It’s Super Bowl LVII time! Super Bowl #57 pits the AFC’s Kansas City Chiefs against the NFC’s Philadelphia Eagles, and there’s no avoiding it, football fan or not. If you don’t like football but love money, over $16 billion in wagers should juice the action for you. Enjoy the game, or better yet, tighten your ransomware security for all the click-bait malware that will flood inboxes Monday morning. Read these championship newsbits during the game, because you don’t want to miss the commercials.
Microsoft news. ChatGPT gets all the headlines, but every company has been chasing artificial narrow intelligence (ANI). The next-gen OpenAI large language model powering the forthcoming Bing search engine upgrade and new Microsoft Edge browser promises to raise the hair on the back of your neck, too.
Since Microsoft’s AI tools will weave themselves through multiple products, it’s nice that the Office 365 Government Secret cloud reached general availability. Be safe, bureaucrats.
Microsoft Teams Premium, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 large language model, will cut costs and add AI-powered productivity with more than 400 new Teams features.
Released last October, Microsoft Viva Sales now gets a boost with Azure OpenAI Service and GPT, including tools to generate sales memos and emails to keep feeding that sales funnel.
Cisco news. How do you track sustainability goals? Cisco announced that its Webex Control Hub now includes Carbon Emissions Insights to give a good starting point. CEOs added environmental sustainability as one of their top 10 priorities this year.
Cisco made its Risk-Based Authentication generally available now, introduced its Business Risk Observability enhancement for its Full-Stack Observability security solution, and used its Cybersecurity Readiness Index to reveal more progress is needed.
For IoT and cloud management fans, Cisco introduced updates to its IoT Operations Dashboard for increased asset visibility and security, ThousandEyes now supports OpenTelemetry, and Cisco+Secure Connect wove Viptela technology into its SD-WAN fabrics.
Security news. ThreatLocker pulled the curtain on ThreatLocker Ops (pictured), a community-driven threat detection tool.
Hello to the new Sectigo Certificate Manager to manage digital certificates from Google Cloud Platform, AWS, and publicly trusted CAs.
Kaspersky’s Threat Intelligence got boosted with new threat hunting and incident investigation tools.
Don’t you love how some clients can’t resist snapping every QR code they see? Hence the new QR Code Analyzer and Secure Links tools from Hornetsecurity.
Check Point added a new risk management engine as part of its rev-up of Check Point CloudGuard Native Application Protection Platform.
Cowbell not only added real-time risk insights from Google’s Security Command Center to its insurance risk assessment model, but will give you a premium credit for linking the two as well.
IoT news. IoT OEMs have a new option for getting products to market now that the first release of Avnet’s IoT Connection platform on AWS includes preconfigured AWS IoT services to smooth the way for secure IoT products and implementations.
The Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners in Georgia is a three-mile smart city corridor and IoT technology proving grounds, and gives a good overview in their blog, “What Is a Smart City?”
Warehouses now need to be responsive, flexible, and well-managed to support the modern supply chain and consumer business, and they’re doing it with 14% growth in the global warehouse automation market.
Hello to the now-available eViewIoT Pro from Engenuity Systems that provides IoT data management and data collection.
Remote patient monitoring company Telli Health teamed with Senet to introduce what they call the first remote patient monitoring hardware company connected by a LoRaWAN IoT network.
Other product news. Addigy’s new System Update tools make it easier to manage Apple System Updates for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS.
Digital Employee Experience management player ControlUp connected to Nerdio’s Manager for Enterprise.
The new GoTo Customer Engagement weaves phone, customer communication tools, analytics, and digital channels into a single unified inbox.
Digital transformation works best with an experienced hand leading the way, and Schneider Electric’s new Industrial Digital Transformation Services may be the hand for you.
The ExtemeCloud SD-WAN platform, from Extreme Networks, added network fabric capabilities for more secure connections to more locations.
The K-12 vertical has a new Chromebook option, er, four options, with the new Acer Chromebook Vero 712 family (pictured at wqork): Acer Chromebook Spin 512, two 511 models, and the 511 clamshell.
Need Windows-based notebooks for your K-12 clients instead? The latest Acer TravelMate B series laptops, powered by Intel Core i3 N-series processors and Windows 11, offer a range of sizes and features.
Remote workers are here to stay, so improved hybrid meeting rooms become more important. The new PanaCast 50 Video Bar System from Jabra will turbocharge small to medium-sized meeting rooms.
