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In May, HP Inc. announced a series of goals intended to drive a more diverse, equitable and inclusive technology industry. This included a pledge to achieve gender parity in leadership by 2030.

The announcement came as part of HP’s Sustainable Impact strategy. The strategy focuses on creating a positive, lasting impact on the planet, HP’s people and the communities where they live, work and do business.

In February, HP had called on partners to embrace its Sustainable Impact initiative. And in conjunction with Earth Day in April, the company outlined its plans to combat climate change.

Earlier this year, HP was included on Forbes’ fourth annual list of America’s Best Employers for Diversity.

HP’s Enrique Lores

Enrique Lores is president and CEO of HP Inc. “Creating a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion has long been integral to HP’s success, but our work is far from done,” he said.

“We will continue pushing to break down barriers within our own organization while using our platforms to advance gender and racial equality, social justice and human rights across our ecosystem.”

Innovation Comes from Diversity, Progress Comes from the Top

Since its beginnings, HP has recognized the power of diversity to fuel innovation and that progress starts from the top. The company intentionally created one of the most diverse board of directors in the technology industry. Today it remains one of the top technology companies with women in executive positions. More than 30 percent of HP’s leaders are women. This is nearly double the industry’s benchmark of 16% of women in senior positions.

According to diversity figures on the company’s website, its board of directors is composed of 46% women and 54% minorities.

COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted many women. One in four considering to leave the workplace or downshifting their careers, according to a recent Lean In and McKinsey study. In response, HP is making a concerted effort to support women’s career advancement. In addition, the company aims to achieve 50/50 gender equality in HP leadership by 2030. Moreover, HP has committed to achieving greater than 30 percent technical women and women in engineering roles by 2030.

As well as championing gender equality, HP has a strong history of advancing racial equality and social justice. They are a founding member of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Business Deans Roundtable. HP has a long-lasting relationship with HBCUs and hosts an annual business challenge to help Black students kickstart a career in technology. HP’s Supplier Diversity Program in the U.S. had an overall economic impact of approximately $1 billion last year.

Racial Equality and Social Justice Task Force

In January, HP announced the launch of its Racial Equality and Social Justice Task Force. The task force has a comprehensive set of goals to accelerate the strategies, practices and policies around pipeline, retention and promotion for Black and African American talent.

Inside the company, there is a goal to achieve 90% (up from 84%) inclusion index score for Black and African American employees by the end of the year. in 2021. And, the company has pledged to double the Black and African American promotion rates, technical representation and number of executives by 2025.

In addition to gender parity, HP aims to have its racial/ethnic representation meet or exceed market availability in the U.S. by 2030.

Within the industry, HP is leveraging its industry spending power to influence its ecosystem, including HP’s partners, vendors and suppliers. Their goal: By 2022, 10% of HP diversity spend be with Black and African American suppliers. Likewise, 10% of HP supplier account managers to be Black and African American by 2022. Additionally, the company plans to complete STEM pilots in target communications with channel partners and suppliers.

HP is also a founding member of OneTen, a coalition of businesses who are coming together to upskill, hire and advance one million Black individuals in America over the next 10 years into family-sustaining jobs.

HP’s Lesley Slayton Brown

Lesley Slayton Brown is HP’s chief diversity officer. “The COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the murder of George Floyd and so many others whose lives were needlessly cut short, sparked a long-overdue reckoning with the systemic inequities that afflict our communities,” she said.

“We’re committed to turning the tragedies and challenges of the past year into a force for meaningful change. We will not turn a blind eye to the forces of racism, discrimination and inequity that hold so many back from reaching their potential. We will not rest until everyone, everywhere has access to the opportunities they deserve.”

In May, HP Inc. announced a series of goals intended to drive a more diverse, equitable and inclusive technology industry. This included a pledge to achieve gender parity in leadership by 2030.

The announcement came as part of HP’s Sustainable Impact strategy. The strategy focuses on creating a positive, lasting impact on the planet, HP’s people and the communities where they live, work and do business.

In February, HP had called on partners to embrace its Sustainable Impact initiative. And in conjunction with Earth Day in April, the company outlined its plans to combat climate change.

Earlier this year, HP was included on Forbes’ fourth annual list of America’s Best Employers for Diversity.

HP’s Enrique Lores

Enrique Lores is president and CEO of HP Inc. “Creating a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion has long been integral to HP’s success, but our work is far from done,” he said.

“We will continue pushing to break down barriers within our own organization while using our platforms to advance gender and racial equality, social justice and human rights across our ecosystem.”

