5 things, Generative AI, Mergers and Acquisitions, vCISO, Business continuity

Channel Brief: Cynomi, Keepit, Cloudflare

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A. Today’s Tech, Channel and MSP News

1. vCISO platform provider funding - vCISO platform for MSPs and MSSPs Cynomi has won $20 million in new funding, led by Canaan, with Flint Capital, s16vc, and Aloniq among the return investors. This funding will fuel Cynomi's international expansion efforts for its AI-powered vCISO platform which combines CISO-level knowledge and AI to automate many vCISO tasks.

2. New channel boss - Cloudflare has named Tom Evans as the company's first-ever Chief Partner Officer. He brings a weath of experience to the role, having grown partnership ecosystems at Palo Alto Networks, K2, and F5 Networks. Cloudflare said Evans will take its partnerships business to the next level and support the company's next phase of growth to $5 billion in annual recurring revenue. 

3. New CISO - SaaS-based backup and disaster recovery provider Keepit, has appointed Kim Larsen as new chief information security officer. Larsen has more than 20 years of leadership experience in IT and cybersecurity from government and the private sector, including NATO, EU, Verizon, Systematic, and more.

4. Sustainability assessment - Uptime Institute is launching the Uptime Institute Sustainability Assessment, an assessment and award service that helps organizations to clearly assess, benchmark, and demonstrate the sustainability credentials of their digital infrastructure to all their stakeholders, whether their applications are deployed in their own enterprise-operated data centers, as well as colocation data centers, or hosted by other third-parties such as hyperscalers or managed service providers.

5. Arrow and Microsoft Copilot - Arrow Electronics is providing Copilot for Microsoft 365 via ArrowSphere Cloud, making it readily available to channel partners in EMEA and delivering a dedicated enablement program of enablement to help resellers accelerate Copilot opportunity. The launch builds on the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program launch in January.  

6. Acquisition for observability and AIOps - Software solutions provider BMC has signed of a definitive agreement to acquire Netreo, a provider of smart and secure IT network and application observability solutions. With Netreo, the BMC Helix platform will provide customers with a full-stack, open observability, and AIOps solution. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024. 

B. In-Person MSP and Channel Partner Events

  1. Kaseya Connect - April 29-May 2, MGM Grand Resort, Las Vegas
  2. Dell Technologies World - May 20 -May 23, The Venetian, Las Vegas
  3. IT Nation Secure, (hosted by ConnectWise) June 3-5, 2024, Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, Orlando, Florida
  4. Pax8 Beyond, June 9-11, 2024, Gaylord Rockies Convention Center, Denver, Colorado
  5. FLOW Automation Conference (hosted by Rewst) – June 17- June 19, The Renaissance Tampa International Plaza Hotel, Tampa, Florida
  6. CompTIA ChannelCon, July 30 - August 1, 2024, Atlanta, Georgia, Hyatt Regency Atlanta
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.