Channel Brief: Welcome to Sharon Florentine

ChannelE2E recently welcomed one of its longest serving editors, Sharon Florentine, aboard as senior managing editor of CyberRisk Alliance channel brands. Sharon has served as our part time managing editor at ChannelE2E for the last four years, where she brought so much channel experience to the team, having worked at both CRN and Channel Insider. We're excited to have her apply her experience, knowledge and skills for us full time now.

Other big news you'll want to be aware of today includes some slow but steady growth in the PC market as organizations start to look to refreshes. That's according to market research channel firm Canalys. MSP Blue Mantis has created a new chief marketing officer role and appointed a longtime staff member to lead. We've also got some partner program news and some cybersecurity solution news, too.

Please check out our industry Mergers and Acquisitions list, updated daily, with an archive that goes all the way back to 2020. Check out the whole thing here. Scroll down for a quick view of upcoming in-person channel and MSP events at the bottom of this post (while we spiff up our industry calendar behind the scenes. It will return!)

And please send your news tips, information, and industry chatter to senior managing editor [email protected].

A. Today’s Tech, Channel and MSP News

1. Welcome to Sharon Florentine - ChannelE2E’s managing editor Sharon Florentine, who has served in the role for four years on a part time basis, has joined us full time as senior managing editor of CyberRisk Alliance's Channel Brands, including ChannelE2E. Sharon will oversee story assignments and she’ll be writing this daily column on a regular basis, too. She brings a ton of experience to the role including stints at CRN and Channel Insider. Most recently she served as managing editor at Techstrong Group. So please reach out to Sharon and introduce yourself. And be sure to send her all your tips, news releases, secrets, and industry chatter at [email protected].

2. PC market shows modest growth - The worldwide PC market had a healthy start to 2024, with total shipments of desktops and notebooks growing 3.2% annually to 57.2 million units in Q1 2024, according to analyst firm Canalys. Notebook shipments (including mobile workstations) were up 4.2% to 45.1 million units, while desktop shipments (including desktop workstations) were relatively flat, down just 0.4% at 12.1 million units. Though modest, this growth highlights the ongoing recovery in PC demand across all segments, with purchases set to accelerate throughout the year, supported by the tailwinds of Windows 11 refresh and AI-capable PCs. 

3. More efforts at AI standards - Standards organization  The Open Group has begun the process of developing open standards for AI professional practice. Its AI initiatives have been already backed by a multitude of prominent organizations, and The Open Group is looking for more to get involved as AI continues to shape the future of enterprise technology. 

4. New SASE solution - Cradlepoint, part of Ericsson, a global provider of cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions, launched its single vendor Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution, NetCloud SASE, a 5G-optimized SASE solution that enables deployment of zero trust networks, at scale, in as little as 6 minutes. 

5. Partner program launch - SaaS security provider Adaptive Shield has launched a global partner program to accelerate channel-led growth and deliver SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) technology at scale alongside local support. The Adaptive Shield Fast Forward Partner Program will cover North America, EMEA and APAC. Global partners include GuidePoint Security, Trace3, Defy Security, Optiv, EVOTEK, WWT, EverSec Group, CSG, Macnica and Netpoleon ANZ.

6. New MSP CMO - Managed services, cybersecurity and cloud solutions provider Blue Mantis has promoted Sarah Foote to a new position chief marketing officer (CMO), the first CMO in company history. In her expanded role, Foote will continue to lead the marketing and communications efforts of the company, driving brand awareness through public relations and social media, amplifying lead generation, and optimizing top-of-the-funnel sales conversion.  Foote joined Blue Mantis in 2022 as VP of marketing.  

7. Citrix vulnerability - Earlier this month Citrix released security updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in XenServer and Citrix Hypervisor, saying a threat actor could exploit them and take control of an affected system. More information is available in this alert from CISA. 

B. In-Person MSP and Channel Partner Events