Channel Brief: Cytactic Launches Cyberattack Readiness Platform, Parallels Offers Promo for Citrix Migration

Happy Friday, folks! It's been a fairly busy news week, so today I'm pulling together some items from earlier in the week for you.

Cytactic is a startup that launched a cyberattack readiness platform that aims to help organizations better respond when the inevitable happens. It helps coordinate between different departments and puts customers in a crisis simulation to see how their systems and their processes work and discover any challenges or holes. They've raised $16 million in a seed round led by Evolution Equity Partners.

Another major challenge for managed services providers is finding their customers alternatives to some larger vendors. Parallels, which is part of Alludo, has a promotion running now through the end of November to help customer migrate off of Citrix.

In acquisition news, UPSTACK has acquired Denver, Colorado-based Performance Networks and Canadian telecommunications firm Bell has acquired Stratejm and CloudKettle, adding professional and managed services expertise in cybersecurity and Salesforce to its existing capabilities.

Finally, Expel has announced a strategic partnership with MSP ivision to deliver the vendor's MDR capabilities, including cyberattack detection and response across environments. This marks Expel’s first MSP partnership after the announcement of its revamped partner program in September 2023.

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. Bell Acquires Stratejm and CloudKettle: Canadian communications company Bell announced this week that it has acquired technical services companies Stratejm and CloudKettle, adding professional and managed services expertise in cybersecurity and Salesforce to its existing capabilities. These acquisitions will advance Bell's strategy to be a leader in supporting medium and large organizations' digital transformations and automation through cloud services. Combined with Bell's pure fiber and 5G networks, enterprises will benefit from an exceptional and seamless AI-powered end-to-end customer experience, the company noted.

2. Cytactic Launches With $16M to Provide Cyberattack Prep: Cyber crisis readiness and management platform Cytactic, has raised a $16M seed round of funding led by Evolution Equity Partners, a leading cybersecurity venture capital fund. In the event of a cyberattack, siloed teams that rarely, if ever, work together must collaborate—usually on an extremely tight schedule and under loads of stress. This process often includes IT teams, legal operations, PR staff, third-party consultants, insurance companies, and more. The potential for disaster is high, to say the least. Cytactic is formally launching a new cybersecurity incident response platform that consolidates crisis readiness, response, and recovery tailored to versatile business profiles and risk landscapes. The company was founded to empower organizations so that they can handle the mounting threats to their business during a cyber crisis—providing a simplified, orchestrated, step-by-step methodology involving all relevant stakeholders and roles. In short, Cytactic is able to put customers in a crisis simulation to see how their systems and their processes work and discover any challenges or holes. 

3. Parallels Offers Promo for Partners to Migrate From Citrix: Many channel partners are looking for an attractive option for their Citrix users who are frustrated with recent increases in licensing costs and delayed renewal quotes, and application services and remote desktop technology firm Parallels, which is part of the larger technology services firm Alludo, has a new promotion for customers coming from Citrix and partners supporting this migration. This offer is for new and existing channel partners, including resellers, MSPs and ISVs, who migrate customers from Citrix to Parallels RAS, Parallels DaaS or Parallels Secure Workspace before November 30, 2024. The promotion includes one free year of Parallels RAS, Parallels Secure Workspace or Parallels DaaS licensing for customers, as part of a three-year prepaid subscription with a suggested promotional standard retail price of $50,000 or greater; a 5% rebate for partners based on the suggested promotional standard retail price of qualifying subscriptions; and a rebate of up to $10,000 for certified gold and platinum partners providing deployment and migration assistance to customers transitioning from Citrix and entering into a three-year prepaid subscription with a suggested promotional standard retail price of $100,000 or greater.

4. Expel Partners With ivision on MDR: Expel has announced a strategic partnership with MSP ivision to deliver the vendor's MDR capabilities, including cyberattack detection and response across environments, according to a statement from the companies. This marks Expel’s first MSP partnership after the announcement of its revamped partner program in September, which was followed by the news of a significant referral partnership with Visa. Expel MDR integrates with more than 120 security and business applications and covers a wide range of environments, including cloud control planes, cloud workloads (including Kubernetes), SaaS and identity, endpoint, network, security information and event management (SIEM).

5. UPSTACK Acquires Performance Networks: UPSTACK has acquired Performance Networks, a telecommunications consulting company based in Denver, Colorado. Performance Networks specializes in sourcing and managing complex telecom networks primarily for large enterprises. The company’s consultants provide requirement analysis, design, vendor selection, contract negotiation, project management, billing and ongoing account support. As part of UPSTACK’s investment, the Performance Networks team will become part of UPSTACK, with founder and president Shawn Nus joining the company as a partner.

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