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Daily tech news and analysis channel partners need to know now, including Arris’ channel expansion, BlackBerry Android smartphone, CompTIA IoT study and more
Arris’ channel expansion
Telecom equipment maker Arris has expanded its channel program to North America, fleshing out its portfolio to support sales for the company’s product and services in the region.
Arris also said it has enhanced the program with new tools and resources enabling channel partners to design and deliver solutions for cable operators, telecom operators, ISPs, broadcasters and enterprises. In addition, the program includes sales tools, training, incentives and joint marketing programs, the vendor said.
Salesforce Shield cloud
Salesforce has unwrapped Shield for Financial Services Cloud, a solution for financial advisors, retirement plan providers and insurance agents to help them comply with existing and new industry regulations.
The CRM giant said that its partners, such as Deloitte, will offer integration support, training and expertise for the platform. Salesforce expects that regulatory changes in the financial services segment compelling providers to be more transparent in how they manage client investments will open new opportunities for its consulting channel partners.
Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud starts at $150 per user, per month, while Shield is priced at a percentage of a customer’s total Salesforce product spend. Customers can purchase components of Salesforce Shield together or individually.
Apptio’s new executives
Business management software provider Apptio has appointed Barbara Gordon as chief customer officer and promoted Larry Blasko to chief revenue officer.
Gordon, who formerly ran Microsoft’s worldwide customer support organization and served as COO for EMC’s Isilon unit, is tasked with overseeing Apptio’s 300 customers, including government agencies and large enterprises in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Blasko, a 20-year IT veteran who previously served as VP of sales for HP’s software business and has been with Apptio since 2009, is responsible for generating sales and developing the company’s channel strategy.
Both Gordon and Blasko will be part of the company’s executive leadership team and report directly to Apptio CEO Sunny Gupta.
BlackBerry Android smartphone
BlackBerry announced its second Android smartphone, an all-touchscreen unit dubbed the DTEK50.
The mobile device maker has equipped the handset with its DTEK security software to safeguard users from the growing plague of malware on Android smartphones. As such, BlackBerry is positioning the DTEK50 as the “world’s most secure Android smartphone”.
BlackBerry said that the DTEK50 encrypts all users’ information, including business critical data and personal data, such as pictures, videos and contacts, and has baked in malware protection, back-up, wipe and restore capabilities to the unit. The company also said it will deliver security patches timed to the same day that Google publicly releases fixes.
BlackBerry is accepting preorders for the unit starting at $300 and will begin shipping it on 8 August.
A10 Appcito acquisition
Application networking and security provider A10 Networks has acquired Appcito, which offers a SaaS-based application delivery control (ADC) solution that runs natively in public clouds.
The acquisition, which A10 positioned as a “strategic step”, signals its intention to manage applications in the cloud in addition to the datacenter. Appcito’s technology will be fitted into A10’s Harmony platform, which supports secure application services spanning datacenters, private clouds, public clouds and hybrid clouds.
The expanded A10 Harmony-based cloud offerings with Appcito’s technology will be available beginning later this year.
ePlus CEO steps down
Phil Norton, solution provider ePlus’ chairman, president and CEO of the past 23 years, has stepped down, succeeded by Mark Marron, the company’s COO. The change in executive leadership will be effective as of 1 August.
Norton will slide over to executive chairman, a newly created position. Marron has worked at ePlus for 11 years, moving up from SVP of sales to COO in 2010.
Norton guided the company from the $42.8 million in annual revenue it produced when he signed on in 1996 to its current $1.2 billion in sales. In his new role he will offer advice on strategy, acquisitions and transactions within the financing segment and consult with clients.
CompTIA IoT study
Some 23 percent of channel partners already make money from Internet of Things (IoT)-related activities, a substantial uptick from the eight percent reporting financial gains from the IoT last year, according to a new CompTIA study entitled Internet of Things Insights and Opportunities.
About one-third of partners in the study said they expect to make money from the IoT in the next 12 months, the study indicated. Consulting is the most popular IoT channel offering, provided by 40 percent of channel companies in the study. The next most popular offering is security, provided by 36 percent of firms.
Analytics, managed services, custom app development, reselling and infrastructure services are offered by between 30 percent and 35 percent of channel companies, CompTIA said.
[Source:- Channelsnomics]
