements for VMware vCenter and Azure plus new cloud cost, security, and compliance dashboards and reports
Other product news. Gamers on the go will appreciate the new 11th Gen Intel Core H35 processors designed for laptop gaming. Headliner is the 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11375H Special Edition with Intel Turbo Boost Max 3.0 for race to 5 GHz. Acer, ASUS, and MSI have announced new units (pictured) with the chips, and 40 more designs are in the works.
Too late to get one and project the Super Bowl on a big screen, but Epson’s new PowerLite laser projector series with 3LCD technology would be a great option. Check out the PowerLite L520W, L520U, L530U, L630U, L730U, L735U, L630SU, and L635SU units while wearing sunglasses. And Epson’s expanded laser projector warranty for schools, now five years limited, makes the situation even brighter.
WFH folks need better videoconferencing tools, said Poly, which now brings you the Poly Studio P Series to provide professional-grade personal videoconferencing tools. Open your shopping bag for the Poly Studio P5 Webcam, Poly Studio P15 Personal Video Bar, and Poly Studio P21 Personal Meeting Display. Or the Poly Studio P5 Kits.
To keep the workflow flowing, Cherwell Software added AIOps to its product suite. Intelligent automation to ease the burden of managing a complex infrastructure that gets more complex each day.
New tools for RingCentral partners include goodies like RingCentral Embeddable for RingCentral Video and a Call Supervision, Monitoring, and Streaming API (with AI and neural language processing).
Non-product vendor news. Beep, beep says the Welcome Wagon as it pulls up to Lexmark to welcome Vishal Gupta (pictured), joining as senior vice president and chief information and technology officer.
Commvault rolled out the red carpet for Isabelle Guis, the new chief marketing officer.
VAST Data upped its executive team by adding three new members.
- Helen Protopapas, vice president of finance
- Tom Whaley, vice president of sales
- Rick Franke, vice president of global customer success
SAP announced it will significantly reduce subscription fees to partners for its test and demonstration environment licenses. But wait, there’s more! Free access to SAP Partner Demo Environment with 18 additional scenarios, upping the total past 350. But wait again! SAP merged its SAP App Center for partner solutions with SAP Store for SAP Solutions. Easier shopping for customers at store.sap.com.
HelpSystems acquired Digital Defense, adding its cloud-native vulnerability scanning engines into the cybersecurity portfolio with Core Security and Cobalt Strike.
Ingram Micro and McAfee expanded their worldwide relationship to build on upgrades to the McAfee channel program. Now global partnerships will be strengthened.
Netenrich expanded its global ProperIT Partner Program, making it easier for VARs, integrators, MSPs, and MSSPs to drive digital transformation.
Linux security player Capsule8 launched its new partner program, Capitalize, for channel pros who provide Linux protection to their customers.
Untangle has a new partner portal that serves as a one-stop shop for channel partners to help customers stay secure.
This week’s stats ticker:
Rackspace’s “”Are Organizations Succeeding at AI and ML?“” survey pinged 1,870 IT decision makers around the world. Short answer? Not so much, since only 17% say they have mature artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities with a model factory framework in place. 82% admit they’re still exploring how to implement AI or struggling to make AI and ML models operational. Problems? 34% report R&D initiatives started were abandoned or failed. Why? Lack of quality data (34%), lack of expertise (34%), lack of production-ready data (31%), and poorly conceived strategy (31%). Early adopters get clear benefits and destinations for AI and ML included IT (43%), operations (33%), customer service (32%), and finance (32%). The challenges of defining key performance indicators leads to the difficulty of measuring success.
DH2i announced the results of its premier Virtual Private Network survey across organizations of all sizes, which it conducted before the pandemic and shift to work from home. Almost all respondents say using VPNs, and the top three vendors were Cisco (63%), Palo Alto Networks (22%), and Check Point (12%). Pain points were security (62%), performance (45%), cost (46%), manageability (44%), and reliability for disaster recovery (48%). Almost 40% believe their network has already been breached by bad actors.
Information Builders published its Data and Analytics Trends and Directions 2021 survey and found that COVID-19 will not hold back data priorities this year but add to their urgency and drive more investment. 44% of businesses will increase their spending on data in 2021 and 38% will spend about the same as in 2020. 50% reported using on-premises storage today, but that number will drop to 10% over the next three years. 94% say data is very or somewhat important to digital transformation, 70% say executives are very aware of the potential advantages of data and analytics, and 65% says they’re using them now to drive performance improvements.
A pick from the betting pool. Americans have a long history of asking someone, or something, to make their Super Bowl picks. This year, a rescue bottlenose dolphin named Nicholas was tasked with the critical decision. His pick: The Kansas City Chiefs.
Home fans in Florida, where Nicholas lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, were disappointed by Nicholas turning his, er, fin, at the home team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Don’t doubt the dolphin, say aquarium folks running the test, because Nicholas has picked the winning team in his last seven sports predictions
ChannelPro makes no claims for those betting on the game, except this: if you trust a dolphin to support your bet, you deserve what you get.
