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AT&T Cybersecurity has unveiled its 2022 Global Partner of the Year Awards. Softcat leads the way, taking the award for global partner of the year.

Softcat has received the honor for two years in a row. AT&T said Softcat aggressively grew its business and achieved “truly impressive” results in 2021.

Jordan Redd is AT&T Cybersecurity‘s senior sales director, MSSP.

AT&T Cybersecurity’s Jordan Redd

“At AT&T Cybersecurity, we will continue to focus on enhancing our channel programs to provide partners the ability to not only scale their businesses and increase profitability, but most importantly deliver on their infosec promise to their client base,” he said. “Together, we will do so in both a consistent and progressive manner, evolving with the ever-changing security market we all serve. We look forward to another year of success working closely with our partners.”

Matthew Helling is Softcat‘s head of cybersecurity services.

“We are so proud of the collaborative partnership we have developed with [AT&T] over the last four years,” he said. “And this award is a testament to that and the significant growth we have delivered with them during what has been a challenging year. It also reflects our ambition to always provide our customers with the best managed security information and event management (SIEM) solution available in the marketplace.”

AT&T Cybersecurity Partner Awards

Other AT&T global partner awards include:

• Growth Partner of the Year: STN
• New Partner of the Year: Brennan IT
• Distributor of the Year: CMS Distribution

AT&T also handed out regional partner awards. These recognize partners that had the highest sales bookings in each of the four regions last year.

The awards include:

• North American Partner of the Year: Binary Defense
• EMEA Partner of the Year: Six Degrees
• APAC Partner of the Year: Kordia
• Latin American Partner of the Year: GB Advisors

Black Professionals in Tech Network (BPTN) marked Black History Month with the launch of Obsidi by BPTN. Obsidi is a multisided networking platform to help bridge the network gap and help Black professionals level up their careers.It lets member “Be Seen. Be Connected.”

According to the Harvard Business Review, Blacks represent 12% of the U.S. workforce. But only 1.9% of tech executives and 5.3% of tech professionals are Afro American. Those figures reflect the difficulties Blacks experience in an industry traditionally dominated by white males.

BPTN’s Lekan Olawoye

Lekan Olawoye is founder and CEO of BPTN. “For years, there has been a hunger within the Black community for a formula to crack the tech career code,” he said. “Obsidi is that conduit to opportunities and real success for Black professionals. We’re about to disrupt the Black tech space so that more Black talent can build community and get opportunities to take their career to the next level. Obsidi is the next big thing; we’re unapologetically Black, and we’re proud to drop this gem during Black History Month.

“Obsidi is the place for Black professionals to connect globally. We look at Black people around the world, and we connect. But we’ve never had a place professionally at scale to connect. And what I hear every single day from Black professionals across technology, around North America, is this: ‘I’m tired of being the only.’”

Be Seen. Be Connected.

BPTN members can use Obsidi to build relationships and network within the Black tech professional community. In addition, they can see new tech job postings and learn about the latest industry news and trends. Corporate partners can use Obsidi to support the career growth of Black professionals and diversify their workforces by recruiting from within the talent pool of members.

BPTN’s Finide Dittimi

“Obsidi is a user-friendly platform and all features were created to get Black professionals seen and connected,” said Finide Dittimi, head of product strategy for BPTN. “Pages like My Tribe build strong community support. Tea Spot shows the latest job posts for Black professionals, and the resume upload feature makes it easier for Black professionals to market themselves. The platform is in its beginner stages, but we have a lot more coming soon.”

A Feeling of Belonging

BPTN’s Diavin Miller

“Over the past few years, Black professionals have requested three things from our community,” said Diavin Miller, BPTN’s head of customer experience. “They want to connect with other professionals, share experiences and feel like they belong in tech. They want to deepen their learning in the tech space, and they want to grow their careers. Obsidi is that community-first platform built by and for Black professionals. Wait until you see what we’ll do for learning and career growth.”