Innovation Comes from Diversity, Progress Comes from the Top

Since its beginnings, HP has recognized the power of diversity to fuel innovation and that progress starts from the top. The company intentionally created one of the most diverse board of directors in the technology industry. Today it remains one of the top technology companies with women in executive positions. More than 30 percent of HP’s leaders are women. This is nearly double the industry’s benchmark of 16% of women in senior positions.

According to diversity figures on the company’s website, its board of directors is composed of 46% women and 54% minorities.

COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted many women. One in four considering to leave the workplace or downshifting their careers, according to a recent Lean In and McKinsey study. In response, HP is making a concerted effort to support women’s career advancement. In addition, the company aims to achieve 50/50 gender equality in HP leadership by 2030. Moreover, HP has committed to achieving greater than 30 percent technical women and women in engineering roles by 2030.

As well as championing gender equality, HP has a strong history of advancing racial equality and social justice. They are a founding member of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Business Deans Roundtable. HP has a long-lasting relationship with HBCUs and hosts an annual business challenge to help Black students kickstart a career in technology. HP’s Supplier Diversity Program in the U.S. had an overall economic impact of approximately $1 billion last year.

Racial Equality and Social Justice Task Force

In January, HP announced the launch of its Racial Equality and Social Justice Task Force. The task force has a comprehensive set of goals to accelerate the strategies, practices and policies around pipeline, retention and promotion for Black and African American talent.

Inside the company, there is a goal to achieve 90% (up from 84%) inclusion index score for Black and African American employees by the end of the year. in 2021. And, the company has pledged to double the Black and African American promotion rates, technical representation and number of executives by 2025.

In addition to gender parity, HP aims to have its racial/ethnic representation meet or exceed market availability in the U.S. by 2030.

Within the industry, HP is leveraging its industry spending power to influence its ecosystem, including HP’s partners, vendors and suppliers. Their goal: By 2022, 10% of HP diversity spend be with Black and African American suppliers. Likewise, 10% of HP supplier account managers to be Black and African American by 2022. Additionally, the company plans to complete STEM pilots in target communications with channel partners and suppliers.

HP is also a founding member of OneTen, a coalition of businesses who are coming together to upskill, hire and advance one million Black individuals in America over the next 10 years into family-sustaining jobs.

HP’s Lesley Slayton Brown

Lesley Slayton Brown is HP’s chief diversity officer. “The COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the murder of George Floyd and so many others whose lives were needlessly cut short, sparked a long-overdue reckoning with the systemic inequities that afflict our communities,” she said.

“We’re committed to turning the tragedies and challenges of the past year into a force for meaningful change. We will not turn a blind eye to the forces of racism, discrimination and inequity that hold so many back from reaching their potential. We will not rest until everyone, everywhere has access to the opportunities they deserve.”

In May, HP Inc. announced a series of goals intended to drive a more diverse, equitable and inclusive technology industry. This included a pledge to achieve gender parity in leadership by 2030.

The announcement came as part of HP’s Sustainable Impact strategy. The strategy focuses on creating a positive, lasting impact on the planet, HP’s people and the communities where they live, work and do business.

In February, HP had called on partners to embrace its Sustainable Impact initiative. And in conjunction with Earth Day in April, the company outlined its plans to combat climate change.

Earlier this year, HP was included on Forbes’ fourth annual list of America’s Best Employers for Diversity.

HP’s Enrique Lores

Enrique Lores is president and CEO of HP Inc. “Creating a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion has long been integral to HP’s success, but our work is far from done,” he said.

“We will continue pushing to break down barriers within our own organization while using our platforms to advance gender and racial equality, social justice and human rights across our ecosystem.”

Innovation Comes from Diversity, Progress Comes from the Top

Since its beginnings, HP has recognized the power of diversity to fuel innovation and that progress starts from the top. The company intentionally created one of the most diverse board of directors in the technology industry. Today it remains one of the top technology companies with women in executive positions. More than 30 percent of HP’s leaders are women. This is nearly double the industry’s benchmark of 16% of women in senior positions.

According to diversity figures on the company’s website, its board of directors is composed of 46% women and 54% minorities.

COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted many women. One in four considering to leave the workplace or downshifting their careers, according to a recent Lean In and McKinsey study. In response, HP is making a concerted effort to support women’s career advancement. In addition, the company aims to achieve 50/50 gender equality in HP leadership by 2030. Moreover, HP has committed to achieving greater than 30 percent technical women and women in engineering roles by 2030.

