Channel Brief: Insight to Seek Buyers for Tricentis, SlashNext Launches Project Phantom

Are AI PCs the next big thing? A new whitepaper from CRN, 'Unlocking AI's PCs Potential', sponsored by TD SYNNEX and HP, explores the benefits of AI PCs and how this technology can drive substantial business value.

AI PCs have major potential to boost productivity due to their integrated neural processing units that handle complex tasks more efficiently than traditional processors, according to the whitepaper. This hardware innovation allows for faster data processing, which translates to quicker task completion and improved workflow efficiency. They can also improve user experience and offer greater security and data protection.

It's even claimed that the PCs themselves are more energy efficient and can help organizations meet 'green' targets, but whether that offsets power-hungry LLMs and other AI and generative AI processing power needs remains to be seen.

While many big vendors like Dell and HP are betting on AI-enabled hardware, the profit and revenue haven't quite kept up. As we reported yesterday, Dell is continuing to lay off portions of its workforce to control costs as, overall, the profitability of AI-enabled hardware, including servers, sold by Dell and other large vendors like Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., is a concern. These servers need expensive computer chips made by companies like NVIDIA Corp. In the most recent quarter, Dell said that a higher mix of AI servers hurt margins, but reported improved profit compared with the previous period, according to Bloomberg. And PC sales haven't rebounded as anticipated after a two-year decline.

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. Insight Partners considering sale of Tricentis: Investment firm Insight Partners is exploring the sale of Tricentis, a AI-powered software testing solutions firm, and has enlisted investment bank Evercore to seek out potential buyers, according to a report from Reuters. If successful, such a deal could value Tricentis over $4 billion, reflecting its strong market position and advanced technology. The firm boasts over 2,500 clients, including Accenture and Coca-Cola, and reported $430 million in revenue and nearly $86 million in EBITDA, according to Finimize. Of course, there's no guarantee a sale will happen, and Insight Partners may even decide to keep a minority stake in the company.

2. SlashNext's Project Phantom stealthily IDs phishing: SlashNext last week launched Project Phantom, which are zero-trust stealth mode browsers used by the company's messaging security platform. They are designed to see through obfuscation techniques commonly used by threat actors and protect against phishing and malware for all customers. With Zero-Trust Stealth Mode Browsers, SlashNext can bypass obfuscation techniques employed by CAPTCHA services from Cloudflare, Google, and others. Additionally, these browsers uniquely uncover advanced threats hosted on trusted services like SharePoint, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe—constituting 50% of the threats SlashNext detects daily, the company said in a statement.

3. Cynomi names Tim Coach to chief evangelist role: Cynomi this week named industry Channel Chief Tim Coach to the role of chief evangelist of community and channels. In addition to representing Cynomi at industry events and supporting the company’s mission, he will be responsible for continually improving and growing channel relationships, leading community initiatives and enhancing the global partner experience, Cynomi said in a statement. Coach is a well-known, seasoned veteran in the MSP community with several decades of experience in the industry and multiple leadership positions in his track record. Most recently, he served as global channel chief at Pia and had a crucial role in the company’s positioning as a market leader. Congratulations!

4. Reveille launches Sentry for Microsoft 365: Reveille announced it has launched Sentry for Microsoft 365, which includes support for SharePoint Embedded and Microsoft 365 (M365), Backup solutions, and advanced user analytics for Teams, Copilot and Entra ID activities, the company said in a statement. Sentry also includes expanded Azure integration, including Teams Workflow, Azure Monitor and Azure Sentinel for greater insights and control. The new solution helps MSPs, resellers and systems integrators scale their offerings and efficiently observe, monitor and expand customers’ M365 application stacks, Reveille said.

5. Druva unveils Dru Investigate for data security forensics: Data security solutions company Druva has launched Dru Investigate, a generative AI-powered tool that guides data security investigations using a natural language interface. With Dru Investigate, users across IT, security, legal, and privacy teams can swiftly identify and mitigate data risks without needing to write complicated queries, the company said in a statement. Dru Investigate is built on Amazon Bedrock, an AWS service used to build and scale generative AI applications with foundation models, and aims to simplify investigative processes and drive faster remediation and recovery from a threat or to uphold rigorous data compliance.