With 50,000 members, BPTN is the largest Black community of tech and professionals in North America. Founded in 2018, BPTN provides Black technical and business professionals with access to senior executive sponsorship, skills building and a strong peer network to level up their careers.

BPTN partners with companies to hire, train and retain Black professionals for more diversity. Among their partners are AWS, Deloitte, HPE, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, Softchoic and Teksystems.

Black professionals looking to level up their careers and companies wanting to transform their diversity and inclusion strategy can join Obsidi at no cost.

TBI has announced the 2021 winners for its President’s Club incentive program honoring top-selling partners. They got an all-expenses-paid trip to O’ahu to celebrate their hard work and achievements over the past year.

TBI’s Brandon Smith

Brandon Smith is TBI’s SVP of global sales.

“On behalf of the entire TBI team, I’d like to congratulate all of the partners who were awarded President’s Club status in 2021. We couldn’t be more honored to have such a hard-working and dedicated group of individuals who work with our company. We look forward to celebrating with our winners in Hawaii and wish our entire partner base a successful 2022,” Smith said.

See the full list of TBI’s 2021 President’s Club partner winners below:

• GoExceed
• Profit Enhancement Systems
• Centerfield
• Global Telecom Solutions
• SHI
• Matrix-NDI
• DaVinci Group
• Renodis
• Marco Technologies
• Safari Solutions
• Worldnet Solutions
• WX Technology Grou
• Clearlink Technologies
• Caliber Solutions
• Advoda Technology Solutions
• ACR Solutions
• Bright Technologies
• The Bandwidth Team
• CXT180
• COMtuity
• connecTel
• vMOX

You’ll notice a substantial change in Channel Futures’ Channel Influencers for 2022.

Since launching in 2018, the Channel Influencer Awards have recognized the people, technologies, trends and organizations expected to shape the channel in the next year.  But we’ve revamped the awards for 2022. The technologies, trends and organizations categories have been eliminated. Instead, the focus is solely on individuals, with the list of influencers expanded from 10 to 50 honorees.

And not just any honorees. This exclusive lineup of 50 leaders represents the entire channel. It’s a diverse group that includes key decision-makers from top vendors as well as technology solutions brokerages and traditional tech distributors. We hand-picked them for the list because of their past accomplishments and the impact we expect them to make in the future.

“Channel chief” is a job title. “Channel leader” is an accolade earned for demonstrated dedication to the channel paired with an ability to inform, innovate and inspire the entire community. No matter what their job title, these 50 individuals have provided the vision and vitality to keep the channel moving forward.

Co-Influencers of the Year

TD Synnex’s Rich Hume

Upstack’s Christopher Trapp

Another change for 2022: There are two Channel Influencers of the Year. One from the traditional IT channel — Rich Hume, CEO of TD Synnex — and one from the traditional agent channel — Christopher Trapp, CEO of Upstack. M&A and private investment in the channel were the hot topics this year and both gentlemen found themselves in the thick of it — and flourished.

You can read more about Hume and Trapp in the 2022 Channel Influencers digital issue available for download on Friday, Feb. 25. But first, scroll through the gallery above and find out who made the list, why they made it and what they have to say

(Pictured above: NerdioCon kicks off in Cancún with a welcome party Monday night.)

NERDIOCON, CANCÚN — Nerdio, as a kickoff to its first in-person NerdioCon in Cancun, just came out with a new full integration with Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM). The integration will allow all physical devices and virtual desktops to be managed via Nerdio Manager for MSP.

Nerdio’s Joseph Landes

“We’re seeing more and more needs within our MSP audience to manage lots of different types of endpoint devices,” Joseph Landes, chief revenue officer, Nerdio, told Channel Futures. “This is especially with everyone working remotely — being the single platform and the single UI.” 

Integrating with Microsoft Endpoint Manager

Nerdio Manager adds value on top of the capabilities that Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 have. It is an Azure management platform that allows admins to seamlessly provision and manage deployments of both Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 side by side.

