Monday Morning Impact – March 19

Commvault and HP Enterprise Forge Healthcare Data Alliance

Commvault, a New Jersey-based company specializing in enterprise backup, recovery, archive and the cloud, has announced a strategic partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to deliver Commvault’s healthcare solutions, pre-validated on HPE infrastructure, through HPE and its global network of channel partners. These solutions include Commvault Clinical Archive and the Commvault Data Platform to protect and manage critical Meditech, Epic and other EHR data, as well as medical images across the healthcare enterprise.

These new healthcare solutions are promised to be tightly integrated and optimized for HPE Storage and other infrastructure products, including StoreOnce, 3PAR, Nimble, Apollo and Proliant.

“Increasing amounts and types of mission-critical data, stricter regulatory requirements and the growing threat from ransomware and other cybersecurity attacks are increasing the costs and complexity of data management and protection for healthcare organizations,” said Patrick Osborne, director of storage and big data product management at HPE. “With this agreement, our healthcare customers now have a one-stop shop for finding HPE integrated and certified Commvault solutions that help them to simplify data management and protection, increase data availability, reduce costs, and minimize regulatory compliance risk, while also empowering them to better activate data for valuable insights.”

Commvault Software includes data encryption capabilities, enabling healthcare providers to meet the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and other patient data privacy compliance requirements.

Channel Impact^®
This new partnership marks a significant step for these two companies in making it easier for the healthcare industry to implement data management strategies that accelerate digital transformation initiatives and improve patient care while reducing IT complexity.

SolarWinds Rolls Out New Tool for Network Path Analysis Across Hybrid Environments

SolarWinds, an Austin, Texas-based provider of IT management software, has unveiled “Traceroute NG,” a free network diagnostic tool that maps hop-by-hop performance across modern, hybrid networks and through firewalls. This capability enables channel partners and network administrators to more easily monitor performance and pinpoint bottlenecks across networks, regardless of whether the resources are running on-premises or in the cloud.

Through this initiative, SolarWinds is offering a free replacement for “Traceroute,” a long-standing diagnostic tool designed before the era of hybrid networks. SolarWinds’ new tool simulates real application traffic to map paths across networks and through firewalls, showing a live view of changes in latency and packet loss when network routes change.

“Network performance is the currency of user experience, as well as business performance in many cases, so it’s imperative that IT professionals can get accurate data to effectively manage responsiveness and availability,” said Christoph Pfister, executive vice president and head of products at SolarWinds. “With Traceroute NG, we’ve replaced a fan-favorite tool with something that really works on modern hybrid IT networks. We’re confident it will become the tool IT pros use first when troubleshooting their networks and applications.”

Features include path analysis and visibility via CLI from the source to the destination, with the ability to identify the number of hops, respective IP addresses, host names, packet loss, and latency; continuous probing to see path changes easily; the ability to switch the probe type with various command arguments to imitate real application traffic; and creation of a log file containing the path number and trace information.

The tool is available immediately for systems with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server® 2012 R2, or Windows Server 2016.

Channel Impact^®
The new tool is intended to provide quick access to accurate network-path data across hybrid environments, enabling users to troubleshoot network issues more effectively.

Mitel Offers Initial Look at New Go-to-Market Strategy

Mitel has offered an early look at a forthcoming channel program that consolidates the company’s legacy program with that of ShoreTel, a long-standing UC vendor that Mitel acquired last year.

The updated program, which is expected to be formally implemented within the next month, features restructured platinum, gold and authorized certification levels to incentivize and recognize partners driving growth. Components include joint marketing funds, growth incentives, marketing and technical assistance, deal registration, and an enhanced demo program.

In addition to the new partner program, Mitel will also increasingly leverage two-tier distribution in support of its overall go-to-market strategy. As part of this effort, the company will consolidate channels to enable a smaller number of distributors to hold increased inventory, provide sales quotations and support, manage certifications and user training, and offer technical support and professional services.

“As cloud, applications and IoT become part of everyday business processes, organizations need the flexibility to collaborate and effectively maximize all tools at their disposal,” said Todd Abbott, EVP of global sales and services at Mitel. “By introducing this new partner program and aggregating our product distribution, we are ensuring our customers have the collaborative technology they need in order to communicate at the pace today’s markets demand.”

Mitel also reports that it recently crossed the one million-seat mark for UCaaS subscribers worldwide.

Channel Impact^®
The combined program delivers a path for partners to compete in today’s UCC market, which is evolving quickly as customers move toward cloud-based solutions, and are looking to the channel to assist with the migration.