Channel Brief: Broadcom Sued Over VMware Licenses, Auvik Enhances Network Management

OPSWAT, F5 and Dark Reading have released a new survey that revealed significant IT leadership concerns about their organizations' preparedness to face escalating cybersecurity threats. Many enterprises are challenged by the complexities of web application security, compliance issues and the perceived lack of support from organizational leadership.

The survey, which included responses from IT and corporate leadership, reveals a worrying trend: Over the past year, 35% of respondents reported suffering a malware breach, 28% experienced credential theft or unauthorized account access, and 24% faced a security compromise involving a vendor, contractor, or other third party.

There are also challenges with compliance, with only 27% of respondents regularly referencing OWASP for web application security best practices. This contrasts with 53% referencing NIST and 37% referring to CISA guidelines, according to the survey. A perceived lack of support from leadership, the growing complexity involved in securing applications and lack of preparation for escalating attacks all point to a growing AppSec crisis and the need for multiple layers of protection. More on the survey is here.

As always, drop me a line at [email protected] if you have news to share or want to say hi!

Grab your coffee. Here's what you need to know today.

Today’s Tech, Channel and MSP News

1. AT&T sues Broadcom over VMware licensing: Channel Futures reported that, in a suit filed August 29 in New York County Supreme Court, AT&T states that Broadcom is “threatening to withhold essential support services for previously purchased VMware perpetually licensed software unless AT&T capitulates to Broadcom’s demands that AT&T purchase hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bundled subscription software and services, which AT&T does not want.” After the acquisition, Broadcom narrowed VMware’s product lines from 8,000 SKUs to four product bundles and instituted subscription licensing. AT&T was one of a number of customers that remained on pre-acquisition perpetual licensing contracts through which Broadcom is contractually obligated to provide support. AT&T obtained the right to renew the perpetual licensing for an additional year, but says Broadcom is refusing to honor that contract.

Broadcom released a statement in response, saying, "Broadcom strongly disagrees with the allegations and is confident we will prevail in the legal process. VMware has been moving to a subscription model, the standard for the software industry, for several years – beginning before the acquisition by Broadcom. Our focus will continue to be providing our customers choice and flexibility while helping them address their most complex technology challenges.” We'll be keeping an eye on this, for sure.

2. ScalePad's new CEO, CPO: ScalePad announced Chris Day as its new CEO, succeeding Dan Wensley. In addition, MSP industry veteran Mike Walsh will move into the role of ScalePad’s chief product officer. Day co-founded the company in 2015 (originally named Warranty Master). Mike Walsh brings extensive technical expertise and leadership within the MSP space, as well as a unique connection to Chris Day—Walsh wrote the first line of code for one of Day’s products, IT Glue. Congratulations!

3. Cequence integration with Netskope: Cequence and Netskope announced a new partnership through which Netskope customers can access Cequence Security’s API-based threat intelligence, the companies said. Cequence uses advanced AI and ML to identify malicious actors and provides key security insights about evolving threats and attacks to protect mission-critical APIs and applications, the companies said.

4. Auvik releases enhanced network management solution: IT solutions provider Auvik has released enhancements to its Auvik Network Management (ANM) solution that allow for a more customized user experience with greater flexibility, the company said in a statement. Specifically, Auvik has rolled out three new capabilities: Northstar, a troubleshooting tool based on network path visualization; a new monitoring collection agent that runs natively on ARM64-based hardware; and an updated alerting engine, which allows for additional customized settings for alerts and notifications.

5. Trek10 gains another AWS competency: AWS solutions provider Trek10 has gained its sixth AWS competency in retail. Trek10's other competencies include Internet of Things (IoT), Data and Analytics, DevOps, Migration and Software as a Service (SaaS), the company said. Trek10 is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Tier Services Partner and focuses exclusively on AWS. Congrats!