When the initial integration with MEM is complete, it will allow service providers to do the following in Nerdio Manager for MSP: 

• Leverage Nerdio Manager to manage all endpoints centrally, including those in Azure Virtual Desktop or Windows 365 as well as physical desktops and mobile devices.
• Install and manage all types of applications on physical and virtual desktops. 
• Apply policies and baselines to ensure endpoint compliance.
• Leverage endpoint analytics to monitor and improve performance and user experience.
• Provide remote assistance to users with remote help capabilities.

Modernizing Endpoint Management

Nerdio’s Vadim Vladimirskiy

“Through this new integration, Nerdio Manager is evolving to enable organizations to more easily adopt cloud-first technologies while consolidating and modernizing endpoint management,” said Vadim Vladimirskiy, CEO and co-founder, Nerdio. “Being able to manage physical devices alongside virtual desktops via the same platform will help managed service providers better serve the needs of the businesses and workers they support.” 

Microsoft has been investing significantly in MEM, but it’s not yet very popular with MSPs. Many use Microsoft 365, and a specific product within that suite is Microsoft 365 Business Premium. This is primarily what small businesses use. One of the components within that suite is an endpoint management piece. This piece includes device compliance. It also validates that the local device has all of the necessary prerequisites to connect into the rest of the cloud and get access to the data. 

“The problem is that this component isn’t really used that much,” Vladimirskiy told Channel Futures. “I think the tooling that Microsoft created is really more targeted to enterprise. And it’s not very MSP friendly; it’s another portal they have to learn. So we are trying to bridge that gap. We are trying to take those capabilities that are already in the product, and the licensing that most customers already own, and provide MSPs the tools to actually use it in a productive way. And Microsoft is ideally positioned because they own the operating system and the cloud service. So the integration is super tight and it’s just as difficult to manage. That’s where we fit in — to try to make that super simple.”

Other NerdioCon Announcements

Vladimirskiy made the announcement during his opening keynote presentation at NerdioCon 2022 here in Cancún. He also shared that Nerdio has reached 2 million users under management across its product portfolio. 

“We continue to be impressed by Nerdio’s grasp on evolving IT needs and the future of virtual desktop, application and endpoint management,” said Scott Manchester, director of program management for Windows 365, Microsoft. 

Nerdio also detailed plans for the 2022 Nerdio Manager for MSP product road map. Updates and features coming this spring are plentiful. The first includes full support for new Windows 365 Business API. The ability to manage already installed apps on multi-session AVD desktops leveraging FSLogix App Masking technology will also get an update. Updates to Nerdio’s free Cost Estimator tool to reflect Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience changes will be effective in March. 

The company will also implement training and resource initiatives to help MSP partners kick up their Azure practices. This includes facilitating partner-to-partner engagement by certifying MSPs and freelance IT talent. This aims to help other partners with tasks that require specialized skills with Azure and Nerdio technology.

Emanuel Pirker

What an incredible couple of years it has been! From a global perspective, the pandemic has changed the way many of us interact and live our lives on a daily basis. From a technology perspective, the dynamic changes have been extraordinary.

As we all know, in 2020 corporations globally faced an incredible shift to remote work. Today, remote work has even become something of a status symbol and will continue to have a resounding impact on the world of work well beyond the end of this pandemic.

But in many ways, remote work has seen its zenith. The future is about hybrid work.

Already, business leaders around the world are clamoring for solutions to efficiently and effectively support an already existing hybrid work environment, while others are doubling down on efforts to reinvent their workforce structure permanently to hybrid. They recognize the joint benefit that such a model can offer their dispersed work forces – enabling the flexibility that employees crave while preserving the “tried and true” productivity of well-worn work processes.

Future Work Model

Ultimately, hybrid work is the work model of the future, and it is here to stay. Of course, for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) leaders and end user computing (EUC) endpoint software providers, this is good news. Enterprise IT will continue to rely on the convenience of access and security that VDI affords them.

• Cheap devices bought in haste will be replaced to ensure hybrid work productivity.

