7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Avant, Broadcom, Stratonet, Sumo Logic, More
ChatGPT will close the massive cybersecurity talent gap, says one expert.
February 17, 2023
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When it comes to cybersecurity, ChatGPT can both help in the fight against cybercrime and help cybercriminals launch more attacks.
That’s according to Randy Lariar, Optiv‘s practice director of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics.
But Lariar made waves when he said the following: ChatGPT could help close the massive cybersecurity talent gap, which totals more than 3 million workers.
“The capabilities that they’ve now reached with the underlying ChatGPT technology are really astounding,” he said. “No one should get worried that jobs are going to be replaced anytime soon, especially in cybersecurity. It’s the ability to find and compile information; it’s like the next generation of a Google search. It is organizing that information in a way that is useful, and that output can be trained just like a new hire.
Read more from Edward Gately’s reporting here.
About a year after buying independent cloud computing vendor Linode, Akamai has debuted its first major, consequent platform: Akamai Connected Cloud.
The release represents Akamai’s most public-facing step when it comes to integrating Linode. In terms of strategy, the $900 million acquisition in early 2022 looked a lot like the pending Broadcom-VMware deal — two companies of very different sizes with different focus and expertise joining forces.
Recall that Akamai made its name as a content delivery network provider; it still offers that service, with security and, thanks to Linode, edge computing. And while Akamai targets large organizations, Linode positioned itself as an alternative to the hyperscalers –Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform – for developers and smaller managed service providers.
Distributed and edge computing, in and of themselves, are not new or revelatory topics. But Akamai, with Connected Cloud, is making waves with some interesting moves in these areas that do set it apart from the crowd, says Dave McCarthy, vice president of research firm IDC’s worldwide infrastructure practice.
“Akamai Connected Cloud is unique in that it is designed with a distributed computing mindset,” McCarthy tells Channel Futures. “That’s not surprising since Akamai is a leader in content delivery networks, so they understand the importance of placing infrastructure close to users.”
Akamai Connected Cloud also marks a “departure” from the typical cloud computing mindset, McCarthy says. The usual setup relies on delivering services from data centers that, for users in Tier 2 or Tier 3 markets, often end up being quite far away.
“In recent years, customers have begun to realize limitations with this approach,” McCarthy said.
Read more from Kelly Teal’s interview here.
A new Progress Partners report shows MSPs not only aren’t being negatively impacted by economic uncertainty but are benefitting from it.
More than 655 IT/MSP contracts were signed in the fourth quarter of 2022, which is up 14% year over year. That’s according to the new fourth quarter MSP report released by Parag Sheth, managing director at Progress Partners. It’s a corporate advisory firm that works with buyers and sellers of emerging growth companies to complete M&A or private placement transactions.
Sheth made waves when he said that “the MSPs are yet to see an impact from economic uncertainty. If anything, they are seeing growth because more and more organizations, especially technology companies, are laying off staff. They are turning to MSPs for support.”
Find out more about what Progress Partners anticipates regarding growth in demand for IT services this quarter.
Avant is working to prime its technology advisor base to sell with new customers and end users in mind in 2023. Pamlico-backed Avant heavily touted its investments in contact center as a service (CCaaS) and security last year. Now leaders in those practices say the technology services distributor (TSD) is working with supplier and seller partners to refine their sales strategies.
Stephen Semmelroth, senior director of security, sat down for a conversation with Channel Futures about the trends and initiatives in their respective space.
Semmelroth made waves when he said vendor partners reach an inflection point approximately two-and-a-half years into the partnership.
“And that’s where we start to hear the chief financial officers at the vendors say things like, ‘I see a path to being 100% indirect channel,’” he said.
He added that he hears positive feedback from vendors who previously didn’t know the channel existed.
“If they’re not going to make the big bet, they say that it’s key to their success, and it’s the elastic portion of their growth that’s making their investors happy,” he said.
Learn more about the Avant initiatives here.
Francisco Partners, a global investment firm, is making wave by acquiring publicly traded Sumo Logic for $1.7 billion, taking the company private. Francisco Partners should complete its acquisition of Sumo Logic in the second quarter subject to customary closing conditions.
Ramin Sayar is Sumo Logic‘s CEO. He said Sumo Logic has created a trusted, cloud-native, SaaS analytics platform for observability and security. It enables customers to transform complexity into insights and accelerate their cloud transformation adoption.