As well as championing gender equality, HP has a strong history of advancing racial equality and social justice. They are a founding member of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Business Deans Roundtable. HP has a long-lasting relationship with HBCUs and hosts an annual business challenge to help Black students kickstart a career in technology. HP’s Supplier Diversity Program in the U.S. had an overall economic impact of approximately $1 billion last year.

Racial Equality and Social Justice Task Force

In January, HP announced the launch of its Racial Equality and Social Justice Task Force. The task force has a comprehensive set of goals to accelerate the strategies, practices and policies around pipeline, retention and promotion for Black and African American talent.

Inside the company, there is a goal to achieve 90% (up from 84%) inclusion index score for Black and African American employees by the end of the year. in 2021. And, the company has pledged to double the Black and African American promotion rates, technical representation and number of executives by 2025.

In addition to gender parity, HP aims to have its racial/ethnic representation meet or exceed market availability in the U.S. by 2030.

Within the industry, HP is leveraging its industry spending power to influence its ecosystem, including HP’s partners, vendors and suppliers. Their goal: By 2022, 10% of HP diversity spend be with Black and African American suppliers. Likewise, 10% of HP supplier account managers to be Black and African American by 2022. Additionally, the company plans to complete STEM pilots in target communications with channel partners and suppliers.

HP is also a founding member of OneTen, a coalition of businesses who are coming together to upskill, hire and advance one million Black individuals in America over the next 10 years into family-sustaining jobs.

HP’s Lesley Slayton Brown

Lesley Slayton Brown is HP’s chief diversity officer. “The COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the murder of George Floyd and so many others whose lives were needlessly cut short, sparked a long-overdue reckoning with the systemic inequities that afflict our communities,” she said.

“We’re committed to turning the tragedies and challenges of the past year into a force for meaningful change. We will not turn a blind eye to the forces of racism, discrimination and inequity that hold so many back from reaching their potential. We will not rest until everyone, everywhere has access to the opportunities they deserve.”

Equinix has added three new vice presidents to work with Equinix channel partners in three global regions. That includes hiring vets from Oracle and Schneider Electric, and promoting a channel exec who’s been with the company more than 10 years.

Equinix’s Orla Ni Chorcora

Orla Ni Chorcora has been hired as vice president of channel for EMEA. She previously was with Oracle for nearly 24 years. Ni Chorcora most recently was senior director of business development for Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Equinix’s Sophie Ben Sadia

Sophie Ben Sadia has been hired as vice president of sales for APAC partners. She was with Schneider Electric for four-and-a-half years, and before that was with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. She was most recently Schneider’s vice president of channels and alliances in the IT division.

Equinix’s Ben Thames

Kevin Thames has been promoted to vice president of the Americas channel. He joined Equinix in May 2011 and most recently was senior director of partner and alliance sales for the Americas.

Driving Organizational Changes

Jules Johnson is Equinix’s senior vice president of global channels.

“For more than a year, we have been implementing organizational changes across global sales to drive better focus and consistency to reach our goals in relation to the partner program,” she said. “First, we announced a global channel organization, which unified all channel sellers and the global channel programs teams. I then moved into the senior vice president role of the organization to better align our partner objectives and bring together our partner ecosystem across all regions. We also created a new channel leadership council, a global cross-functional team, to establish a partner framework and prioritization that will help drive decisions faster.”

Goals for Equinix channel partners include:

• Channel growth. Channel accounted for more than 30% of bookings in the first quarter of 2021. In the next few years, Equinix will do greater than 50% of its business through partners.
• Acceleration. It’s aiming to accelerate realization of its channel vision and goals by leading cross-functional decision-making alignment and accountability. It also plans to perpetually inspire a partner-first mindset at Equinix.
• Services. Equinix is looking to enable large organizations to sell more complete services inside of Equinix so that companies can take advantage of the service providers who serve within that ecosystem.
• Channel-enabled mindset. Equinix is looking to shift to a longer-term, channel-enabled mindset, where new product offerings and services will become key focus areas.

Accelerating Adoption of Solutions

“All our efforts around consolidating our partner and channel initiatives focus on one set of core objectives: to accelerate the adoption of Equinix and partner solutions by our mutual customer communities,” Johnson said. “We’re addressing this fundamental goal by working to optimize partner communication and enhance message consistency from our organization to the partner community.”

It’s essential that Equinix teams with partners who can bring their own services and competencies into a solution, she said.

“They span the gamut from resellers, system integrators, technology alliance partners and MSPs to network service providers,” Johnson said. “The relationship with our partner community is symbiotic and our goal is to make that relationship as integrated and effective as possible.”

