Channel Brief: Pia Launches AI Features for MSPs

Cyber insurance is a hot topic for MSPs and MSSPs.

A recent report from Gallagher Re, a leading global reinsurance broker, evaluated Bitsight analytics of security performance data of 62,000 organizations across 67 countries and its own proprietary database containing cybersecurity incidents and claims.

The study concluded that poor performance in certain key areas increased an organization’s risk of experiencing a cybersecurity incident and subsequent claim, while strong performance implied a lower risk of an incident.

In other words, Gallagher Re found, there are key predictors of cybersecurity risk that are strongly statistically correlated to cybersecurity incidents but have traditionally been overlooked. By getting rid of these risk factors, organizations can significantly reduce their risk.

These include IP address count -- the number of IP addresses a company maintains; this is its ‘cyber footprint’, which is not a widely used metric -- and certain single point of failure (SPoF) data that is predictive of claims. This data enables insurers to assess portfolio exposures to particular services and vendors (e.g., AWS) across their portfolios, but this is a comparatively less developed dataset when compared with risk factors like patching cadence. Super interesting stuff! Check out the report 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. Pia launches AI-powered suite to ease MSP pain points: AI-led help desk automation platform Pia is introducing a comprehensive set of new features designed to address critical pain points of MSP help desk operations. These innovations — AI-powered AutoTriage, AutoStart, Auto Time Logging, Auto Close, a new auto-reply feature in SmartForms, and a streamlined Integration Experience — elevate service desk efficiency, reduce operational costs, and ensure a consistent service delivery experience, Pia said. Early adopters can access these features now, with general availability expected by mid-December 2024.

2. Tata, NVIDIA team up to speed AI adoption: IT services and consulting services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced an expanded partnership with NVIDIA to help customers across industries adopt AI faster and at scale. The partnership comes amid a global race to adopt AI alongside a lack of practical consensus on adoption strategy, as noted in the recent TCS AI for Business Study. TCS and NVIDIA have been partners for five years, and this expansion will create an NVIDIA-focused business unit that brings together TCS’s expertise in AI implementation with the NVIDIA AI framework and AI Stack.

3. Swimlane names new CFO: Security automation firm Swimlane has named Bob Parker as the company's new CFO. Parker was previously CFO at SentinelOne. Parker brings extensive financial and business leadership to Swimlane and has a solid track record of scaling revenue, building high-performing teams, and consistently exceeding financial targets, the company said in a statement. He is credited with building out the operational and financial infrastructure for SentinelOne pre-IPO, contributing to a more than 12x valuation increase during his tenure. Parker also served as the CFO for Circulor and SnapLogic and was the head of corporate financial planning and analysis at NetApp. He currently serves on the board of directors for Vali Cyber. Congratulations!

4. Boomi integrates with Veeva Vault: This week, platform-as-a-service company Boomi announced the launch of its new Veeva Vault connector, which simplifies integration between third-party applications and the Veeva Vault platform. The Boomi connector is aimed at life sciences and pharmaceutical industries, streamlining connectivity with APIs and data, and offers business process automation and cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployment capabilities.

5. Sonar names new VP of federal government: Sonar this week announced Nathan Jones is joining the company as VP of federal government to lead Sonar's federal government business and expand its dedicated team in the D.C. area, the company said in a statement. Jones has over 25 years of experience, including two decades at Red hat, and extensive experience in the federal market and a deep understanding of software development. He is also passionate about open source and the federal community. He is a leader of AFCEA in Washington, D.C., and an original member of the Coalition for Enterprise Open Source Software in Government. As VP of federal at Red Hat, he personally executed some of the company's largest single software transactions and directly contributed to it becoming the first open-source software company with $1 billion in ARR. Congratulations!