As COVID morphs into new variants, it’s safe to assume the year ahead will bring with it many changes. The largest among these challenges will be enabling a successful hybrid work deployment.

As a result of this shift and the investment companies made in purchasing low-cost, unmanaged laptops during the pandemic, IT departments will begin to feel the pain and burden of their disparate fleet of endpoints, and will start looking to VDI and desktop as a service (DaaS) to solve their problems.

• VDI and DaaS will be the heroes of 2022.

Any company looking to leverage hybrid work on any level (and the majority of companies and business leaders desire a hybrid return-to-work strategy) will need to dust off their existing PCs. Take that combined with the now countless devices orphaned by Windows 11 and you have the perfect cataclysm for an unprecedented surge in demand for VDI and DaaS.

The VDI and DaaS community has been heralding the importance of enabling secure, flexible work from anywhere for more than a decade. In many ways, the onset of the pandemic saw that reality come to fruition. The return to work, and the need for hybrid work – the inherent need for organizations to easily control and manage the entirety of their dispersed workforces – will create demand for VDI and DaaS that even the most seasoned veterans haven’t yet experienced.

• The workplace will continue to get “smarter.”

Those who have been following VDI, DaaS and even EUC’s swift rise to the forefront of the hybrid work discussion will be familiar with the many groundbreaking innovations that have been made in enabling smarter workspaces.

As we head deeper into the new and brave frontier of workplaces without bounds, hybrid workforces, and all the complexity that lies therein, we will begin to see enterprise IT truly embrace smarter work solutions. That means leaders will begin to make processes better and flexible work more enjoyable and productive for workers and ultimately, their entire organization, as compared with what happened at the beginning of the pandemic where many enterprises were forced to shift countless workers from in office to remote overnight, acting in crisis mode.

Existing VDI and DaaS leaders are in position to serve these demands. Thanks to the innovation from technology leaders including Citrix, Microsoft, Nutanix and VMware, I can assuredly say these solution providers are well-positioned to handle and energize this surge in demand for smarter workplace solutions, and the increase in demand for VDI and DaaS.

An added advantage today’s enterprises are experiencing is also the lowered entry bar for VDI, also made possible by the new Windows 365. Thanks to these combined efforts and innovations, the world of VDI and DaaS has never been more accessible.

In short, the economic environment and dynamic world stage have led to a series of events that will drive the further explosion of the VDI market as we head deeper into the 2020s. Many of the things that were on hold so far will finally get triggered in 2022. Here is to an incredible year for VDI, DaaS and EUC.

Emanuel Pirker, founder and CEO of Stratodesk, brings over 20 years of technology and entrepreneurial leadership experience to his roles as software architect and strategic product development leader, including stints as a software engineer, developer and managing director. You may follow him on LinkedIn or @stratodesk on Twitter.

The latest NCC Group research shows ransomware attacks nearly doubled in 2021 with the Conti gang the most prevalent threat actor.

According to the NCC Group’s 2021 Annual Threat Monitor, ransomware attacks jumped almost 93% year over year. Attacks totaled nearly 2,700, compared to fewer than 1,400 in 2020.

This builds on a gradual, but noticeable rise in ransomware attacks since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Ransomware accounted for more than 65% of all incidents dealt with by NCC Group’s global cyber incident response team (CIRT) in 2021.

Throughout the year, attacks were most commonly targeted at the public and industrial sectors, followed by consumers.

The most consistently targeted regions during 2021 were North America and Europe, accounting for 53% and 30% of all attacks, respectively. These regions are densely populated with wealthy organizations. That provides an incentive to threat actors that employ a big-game-hunting methodology. This involves targeting larger enterprise companies knowing they can afford to pay higher ransoms.

Small Number of Ransomware Groups Dominating

Ian Usher is NCC Group‘s deputy global practice lead of strategic threat intelligence.

NCC Group’s Ian Usher

“The dominance of a small number of ransomware groups was somewhat surprising,” he said. “We were expecting a reduction in activity following the international law enforcement attention on ransomware following the high-profile Kaseya and Colonial pipeline incidents. There was a significant drop in activity in June and July, but then we saw Lockbit 2.0 return to the scene, and they and Conti have since dominated the landscape.”