Comcast Business just rolled out a wireless service for business customers.

The cableco on Tuesday announced the extension of its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services to SMBs. Existing internet customers can use the Comcast Business Mobile service.

Comcast already provides a consumer mobility service called Xfinity Mobile. Just like Xfinity Mobile, Comcast Business Mobile offers 4G and 5G coverage from Verizon’s mobile network. Comcast supplements the network with Wi-Fi hotspots.

Comcast’s Bill Stemper

“Staying connected – whether in the office or on-the-go – is critical for small businesses. Comcast Business Mobile provides small business owners and their employees access to the most reliable network with nationwide 5G included at no extra cost as well as access to more than 20 million secure Xfinity WiFi hotspots,” Comcast Business president Bill Stemper said. “We have created a unique mobile experience that brings more value to our internet customers, saving them money while providing tremendous performance, reliability and flexibility.”

Verizon and Comcast launched the Xfinity Mobile service in 2017, and it has seen significant growth lately. Comcast’s wireless revenue grew nearly 50%, from $343 million in 2020’s first quarter to $513 million in the first quarter of this year.

Big Picture

Comcast executives noted in the company’s latest earnings call that they wanted to accelerate their wireless strategy. Moreover, they are accelerating their wireless play because wireless enhances Comcast’s fixed broadband business. Comcast Cable CEO David Watson said on the call that Comcast will likely package broadband and mobile together more.

“We think it’s good for broadband. It is helping broadband. We see the results in terms of churn, and it’s just a growth engine for us, period,” Watson said.

Comcast Corporation CEO Brian Roberts said in the call that Verizon has served Comcast well in their MVNO partnership.

“That whole relationship requires a healthy partnership with a wireless MNO. And in the case of Verizon, we were really pleased with the partnership,” Roberts said. “We restructured it so that we’re able to make these unlimited offerings in a way that continues our profitability march and real value for consumers and in a way that Verizon is happy that their network is getting used.”

In the meantime, Comcast’s first-quarter business revenue ticked up more than 6%.

Customers can run with an unlimited data plan that charges as low as $24 per line per month or do a “per gig” plan that starts at $15 per month per gigabyte. According to Comcast, the unlimited data plan caters to businesses whose employees often stray outside of Wi-Fi range. Comcast provides up to 10 lines and without charging a line access fee.

Speaking of wireless, Dish Network recently partnered with AT&T for its 5G network.

Partner M&A continues to hit the news wire.

We’re seeing MSPs and agents participate in consolidation like never before. Yes, there’s no shortage of IT and security vendors that are buying and selling and getting involved with private equity, but the partners are doing M&A in a big way. Core BTS continued its evolution from VAR to cloud-focused MSP with the acquisition of Aptera Software. Upstack continues to lure telecom consultancies with its deep pockets and the promise of agent equity.

Not all M&A news made the gallery. For example, Xerox enhanced its SMB practice by purchasing a document solutions provider, and Cisco finished purchasing a vulnerability management platform.

Check out the 16 acquisitions that we covered in the slideshow above.

Did you see our previous monthly M&A recap? Check it out.

Partner M&A continues to hit the news wire.

We’re seeing MSPs and agents participate in consolidation like never before. Yes, there’s no shortage of IT and security vendors that are buying and selling and getting involved with private equity, but the partners are doing M&A in a big way. Core BTS continued its evolution from VAR to cloud-focused MSP with the acquisition of Aptera Software. Upstack continues to lure telecom consultancies with its deep pockets and the promise of agent equity.

Not all M&A news made the gallery. For example, Xerox enhanced its SMB practice by purchasing a document solutions provider, and Cisco finished purchasing a vulnerability management platform.

Check out the 16 acquisitions that we covered in the slideshow above.

Did you see our previous monthly M&A recap? Check it out.

Cybereason has acquired Empow, a security analytics company based in Tel Aviv. The purchase will expand Cybereason’s extended detection and response (XDR) offering with machine learning (ML)-powered predictive capabilities.

It also provides more than 70 new technical integrations with IT and security service providers, and top product and engineering talent. Cybereason isn’t saying how much it paid for Empow.

The acquisition means Empow’s patented prediction technology will integrate with Cybereason XDR. This ML prediction algorithm anticipates attacker intent and next steps.

Last week, Cybereason launched its new Defenders League partner program. It offers several paths and tiers to address partners’ individual business goals.

