Category Archives for "Managed Services News"

Aug 08

7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Kaseya, AT&T, Cohesity, More

By | Managed Services News

Cloud-managed service is the fastest-growing area one analyst said in response to an MSP acquisition this week.

Channel people at Kaseya, AT&T Business, Cohesity 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.

There’s something that feels good when someone retires after three decades with a company. It demonstrates grit, tenacity, loyalty and leadership. We feature a woman who spent 32 years at AT&T. She wasn’t just dedicated to the company. She was a champion for the channel. Check out our slideshow above to find out who and about her legacy.

Speaking of legacy, there’s a new CEO in town who will need to craft a vision for Avaya. Read on to find out how his background may be an asset to the company.

Also, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about cybersecurity and MSPs. The industry has never been immune to cyberattacks but it appears that MSPs may be more vulnerable to them now. An expert at Huntress discusses in this roundup one recent target and how MSPs should prepare for malicious hackers.

Finally, if you didn’t catch our last edition, you can find it here.

 

Aug 08

7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Kaseya, AT&T, Cohesity, More

By | Managed Services News

Cloud-managed service is the fastest-growing area one analyst said in response to an MSP acquisition this week.

Channel people at Kaseya, AT&T Business, Cohesity 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.

There’s something that feels good when someone retires after three decades with a company. It demonstrates grit, tenacity, loyalty and leadership. We feature a woman who spent 32 years at AT&T. She wasn’t just dedicated to the company. She was a champion for the channel. Check out our slideshow above to find out who and about her legacy.

Speaking of legacy, there’s a new CEO in town who will need to craft a vision for Avaya. Read on to find out how his background may be an asset to the company.

Also, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about cybersecurity and MSPs. The industry has never been immune to cyberattacks but it appears that MSPs may be more vulnerable to them now. An expert at Huntress discusses in this roundup one recent target and how MSPs should prepare for malicious hackers.

Finally, if you didn’t catch our last edition, you can find it here.

 

Aug 08

7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Kaseya, AT&T, Cohesity, More

By | Managed Services News

Cloud-managed service is the fastest-growing area one analyst said in response to an MSP acquisition this week.

Channel people at Kaseya, AT&T Business, Cohesity 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.

There’s something that feels good when someone retires after three decades with a company. It demonstrates grit, tenacity, loyalty and leadership. We feature a woman who spent 32 years at AT&T. She wasn’t just dedicated to the company. She was a champion for the channel. Check out our slideshow above to find out who and about her legacy.

Speaking of legacy, there’s a new CEO in town who will need to craft a vision for Avaya. Read on to find out how his background may be an asset to the company.

Also, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about cybersecurity and MSPs. The industry has never been immune to cyberattacks but it appears that MSPs may be more vulnerable to them now. An expert at Huntress discusses in this roundup one recent target and how MSPs should prepare for malicious hackers.

Finally, if you didn’t catch our last edition, you can find it here.

 

Aug 08

7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Kaseya, AT&T, Cohesity, More

By | Managed Services News

Cloud-managed service is the fastest-growing area one analyst said in response to an MSP acquisition this week.

Channel people at Kaseya, AT&T Business, Cohesity 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.

There’s something that feels good when someone retires after three decades with a company. It demonstrates grit, tenacity, loyalty and leadership. We feature a woman who spent 32 years at AT&T. She wasn’t just dedicated to the company. She was a champion for the channel. Check out our slideshow above to find out who and about her legacy.

Speaking of legacy, there’s a new CEO in town who will need to craft a vision for Avaya. Read on to find out how his background may be an asset to the company.

Also, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about cybersecurity and MSPs. The industry has never been immune to cyberattacks but it appears that MSPs may be more vulnerable to them now. An expert at Huntress discusses in this roundup one recent target and how MSPs should prepare for malicious hackers.

Finally, if you didn’t catch our last edition, you can find it here.

 

Aug 08

RingCentral Announced Layoffs Ahead of Strong Earnings Growth in Q2

By | Managed Services News

RingCentral says changing business needs necessitate the job cuts.

RingCentral is initiating layoffs impacting about 50 employees at its headquarters in Belmont, California.

In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice with the California Employment Development Department, RingCentral said “changing business needs require us to reduce our workforce at the facility permanently.”

The RingCentral layoffs will become effective in two rounds on Sept. 18 and Sept. 25.

RingCentral spokesperson Brett Smith said the company recently notified a “small number of employees” that their positions have been eliminated.

“This was a result of making choices on where to invest to maximize impact and optimize for growth and profitability,” he said. “We continue to invest in key areas of the business and will continue to hire in those areas to fuel our growth and further strengthen our position as the UCaaS industry leader.”