Epson’s PowerLite L Series added three new projectors: The PowerLite L570U, L770U, and L775U with Epson’s 4K Enhancement tech.
Do your applications need big screens instead of projectors? The new ViewSonic CDE30 series of 4K displays with AI-powered “Live Mosaic View” are on the street.
Partnership alert: Spectra Logic folded Wasabi’s hot cloud storage into the Spectra Vail unified data management platform.
Speaking of Wasabi, take the time to look up the new Wasabi Surveillance Cloud for better video surveillance footage cloud storage options.
Impartner’s Dynamic Forms, inside its partner relationship management tool, have new tools for pipeline management, deal contact controls, and more.
Non-product vendor news. The red carpet leading to the door of Cloudli (and its ConnectMeVoice unit) welcomed Rick Boyd as vice president of sales and business communications.
The Welcome Wagon at Broadvoice greeted Sean Johnson (pictured) as vice president of channel partnerships and alliances.
Stephen LaMarche, company director at High Wire Networks, adds chief operating officer to his daily to-do list.
Pax8 acquired Bam Boom Cloud and will leverage its Microsoft Dynamics experience and expertise for MSP customers. Terms were not disclosed.
The 20 MSP acquired Dallas Network Services of Addison (northern suburb of Dallas) and Integrated Business Technologies of Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Terms were not disclosed.
AppDirect acquired TBI to add their advisors and educational expertise to its relationship-based marketplace. Terms were not disclosed.
The Lenovo 360 global channel added Lenovo 360 Engage for new ways to “learn and earn,” and the new Lenovo 360 Solutions Hub enablement tool.
Revisions to the Acronis Partner Program include simplified requirements for partners to join, Acronis Advanced Packs for piloting a range of services, and more.
The Aryaka Accelerate Global Partner program added an elite seller program tagged THROTTLE, offering eligible partners enhanced support, targeted marketing, and more.
Alliance of Channel Women elected Ashley Cole, senior channel manager at Fusion Connect, to its board of directors for a two-year term.
This week’s stats ticker:
Gartner’s “Forecast: PCs, Tablets and Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 2020-2026, 4Q22 Update” is out, and adds some good news to moderate the bad. While total shipments of devices (PCs, tablets, and mobile phones) will be down 4.4% in 2023, that’s better than the drop of 11.9% in 2022 and still totals over 1.7 billion units. End user spending on devices is expected to decline 5.1% in 2023. The downward trend will level and return to normal by the second half of 2023. One reason? Gartner expects 25% of organizations to upgrade to Windows 11 this year. High inflation rates and the possibility of recession will decrease discretionary spending and budgets. Replacement cycles of mobile phones will also extend in 2023, as consumers hold onto phones six to nine months longer than they have in the past.
The 2023 Network IT Management Report from Auvik reveals IT and security challenges are hindering the end user experience in the hybrid workforce. 4,500 IT professional across North America responded to the survey, tagging gaps in network visibility and configuration issues as two issues that raise security challenges. 45% of IT teams do not fully know the configuration of their networks, and 21% report individuals outside ITOps are making configuration changes. 53% say network config changes daily or weekly, but 41.5% claim documentation updates monthly or less often. 61% report time and money shortages restrict their ability to serve colleagues and clients. 42% of IT respondents are tracked on the percentage of uptime and downtime. A shortage of skilled professionals remains one of the top three challenges.
Barracuda’s 2023 Email Security Trends report outlines the issues caused by email attacks. Three of four of the global 1,350 respondents across a range of industries experienced a successful email-borne attack in the last 12 months. Recovering from such an attack costs victims more than $1 million on average, and a higher proportion of remote workers increases the security risks and recovery osts. Financial services organizations were affected by the loss of data and money to attackers (59% and 51%). Healthcare respondents said the recovery costs in getting systems up and running again were the most significant (44%). 28% felt unprepared to deal with basic threats like spam.
The man with the golden gun. The Force remains strong in many Star Wars fans, as does the urge to own a piece of movie memorabilia from one of the most popular movie franchises ever filmed.
Which explains why the only existing blaster used by Harrison Ford as Han Solo in 1977’s Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope sold in auction for $1,057,500 through Rock Island Auctions. Guinness World Records verified that the blaster is now the most expensive prop gun ever sold at auction.
Yes, Han shot first in the original movie.
