7 Channel People of the Week at AWS, Snowflake, US Signal

Data cloud giant Snowflake hosted its annual conference in San Francisco this week. The vendor unveiled a number of new products, with a particular fixation on how it will incorporate AI.

"We're very full of anticipation with what AI can do in multiple areas," said Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy, in a media briefing ahead of the Summit. "We've embraced AI in a pretty big way, but in a very practical way. We want AI to become easy to use. We want it to become trusted, because that's not where consumer AI is [right now]."

Learn more about Snowflake's Data Cloud Summit here.

AWS' new CEO, Matt Garman, took the reins June 3. He replaced Adam Selipsky as the head of the organization. While Garman is not a new name for AWS, he will likely bring a new approach to the company's operation.

“I think the biggest impact you can have as a leader is not from your individual ideas or output, but from the team you hire. … I see my job as removing blockers for folks — figuring out how to help them go faster, how to identify more opportunities to push on but then get out of their way," Garman said.

Learn more about AWS' latest leader here.

US Signal bought OneNeck IT Solutions and OneNeck Data Center Holdings, bringing its total number of data centers from nine to 15. The company's CEO, Dan Watts, says that US Signal is in a state of growth and is quickly moving to acquire other data centers.

“It is really about alignment, as we think about it from a cultural perspective, and from a customer perspective,” he said. “The way that they go to market is very similar to the way that we go to market. Their data centers are amazing and the footprint’s ideal for us in terms of our type of markets. But the thing that really stuck out to us with OneNeck is they’re hyper-focused on the customer. We share that at our core from a cultural perspective.”

Learn more about US Signal's data center acquisitions here.

Generative AI is a subject of much scrutiny from enterprise companies and the public. Many are worried about what impact it could have on the workforce or on creatives. However, at least one executive tries to convince his clients that the technology is worth their time.

“A lot of times AI is thrown around as this big thing that introduces a lot of apprehension, even fear of new technologies and fear of jobs being taken away,” Krishna Sai, SVP of technology and engineering at SolarWinds, said. “All of these things are very common when it comes to AI in our professional environment. And what we're doing is, instead of making AI as this scary monster if you will, we're actually introducing it as, 'Hey, this is your friend; this is going to help you make your job better. And by building systems with AI by design, we're actually ensuring that the professionals who use our products are able to use AI with confidence … that they still have a lot of control in how they're able to use those tools to offer value."

Learn more about SolarWinds and its approach to AI here.

Cisco channel leaders claim that their ecosystem co-selling initiative can help resellers gain relevance with buyers outside of IT. That's why the vendor is building a platform to bring nontransacting and transacting partners into joint deals. This includes linking independent software vendors and consultancies with more traditional Cisco partners.

"Cisco is working with companies to extend our partner base into companies that don't resell our technology but have complementary services (like consulting companies) or complementary technologies (like ISVs), who can together with Cisco and our channel uniquely solve a business issue for a client," said Nick Holden, vice president of Cisco's global strategic partners and co-sell team.

We caught up with him at this week's Cisco Live in Las Vegas.

Learn more about Cisco's co-selling initiative here.

The security software company N-able has been exploring options to sell itself this year, a decision that could offer quite a bit of profit. More than a few companies are considering acquiring N-able, but one of the most notable is Barracuda Networks.

“It’s a valuable company with good products,” Canalys analyst Robin Ody said of N-able. “I can see why it would be an attractive acquisition. It would be a shame if it were to sell now, given it is one of the few RMM companies that has a broad enough portfolio and it had begun an interesting discussion around its 'Ecoverse' strategy. But perhaps its investors want money back and they are forcing the sale.”

Read about the benefits of Barracuda Networks acquiring N-Able here.

This week's IT Nation Secure is the only cybersecurity conference focused on handling cybersecurity from the MSP's point of view. One of the main focuses of IT Nation Secure was the intersection of AI and cybersecurity in hopes of addressing how it can help and harm clients.

"With AI, there’s the good,” said Ameer Karim, ConnectWise's executive vice president and general manager of cybersecurity and data protection. "MSPs and the partners out there are prepared. If they don't have the right tools in place, the right systems and the processes, then they could put themselves at risk because AI is being embraced by the hackers as well, and their intentions are not the same as the rest of the industry. So they can be more sophisticated, more targeted, more focused. And they're getting faster with phishing, social engineering, all kinds of things.”

Learn more about IT Nation Secure here.

This week's IT Nation Secure is the only cybersecurity conference focused on handling cybersecurity from the MSP's point of view. One of the main focuses of IT Nation Secure was the intersection of AI and cybersecurity in hopes of addressing how it can help and harm clients.

"With AI, there’s the good,” said Ameer Karim, ConnectWise's executive vice president and general manager of cybersecurity and data protection. "MSPs and the partners out there are prepared. If they don't have the right tools in place, the right systems and the processes, then they could put themselves at risk because AI is being embraced by the hackers as well, and their intentions are not the same as the rest of the industry. So they can be more sophisticated, more targeted, more focused. And they're getting faster with phishing, social engineering, all kinds of things.”

Learn more about IT Nation Secure here.