5 things

5 Channel Partner & MSP Market News Updates: 28 March 2023

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It's Tuesday evening. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to wind up your day on March 28, 2023.

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  • Who We Serve: Content for managed services providers (MSPs), IT service providers (ITSPs), cybersecurity consultants, technology solutions providers (TSPs), systems integrators, VARs, independent software vendors (ISVs), distributors and any other partner acronym that further caffeinates our already stellar SEO.
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Today’s Technology and MSP Partner Program News

  1. Ransomware hit hard last year: Cloud-first security provider Barracuda Networks has released its 2023 Ransomware Insights Survey which showed that 73% of organizations surveyed reported being hit with at least one successful ransomware attack in 2022, and 38% said they were hit twice or more. Organizations hit multiple times were more likely to say they had paid the ransom, and they were less likely to use a data backup system to help them recover.
  2. Is the metaverse a ghost town?: Disney is eliminating its 50-person metaverse division, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The move is part of a broader restructuring that will reduce headcount by around 7,000 across the company in the next two months. Not all companies are abandoning the metaverse. When Meta announced layoffs in late 2022, it said it was concentrating resources in a few strategic areas including AI and the metaverse.
  3. Alibaba splitting apart: Multinational tech and retail company Alibaba has announced plans to split into six business groups and potentially pursue independent fundraising or IPOs. Alibaba Group will follow a holding company management model while each business group will be managed by its own CEO and board. The six business groups will be the Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics, Global Digital Commerce Group, and Digital Media and Entertainment Group.
  4. New boss at acquisitive MSP: South Jordan, Utah-based MSP Executech, which has grown through acquisition in recent years, has a new chief executive officer. Naomi Shine has been appointed to the top job at the company, succeeding DJ Dorff who had served in the role since 2018 and now takes on the role as executive chairman.
  5. New anti-phishing tool: Thirdera has launched Attentive: Advanced Phishing Response, as a new cybersecurity solution for ServiceNow users. The tool leverages ServiceNow features to accelerate time-to-contain and time-to-resolution for phishing incidents.
Jessica C. Davis

Jessica C. Davis is Editorial Director of CyberRisk Alliance’s channel brands — MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E. She also oversees content and programming for the MSSP Alert Live event. She has spent a career as a journalist covering the business of technology including chips, software, the cloud, AI, and cybersecurity. She previously served as Editor in Chief of Channel Insider and later of MSP Mentor where she was one of the first editors to oversee the creation and vision of the MSP 501 list.