Shutterstock
New Services Roundup: Vonage, Cisco, IBM, Sprint
There’s something for every type of partner in our latest installment of the New Services Roundup.
Vendors brought several new products and services to market last month, with telecom agents, managed services providers, value-added resellers and systems integrators in mind.
Vonage opened up its SD-WAN offering for small and medium-sized business, Intermedia launched a new unified communications platform, and IBM broadened its software-defined storage line.
If we had to name the most common technology, it would be security. Cisco launched a new endpoint security portfolio, Kaspersky Lab announced a new platform, and Sprint made several moves to protect mobile devices.
Scroll through the gallery below to see 12 highlights from the month of February.
Miss last month’s roundup? Catch up on the gallery featuring new services from January.
Vonage expanded its software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) solution to small and medium-size business (SMB) customers.
The enhanced Smart WAN offering uses technology from VeloCloud Networks and ensures quality-of-service (QoS) issues for the rest of the company’s cloud-based solutions. The cloud communications provider launched SmartWAN in 2015, but is now bringing it to its cloud PBX platform.
We interviewed Vonage Chief Architect Sanjay Srinivasan about the technology.
Sprint
The carrier used two partnerships to roll out new products for mobility management and security.
Sprint Business launched Samsung Knox Manage, an enterprise mobility management tool; Secure Web, a cloud-based security platform for the internet; and Secure Private Access, a Zscaler cloud-based platform. Sprint’s vice president of product said the management capabilities will give administrators improved security, stronger control and better system performance.
Read our original story on the product launch as well as analysis from Frost & Sullivan about Sprint's strategy.
Cisco unveiled its first dedicated MSSP security portfolio, offering comprehensive security, visibility and control of customer endpoints without added hardware.
The company's senior director of security-partner sales said the new portfolio provides opportunities for MSPs that either want to offer additional security or become MSSPs. The endpoint-security lineup includes Cisco AMP for Endpoints, Cisco Umbrella and Meraki Systems Manager to offer advanced malware protection, internet security and enterprise mobility management.
Read Edward Gately's summary of the portfolio.
Digium unveiled its A-Series IP phones.
Digium said the desk phones allow Asterisk users a "budget-minded" option. There are four newly models, each of which has a full-color display, HD voice and multi-line functionality.
Read Digium's announcement.
Intermedia just unveiled a platform designed to extend its UCaaS lineup to SMBs.
Intermedia Unite includes a phone system, plus integrated screen sharing, video collaboration, and backup and file sharing. Intermedia’s recent acquisition of AnyMeeting provides a number of the platform’s functions.
The company also is rolling out new partner tools to shorten the sales cycle, including: a new partner quoting system; self-service ordering; and a new web portal that allows real-time system or endpoint changes, including enabling or disabling features systemwide, by group or by individual user.
Get details on Intermedia's new platform.
Kaspersky Lab has a new threat management and defense offering.
It combines Kaspersky Anti Targeted Attack, Cybersecurity Services and the company’s latest EDR service within a single platform for enterprises. The platform is now available in North America. It provides businesses the “visibility and threat-hunting capabilities they need” to reduce overall response times of their corporate networks, the company said.
Read about the new Kaspersky platform.
IBM enhanced Spectrum Storage, its software-defined storage (SDS) line.
Included are new software-defined network attached storage (NAS); new data-compression software for faster data transfers; new data-protection standards; simplified management in complex environments; and data protection for VMware virtual machines.
The company said the new offerings will help partners who help customers modernize traditional workloads, expand to new applications and workloads, or enter the era of application refactoring. Some of the improved features are faster data transfers, new data security capabilities, simplified management in complex environments and easier data protection for VMware on IBM Cloud.
Get details on the changes.
Juniper Networks expanded its multicloud computing portfolio.
The company announced a set of products for data center, campus, branch office and cloud. The new products are designed to help businesses put the infrastructure pieces in place to be ready for multicloud computing, as they prepare to move an increasing number of workloads to the cloud.
Lynn Haber has the details on Juniper's enhanced portfolio.
Value-added cloud distributor Pax8 rolled out Symantec Cloud Workload Protection (CWP) Software as a Service.
The company says the service gives MSPs a cloud-delivered solution that that will ensure the security of cloud-resident and on-premises workloads. Symantec CWP is part of Symantec’s Integrated Cyber Defense Platform, which oversees workloads on hybrid clouds. Pax8 says some of the benefits for MSPs and their customers is automatic scaling and a pay-as-you-use model.
Read the distributor's announcement.
Telinta, a provider of cloud-based switching and billing offerings, announced its Hosted PBX for Small Business, which allows VoIP service providers to offer "brandable" business telephony to their small and home-based business end-users.
The company also launched a sales tool designed to help VoIP service providers sell their own services online. It calls this online tool “your–domain.com” and presents sample webpage designs that VoIP service providers and their own web developers can use as a guide.
Learn more about the new products and services.
Cytracom is giving MSPs a new weapon to sell the vendor's VoIP hosted services. It's called Ivie, a voice-intelligence engine that will help MSPs keep their customers’ phones up and running, as well as help sales prospects overcome their fears about VoIP’s reliability and voice quality. The first application available is voice continuity, whereby Ivie monitors a customer’s voice network, detects anomalies and notifies MSPs and their customers about problems.
Tom Kaneshige has the scoop.
ConvergeOne, which provides collaboration services, launched its Cloud Experience offering (C1CX).
The company said the C1CX "collaboration-centric cloud experience" that makes cloud migration easier for customers. This experience includes professional services and software applications.
The company has its full announcement on our website.
