Monday Morning Impact – February 27

Key Vendors Form IoT Cybersecurity Alliance

AT&T, IBM, Nokia, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec and Trustonic are joining forces to help tackle today’s top Internet of Things (IoT) security challenges. This newly formed IoT Cybersecurity Alliance will research and raise awareness of ways to better secure the IoT ecosystem.

As the number and kinds of connected devices multiply, so have the security risks. In the past 3 years, AT&T has seen a 3,198% increase in attackers scanning for vulnerabilities in IoT devices. In addition, according to a 2016 survey commissioned by AT&T, 58% of respondents said they were not confident in the security of their IoT devices.

“The explosive growth in the number of IoT devices is only expected to continue; therefore, so must the associated cybersecurity protections,” said Mo Katibeh, AT&T senior vice president of Advanced Solutions. “Today’s businesses are connecting devices ranging from robots on factory floors to pacemakers and refrigerators. Helping these organizations stay protected requires innovation across the whole IoT ecosystem to enable sustainable growth.”

The alliance members plan to collaborate and research security challenges of IoT across verticals and use cases such as Connected Car, Industrial, Smart Cities and Healthcare; dissect and solve for IoT security problems at every critical layer of security, including the endpoint, connectivity, cloud, and data/application layers; and influence security standards and policies.

Channel Impact^®
IoT is emerging as a prominent industry trend, but many channel partners are still uncertain of how to exploit this market opportunity. Efforts to enhance security can easily translate into new value-add opportunities for the channel.

Pax8 Launches Marketing On Demand Initiative

Pax8, a Denver-based value-added cloud distributor, has launched Marketing on Demand as part of its Cloud Wingman partner program. The intent is to help enable small and medium-sized business (SMB) service providers to build and scale their company’s marketing efforts.

“We are excited to launch Marketing on Demand through our Cloud Wingman partner program because it offers the resources service providers need to grow their businesses,” said Ryan Walsh, senior vice president of Partner Solutions at Pax8. “Marketing is time consuming, and it can take up a lot of money and resources that SMB service providers simply don’t have. This program is designed to ease the pain when it comes to designing collateral and creating comprehensive marketing campaigns to gain new leads and generate business.”

In addition to providing pre- and post-sales support, Pax8 is now offering partners access to customizable collateral and automated email campaigns as well as other resources and marketing assets with which service providers can creatively and effectively position their companies without additional headcount or cost.

Channel Impact^®
In an industry where technology dominates, marketing is often lower on this list of priorities among companies in this space. Anything that distributors can do to help augment these efforts will typically be viewed positively by allied partners.

Ingram Micro to Serve as a Key Dell EMC Distribution Partner

Ingram Micro has announced that it has been named a key 2017 Dell EMC Distribution Partner in the U.S, thereby enabling the southern California-based distributor to sell Dell EMC’s full portfolio of products to channel partners in the U.S.

“Expanding our relationship with Dell EMC is a significant win for Ingram Micro and our channel partners, and a direct result of the continued success we have achieved together in the U.S.,” said Kirk Robinson, senior vice president, Go-to-Market, Ingram Micro. “By leveraging the expertise and resources within our Advanced Solutions organization, vendors and channel partners are identifying more opportunities, shortening the sales cycle and solving business challenges with greater efficiency.”

Technology areas include cloud IT infrastructure, converged systems, PCs, servers and storage solutions. Sales, marketing and technical support resources will also be included.

Channel Impact^®
This announcement extends the Dell EMC portfolio to a large number and wide variety of potential channel partners. The move will likely be beneficial to both companies as well as to the partners, themselves.