Conti, a Russia-based global threat actor that emerged in 2017, represented 18% of all attacks across the past two years. In line with the general trends, the industrial sector was Conti’s main target. Similarly, in line with general trends, North American businesses topped Conti’s list of targets followed by Europe.

“We reported on the Conti ransomware group in [the third quarter] of 2021 after getting the opportunity to assess leaked playbooks and training materials associated with this group,” Usher said. “What we identified was an operation being run very much like a business enterprise, with thorough recruitment and training processes. This material did not reveal any novel techniques or procedures, so the prominence can only really be attributed to the scale of the operation, which is made possible by the business model.”

Lockbit 2.0 Also Noteworthy

Elsewhere, another notable group that highlighted the changing nature of the vulnerability landscape was the Lockbit threat actor. After a brief hiatus and metamorphosis into Lockbit 2.0 in June 2021, the group became one of the biggest contributors to double extortion ransomware in 2021. It accounted for more than 16% of the entire year’s ransomware cases. This contrasts their activity in 2020, in which they were absent from the list of the top 10 threat actors.

“After a turbulent year for ransomware operators, we’re seeing similar patterns,” Usher said. “In January 2022, we observed a 36.6% decrease in ransomware attacks compared to the month before. But despite this, we also saw significant ransomware-related incidents in Europe. On Jan. 29, ransomware crippled the IT systems of 17 European oil ports, affecting dozens of terminals, oil storage and global transport operations. The targeting of other major critical infrastructures at Zurich Swissport has raised additional concerns around the threats to European businesses, particularly as the EU navigates Russian-Ukrainian tensions. We expect to see ransomware continue to dominate the threat landscape and further international law enforcement efforts aimed at the groups causing the greatest problems.”

IBM spinoff Kyndryl has teamed up with Nokia to build LTE and 5G private wireless networking solutions.

The partnership combines the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) application platform with Kyndryl services. Kyndryl offers consulting, design, implementation and management. The companies said they have already done deployments and built application proofs-of-concept for Dow.

Kyndryl’s Paul Savill

“As enterprises across every industry are seeking new ways to digitally transform their operations, 5G and edge computing are growing so they can harness the promise of these emerging technologies,” said Paul Savill, global practice leader of network and edge computing for Kyndryl. “By collaborating with Nokia, we’re taking another step forward in helping our customers unlock the power of LTE and 5G through a secure, private environment that helps them deliver tailored enterprise-grade edge solutions that drive new value for their bottom lines and next-gen customer experiences.”

The solutions target “Industry 4.0,” which emphasizes smart and agile manufacturing.

“By combining Kyndryl’s world-class services expertise and global reach with Nokia’s mission-critical, industry leading private wireless and industrial edge computing solutions, we will enable even more organizations to transform their operations, accelerate their digitalization journey and reap the benefits of Industry 4.0,” Nokia head of global enterprise Chris Johnson said.

Impact

Nick Wood of Telecoms.com said the partnership brings together a top three cellular vendor and one of the biggest IT companies in the world. Wood wrote that the alliance stirs the conversation about where mobile operators “fit in the private networking and edge compute value chain.” AT&T last summer outsourced its 5G network core to Microsoft Azure.

Nokia’s Chris Johnson

“Operators of course hold spectrum and control access to it, but as we all know, there is only so much they can charge for that access,” Wood said. “It’s a well-worn argument that to derive greater value from that spectrum, operators need to claw their way up the value chain and establish broader and deeper relationships with their customers.”

Background

Kyndryl spun off from IBM last year. The former IBM managed infrastructure services business announced that it would expand its partner base as a result of the separation. Specifically, it promised to add public cloud providers, system integrators, independent software vendors (ISVs) and technology vendors. For example, Kyndryl two weeks ago announced a partnership with Pure Storage.