The layoffs will include more than a dozen senior roles, including a vice president of marketing operations and strategy, a senior systems integration manager and several senior software engineers. In addition, a platform partner go-to-market (GTM) manager is getting cut.

Despite the cuts, this week RingCentral reported strong growth in its second-quarter earnings. It grew revenue by 28% in the second quarter. Total revenue was $487 million, up from $379 million in the second quarter of 2021. In addition, subscription revenue increased 32% year over year, to $463 million.

Aug 08

7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Kaseya, AT&T, Cohesity, More

By | Managed Services News

Cloud-managed service is the fastest-growing area one analyst said in response to an MSP acquisition this week.

Channel people at Kaseya, AT&T Business, Cohesity 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.

There’s something that feels good when someone retires after three decades with a company. It demonstrates grit, tenacity, loyalty and leadership. We feature a woman who spent 32 years at AT&T. She wasn’t just dedicated to the company. She was a champion for the channel. Check out our slideshow above to find out who and about her legacy.

Speaking of legacy, there’s a new CEO in town who will need to craft a vision for Avaya. Read on to find out how his background may be an asset to the company.

Also, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about cybersecurity and MSPs. The industry has never been immune to cyberattacks but it appears that MSPs may be more vulnerable to them now. An expert at Huntress discusses in this roundup one recent target and how MSPs should prepare for malicious hackers.

Finally, if you didn’t catch our last edition, you can find it here.

 

Aug 08

Images: Telarus Hosts Partner Summit, Gives Partner, Supplier Awards

By | Managed Services News

See who landed Telarus’ top partner award.

A large chunk of the technology advisory channel flew into Salt Lake City this week for the Telarus Partner Summit.

The Utah-based technology solutions brokerage hosted its partners, suppliers and employees for a week of education, networking and recognition. Several high-profile channel leaders from the vendor side, including Vonage CEO Rory Read, graced the main stage, as did Telarus’ top-performing agents.

Channel Futures was on the scene in to document the event. Our articles include a wrap-up of the day one keynote and a survey of partners’ selling habits.

Scroll through the 24 images to see highlights from the Telarus Partner Summit.

Aug 08

Now Is the Time to Consider Cyber Insurance for Your Business

By | Managed Services News

If your business is online and accesses sensitive data, the need for cyber insurance is becoming critical.

ConnectWise's Jeff Zaba

Jeff Zaba

It’s never simple to purchase insurance for your company. Reading terms and exclusions is right up there with having your wisdom teeth out. Imagine that you’re looking for cyber insurance to shield your company from the effects of cyberattacks. Sorting through choices for your own organization is difficult but not surprising, given that major corporations also find cyber insurance to be quite complicated.

Fortunately, as insurers meticulously specify coverages, terms and exclusions, the cyber insurance market has grown simpler over time. Over the past several years, insurers (and most organizations, without a doubt) have also learned a lot more about cyberattacks, allowing managed service providers (MSPs) to put additional safeguards in place to either deter attackers or lessen the harm caused by assaults.

Cyber Insurance Ins and Outs

If you’re in the market for cyber insurance, here’s a primer on what it is, why you need it and what risks it covers.

What exactly is cyber insurance? The impacts of a cyberattack can frequently include both the disruption to the business — such as days lost to supplying clients — as well as the monetary impact. Cyber insurance, also known as cyber-liability insurance, can protect enterprises from both effects (such as the cost of lost business). Your company can survive the challenging time during and immediately after a cyberattack by having cyber insurance coverage in place, at least in terms of paying the costs associated with a successful assault. Even while you can’t stop a cyberattack from happening, you can protect your company from its worst repercussions.

Why cyber insurance is necessary for your business: Organizations require cyber insurance if they conduct business online (which is almost everyone these days), utilize technology or transfer or keep electronic data. The latter criteria are undoubtedly met by MSPs because they frequently have access to the data of their clients.

If your company has access to sensitive data, the necessity for cyber insurance becomes increasingly critical. And let’s face it, much of the data you manage or deal with on your clients’ behalf undoubtedly comes under the category of “sensitive,” such as financial or personal data. Ransomware assaults have increased in frequency because such data may be very alluring to cyber criminals, who are aware of the worth of the data they might obtain from companies.

Ransomware attacks are a concern for business owners everywhere. In a 2021 study, most business respondents (80%) stated they feel “very prepared” or “moderately prepared” in the event of a ransomware attack while only 7% claimed to be “extremely prepared.” However, poll participants were also concerned that they wouldn’t be able to fully mitigate the lasting effects of the event, citing business interruption and reputational harm as the worst-case scenarios.

