December’s New Products and Services

They are the new products and services that partners can sell as well as those that can help them run their businesses better.

December saw announcements from telecom and IT channel giants such as Vonage, XO Communications and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. There were new offerings as well from smaller channel players, covering everything from security and backup, to cloud, remote monitoring and more.

Click through our one-stop slide show to learn more about the new products.

Looking for more new products and services? Check out our recap from last month.

Follow senior online managing editor Craig Galbraith on Twitter.

Vonage said it is launching SD-WAN technology that optimizes reliability and quality of service for unified communications. Vonage SmartWAN, which will be available in early 2016, works over a private or public network. It is tailored for businesses with a high demand for voice, video and data communications.

Read more about SmartWAN here.

Microsoft unveiled new Office 365 capabilities that include a trio of new services (Skype Meeting Broadcast, PSTN conferencing and Cloud PBX with PSTN calling) designed to form a complete meeting and voice platform. Also new are Delve Analytics and a pair of services that offer advanced security and compliance.

Click here for the full scoop on the new Office 365 features.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s new offerings help customers collect, process and analyze data from the Internet of Things. In a related announcement, Aruba, an HPE company, announced the IoT Aruba Sensor, a cloud-based beacon management service for multivendor Wi-Fi networks. Meantime, a new agreement allows HPE customers to access NTT Communications’ IaaS portfolio, which includes private, public and hybrid cloud.

Learn more about HPE’s new IoT products here.

Acronis updated its True Image Cloud and True Image 2016, said to offer “complete data protection for computers, including pictures, videos, documents, applications, passwords, settings, and the entire operating system.” Acronis said customer feedback indicated a demand for the ability to offload data from a local machine, smartphone or tablet to the cloud.

This is where to read more about the Acronis product updates.

Grandstream Networks’ GAC2500 is an Android-based HD conference phone that the company says “raises the bar for aural quality and application flexibility of business conferencing.” The phone can be purchased through Grandstream’s worldwide distribution channels for $449. Also new is the GXP2170, a 12-line, 6 SIP account Enterprise HD IP. Grandstream bills the GXP2170 as its first to feature on-screen, digitally programmable BLF/speed dial keys. 

Click here to read about the GAC2500 or here for info on the GXP2170.

Infoblox says its new DNS Threat Analytics is the first technology to apply “behavioral analytics to DNS queries in real time to detect and actively block data exfiltration attempts using DNS as a communications pathway.” According to a December 2014 survey, 46 percent of large businesses experienced DNS-based data exfiltration in the previous year.

Learn more about DNS Threat Analytics here.

XO Communications launched myXO Maps, part of the company’s self-service customer portal created in 2014. The tool allows customers to view their whole network online with a single touch on one screen. Customers can switch between traditional map and satellite views, and identify the location of any network events and review information such as trouble tickets, outages, alarms and maintenance status updates.

Click here to see if myXO Maps might be a good fit for your business.

The newly designed tool provides HD audio, screen sharing and a single video feed featuring one presenter at a time. Screen sharing is delivered by a proprietary network architecture that decreases bandwidth requirements and enables calls with large numbers of participants to be handled entirely within a corporate LAN, FreeConferenceCall said.

This is where to get complete details on this new service.

ShadowControl v3.5 is designed to allow IT pros to more easily protect data and IT systems. ShadowControl is a remote monitoring and management appliance for IT environments protected by ShadowProtect or ShadowProtect SPX backup and disaster-recovery software. This software upgrade includes what StorageCraft says are time-saving capabilities, including push installation, CSV-based discovery and centralized license management.

Click here to see more about what the team at StorageCraft has been working on.

Metalogix rolled out a new version of its Essentials for Office, including enhanced backup, granular migration and management. Damon Tompkins, the company’s senior vice president of corporate and business development, noted that Microsoft Office 365 is the fastest growing cloud collaboration platform. Tompkins said the single-management software platform will allow organizations to navigate the entire life cycle of their content in the cloud.

The Metalogix Essentials for Office upgrade is described in more detail here.