Nokia announced a 5G partnership with Google Cloud a year ago to develop cloud-based 5G radio solutions together.

Our weekly Channel People Making Waves counts down the top stories of the past seven days. We highlight the individuals behind the stories, this week featuring TD Synnex, HP and VMware.

We featured two multibillion-dollar deals — one acquisition that’s closed and another that’s rumored. These transactions exemplify the increase in capital floating around in the channel.

This week, one story seemed out of the ordinary from the typical cybersecurity we cover. It was the ransomware attack on a major U.S. football team. Ian Pratt at HP weighed in.

And finally, everyone loves a good story about upward mobility. Check out our No.2 most-read story about a new hire at VMware.

And in case you didn’t catch last week’s roundup, you can find it here.

Ericsson improperly partnered with sales agents and consultants in Iraq, not to mention potentially bribing ISIS.

So says the Swedish telecommunications company, which determined through an internal investigation that certain employees made payments to avoid customs in Iraq. These bribes put the employees on alternate routes that in some cases operated under the control of military groups like ISIS.

“What we are seeing is that transport routes have been purchased through areas that have been controlled by terrorist organizations, including ISIS,” Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm told a Swedish newspaper earlier this week.

According to a statement from Ericsson, the company in 2019 reviewed “unusual expense claims” in Iraq that went back to 2018. The review led to an internal investigation that included external legal counsel. The investigation covered Ericsson’s activities in Iraq from 2011-2019 and found multiple violations.

“It identified evidence of corruption-related misconduct, including: making a monetary donation without a clear beneficiary; paying a supplier for work without a defined scope and documentation; using suppliers to make cash payments; funding inappropriate travel and expenses; and improper use of sales agents and consultants,” the company stated. “In addition, it found violations of Ericsson’s internal financial controls; conflicts of interest; non-compliance with tax laws; and obstruction of the investigation.”

“Several” employees left the company following the investigation; however, Ericsson said it did not know if any employee provided direct funding to ISIS.

Ericsson shared its findings with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2019. Ericsson was working on a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the Department in 2019 for various corruption probes it was facing.

Reactions

Ericsson’s share price has dropped 16% since the news broke.

Shareholder litigators Schall Law Firm and Bragar Eagel & Squire are investigating false or misleading statements the company might have made. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists said Ericsson has not addressed specific questions put to it about about various activities. The consortium said it will soon publish its findings.

Cevian Capital is a large Ericsson shareholder. Cevian managing partner and co-founder Christer Gardell called Ericsson’s actions “unacceptable.” However, Gardell attributed the incident to past “mismanagement” that recent restructuring hopefully has curtailed.

“The company today takes these issues very seriously and has invested significant resources in solving the historical problems and ensuring that no new issues arise,” Gardell said. “It needs to urgently address the remaining complexity and loss making businesses to help reduce such mismanagement in the future.”

Gardell, whose company is investing in Ericsson, called the drop in stock a “strong overreaction.”

An analyst told Reuters that a deeper DoJ investigation into potential bibery could end in large fines.

Background

This week’s news follows a long history of corruption allegations against Ericsson.

Ericsson in 2019 shelled out more than $1 billion for attempting to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. According to the Department of Justice, company employees were accused of “bribing government officials, falsifying books and records, and failing to implement reasonable internal accounting controls.” These alleged actions occurred in five countries: Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Kuwait.

Last September the Department of Justice named the Ericsson employee who helped pay approximately $2.1 million in bribes to Djibouti government officials. The scheme allegedly occurred between 2010 and 2014, according to court documents.

Ericsson Acquisitions

Ericsson’s $6.2 billion acquisition of Vonage will close in the first half of 2022. Many analysts anticipate that Ericsson made the acquisition in order to tap into Vonage’s CPaaS capabilities. Vonage’s stock is sitting at $20.11 per share. The price dipped slightly from $20.80, where it sat before the news broke.

Ericsson has also purchased wireless WAN provider Cradlepoint. That deal was worth $1.1 billion.