What cyber insurance covers: Cybersecurity insurance often pays for “first-party” damages, or losses that the insurance buyer sustains. First-party cyber coverage safeguards …

Aug 05

Microsoft Adds Threat Intelligence, Proactive Hunting to Defender

By | Managed Services News

The new Microsoft Defender offerings come as the company encourages partners to offer more security.

Microsoft is expanding its threat protection capabilities with the launch of three additions to its Defender portfolio. The new threat intelligence tools, launched this week, come as Microsoft is persuading partners to provide more security services.

During last month’s Microsoft Inspire conference, officials emphasized that partners should offer Microsoft’s various security offerings for all their cybersecurity requirements. The company has stated that security products have become a $15 billion business and growing at a 40% rate.

The new offerings include Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management and Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting. All three draw on telemetry from Microsoft’s threat intelligence and cybercrime centers.

Vasu Jakkal (pictured above at the recent Microsoft Inspire), Microsoft’s corporate VP for security, compliance identity and management, noted that those operations now track 35 ransomware families, and more than 250 nation-states and criminals. Microsoft’s cloud analyzes more than 43 trillion security signals daily, according to Jakkal’s blog announcing the new Defender offerings.

“This massive amount of intelligence derived from our platform and products gives us unique insights to help protect customers from the inside out,” Jakkal wrote.

Microsoft’s acquisition of RiskIQ last year has helped expand visibility into threat actor activity, behavior patterns and targeting, she noted.

Security administrators “can also map their digital environment and infrastructure to view their organization as an attacker would,” Jakkal added. That outside-in view “delivers even deeper insights to help organizations predict malicious activity and secure unmanaged resources.”

Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence

The new Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence provides direct access to  security gathered from the Microsoft Defender family and Microsoft Sentinel security information and event management (SIEM) platform.

“Organizations can proactively hunt for threats more broadly in their environments, empower custom threat intelligence processes and investigations, and improve the performance of third-party security products,” Jakkal said.

The new Microsoft Threat Intelligence routinely scans the internet and provides threat intelligence with specific details. The details displayed in the Microsoft Threat Intelligence portal include threat actors by name, their tools, tactics and procedures (TTPs).

The added threat intelligence comes from RiskIQ’s security research teams Also, Defender Threat Intelligence draws from the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and the Microsoft 365 Defender research teams.

According to Microsoft, the large volume of intelligence promises to embolden those who operate security operations centers (SOCs).

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management gives security teams views of threats outside their firewalls. This view aims to help security teams discover potential points of entry that an attacker could exploit.

The tool builds a complete view of a customer organization by creating a catalog of the entire environment. It scans the internet to find resources, including agentless and unmanaged assets, to map out a potential attack surface.

Defender Experts for Hunting

Defender Experts for Hunting is for those who operate security operations centers (SOCs) but want to find threats proactively. It lets security professionals hunt for threats across endpoints, the Microsoft 365 software stack, SaaS applications and identities.

It includes an analysis tool to help determine threats’ scope and potential impact. A feature called Defender Experts notifications provides alerts in Microsoft 365 Defender. A reporting tool summarizes what threats the software found.

 

Aug 05

RingCentral Plans Layoffs After Strong Earnings Growth in Q2

By | Managed Services News

RingCentral says changing business needs necessitate the job cuts.

RingCentral is initiating layoffs impacting about 50 employees at its headquarters in Belmont, California.

In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice with the California Employment Development Department, RingCentral said “changing business needs require us to reduce our workforce at the facility permanently.”

The RingCentral layoffs will take place in two rounds on Sept. 18 and Sept. 25.

RingCentral spokesperson Brett Smith said the company recently notified a “small number of employees” that their positions have been eliminated.

RingCentral's Brett Smith

RingCentral’s Brett Smith

“This was a result of making choices on where to invest to maximize impact and optimize for growth and profitability,” he said. “We continue to invest in key areas of the business and will continue to hire in those areas to fuel our growth and further strengthen our position as the UCaaS industry leader.”

The layoffs will include more than a dozen senior roles, including a vice president of marketing operations and strategy, a senior systems integration manager and several senior software engineers. In addition, a platform partner go-to-market (GTM) manager is getting cut.

Despite the cuts, this week RingCentral reported strong growth in its second-quarter earnings. It grew revenue by 28% in the second quarter. Total revenue was $487 million, up from $379 million in the second quarter of 2021. In addition, subscription revenue increased 32% year over year, to $463 million.

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