Enhanced Partner Investment

Yonatan Striem-Amit is Cybereason’s co-founder and CTO. He said the acquisition will enhance partners’ investment. It will do so by creating clear differentiation against director competitors.

In addition, it will “increase our joint win rate with partners, and provide new partner-delivered service offerings,” he said.

Cybereason’s Yonatan Streim-Amit

“With the Empow technology and team, we will provide enhanced capabilities for the Cybereason XDR offering and further our mission to end cyberattacks on the endpoint, across the enterprise, to everywhere the battle is being waged,” Striem-Amit said. “The acquisition means partners will be able to mitigate one of the biggest challenges facing service providers wanting to deliver XDR in their managed detection and response (MDR) service offering –– data normalization of security telemetry coming from firewalls, IAM, email security, cloud, etc.”

Partners will be early to market with a hybrid, “best-in-breed” approach to XDR, Striem-Amit said. They’ll be able to rapidly incorporate more of the customer attack surface into their managed service. Furthermore, they’ll do this without having to manually integrate other security vendor telemetry through extensible APIs.

Deal Follows $275 Million in New Funding

The acquisition follows Cybereason securing $275 million in crossover financing led by Liberty Strategic Capital. This came after $389 million from Softbank Group, CRV, Spark Capital and Lockheed Martin.

Avi Chesla is Empow’s founder and CEO.

“Cybereason has been recognized as a leader in the endpoint detection and response (EDR) and endpoint protection platform (EPP) space for some time,” he said. “There was a great deal of natural synergy in everything both companies were already doing. And we are very enthusiastic about the acquisition because this is truly a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Partner M&A continues to hit the news wire.

We’re seeing MSPs and agents participate in consolidation like never before. Yes, there’s no shortage of IT and security vendors that are buying and selling and getting involved with private equity, but the partners are doing M&A in a big way. Core BTS continued its evolution from VAR to cloud-focused MSP with the acquisition of Aptera Software. Upstack continues to lure telecom consultancies with its deep pockets and the promise of agent equity.

Not all M&A news made the gallery. For example, Xerox enhanced its SMB practice by purchasing a document solutions provider, and Cisco finished purchasing a vulnerability management platform.

Check out the 16 acquisitions that we covered in the slideshow above.

Did you see our previous monthly M&A recap? Check it out.

Cloud Distribution is tackling ransomware with its latest vendor signing — deep learning cybersecurity specialist Deep Instinct.

It the distributor’s first vendor singing since its acquisition in May by Nuvias Group.

It says Deep Instinct has “the world’s first and only purpose-built cybersecurity framework using deep learning.” The Deep Neural Network (D-brain) can “predict and prevent previously unseen cyberattacks” before infecting a victim’s environment.

This “prevention-first promise” is backed by a £2 million (US $2.74 million) warranty against both ransomware attacks and false positive alerts.

“Deep Instinct’s deep neural AI software operates like a human brain,” noted Cloud Distribution. This means it can “identify zero-day attacks in less than 20 milliseconds before they can infect the endpoint.”

Adam Davison is chief strategy officer at Cloud Distribution, which remains a separate organisation within Nuvias. He said the explosion of ransomware attacks breaking through traditional defenses calls for a new approach.

Cloud Distribution’s Adam Davison

“We see a huge opportunity for channel partners currently selling Microsoft Defender or XDR and EDR solutions to offer Deep Instinct’s prevention platform,” he said. It will act “as an additional layer of defense to stop ransomware and phishing attacks including mutations that haven’t even been invented.”

Nuvias had said it wants to leverage Cloud Distribution’s reputation for early engagement. From its creation in 2009, the distributor has focused on introducing emerging vendors to UK partners. One of its biggest successes was introducing Meraki to the market before it was acquired by Cisco.

With Deep Instinct, Cloud Distribution says new partners can use its Partner Growth Services. These include lead generation and co-branded marketing campaigns; sales and sales engineering training; and pre- and post-sales support.

‘Meteoric Growth’

Deep Instinct recently closed its Series D of $175 million. It had previously received an investment of $67 million by Chrysalis Investments Limited, part of Jupiter Asset Management.

Deep Instinct’s Graham Howton

Graham Howton, Deep Instinct channel and MSSP manager, said loyalty “is the key to success” in building a successful channel.

“We’re 100% committed to the channel model, and investing heavily in developing the ecosystem for our chosen channel partners to be hugely successful.

He described Cloud Distribution as “the ideal partner,” and “uniquely positioned to support us in growing our channel.”

The goal is “to help our partners gain net-new logo customers and drive services revenues at a time of meteoric growth in our business.”