“Today’s announcement represents a compelling outcome for our stockholders,” he said. “We are delighted at the prospect of partnering with Francisco Partners in the next phase of Sumo Logic’s journey.”
Will this result in a positive outcome for Sumo Logic? Find out more here.
Avaya has ended months of speculation over whether it would file for bankruptcy. The UC company has entered chapter 11, its second time in six years. Although Avaya faces many challenges, CEO Alan Masarek said the company he leads is ready for “transformation.”
Some experts suggest that Avaya is too big to fail. Christopher Scott, principal owner of StratoNet is not one of those. He made waves when he said:
“Fifteen years ago, these were the longstanding big dogs in the voice CPE market: Nortel, Mitel, NEC, Avaya, Toshiba, Cisco and ShoreTel. Over those fifteen years, not one of those companies executed a cloud migration particularly well; in most cases fatally so.”
Scott added: “And it’s not like voice services moving to the cloud was not foreseeable, even unavoidable. Stepping back and evaluating causes for this massive industry failure is a story unto itself. Ultimately, the victims were the shareholders, and they may also have been the cause. But that’s probably not the whole story.”
Read more from analysts and experts about their views regarding the Avaya bankruptcy.
As Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware remains in approvals limbo in Europe, Hock Tan is talking up the benefits of the $61 billion deal, especially as they relate to VMware partners and customers.
The CEO of Broadcom once again took to the company’s blog, which he seems to do whenever regulatory processes hit a snag.
Late last week, news broke that the European Union’s antitrust investigation has stopped the clock on the Broadcom-VMware transaction. Reuters reported that the European Commission has hit pause while waiting for Broadcom to supply requested data.
As the waiting game continues, Tan has made waves, vocalizing certain views.
Once Broadcom-VMware closes, Tan said, “we will sustain and further develop VMware’s robust partner ecosystem, especially as we work together to expand VMware’s solutions. Partners will be able to grow their businesses as the combined company accelerates execution and smart portfolio growth. Together, we’ll be better positioned to help customers speed app modernization, move to the cloud faster, and support a more secure and hybrid workforce.”
But what do those comments really mean? Find out more here regarding Tan’s comments about the acquisition.
As Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware remains in approvals limbo in Europe, Hock Tan is talking up the benefits of the $61 billion deal, especially as they relate to VMware partners and customers.
The CEO of Broadcom once again took to the company’s blog, which he seems to do whenever regulatory processes hit a snag.
Late last week, news broke that the European Union’s antitrust investigation has stopped the clock on the Broadcom-VMware transaction. Reuters reported that the European Commission has hit pause while waiting for Broadcom to supply requested data.
As the waiting game continues, Tan has made waves, vocalizing certain views.
Once Broadcom-VMware closes, Tan said, “we will sustain and further develop VMware’s robust partner ecosystem, especially as we work together to expand VMware’s solutions. Partners will be able to grow their businesses as the combined company accelerates execution and smart portfolio growth. Together, we’ll be better positioned to help customers speed app modernization, move to the cloud faster, and support a more secure and hybrid workforce.”
But what do those comments really mean? Find out more here regarding Tan’s comments about the acquisition.
Channel people at Avant, Broadcom, Stratonet, Sumo Logic and more are among the individuals making waves this week. Channel Futures’ Channel People Making Waves showcases those who have made an impact over the last seven days. (See our slideshow above.) It’s also a recap of the most-read stories on our website.
Generative AI is everywhere these days and this is true for cybersecurity as well. We highlight one security expert this week who says that services such as ChatGPT will even close the massive cybersecurity talent gap. Find out more in our roundup.
Avaya entering another bankruptcy was the expected outcome for the multinational company. But what did analysts and partners have to say about it? For starters, one partner said companies such as Nortel, Mitel and Avaya did not execute cloud migration particularly well. In most cases fatally so. Some analysts had more positive things to say about Avaya. Get more details in our No.2 most-read story of the week.
Finally, Hock Tan likes to write. The CEO of Broadcom has again taken to a blog to espouse his views regarding the VMware acquisition. Why now? Our reporter Kelly Teal has some ideas.
And that’s a wrap. If you didn’t catch our previous edition, you can find it here.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Claudia Adrien or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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