With layoffs in the news almost daily and the calendar year coming to an end, there are a lot of folks out there looking for jobs.
Forbes has a piece this week on the skills employers are looking for and what potential employees need to be successful.
It seems, according to the Forbes article, that employers are placing much greater value on skills related to cognitive abilities, self-sufficiency skills and skills for working with others, according to the Future of Jobs 2023 report, prepared by the World Economic Forum. There's not as much emphasis on the harder technology skills, at least in this view.
Interpersonal skills, working with others, adaptability are all at the top of the list, followed by full-stack development, Python, SQL and Java, but then creative thinking is listed, followed by AI and machine learning. Check it out 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. Kaseya acquires SaaS Alerts: Kaseya, at its DattoCon conference this week, announced it has acquired SaaS Alerts to add cloud-based user security to its platform. CEO Fred Voccola said the company will add the user security option to its Kaseya 365 offering at a promotional price of $2.79 per user per month. The addition will expand the company’s detection and response capabilities, extending those to user behavior in the cloud. Kaseya’s capability expansion and acquisition emphasized what has become a key strategic directive and opportunity for MSPs in today’s market – protecting and defending small and mid-sized businesses from cybersecurity threats. While Kaseya has previously offered endpoint detection and response (EDR) and managed detection and response (MDR), among other offerings, the SaaS Alerts acquisition fills a gap that targets cloud-based user security in apps.
2. Blue Mantis acquires SME Solutions Group: Managed services provider Blue Mantis has acquired SME Solutions Group, Inc. (SME), which specializes in business intelligence, data enablement, analytics and IT/professional services. Terms were not disclosed. SME is a data and IT services and solutions provider headquartered in Tampa, FL with operations and customers across the U.S. and Canada. With the acquisition, Blue Mantis is launching a new data enablement and analytics practice led by Chris Moyer, founder, former president and CEO of SME. Moyer will serve as vice president, data enablement and analytics practice.
3. Armis raises $200 million in Series D funding: Enterprise device detection and protection platform developer Armis has landed a $200 million investment from a Series D funding round, the company said in a statement. With this latest round, the company's valuation increased to $4.3 billion, which was $1.3 billion more than its most recent investment round three years ago. The funds, which come after Armis reached $200 million in annual recurring revenue, will be allocated toward accelerating product development and studying opportunities for acquisition as it aims to reach an ARR of $500 million by 2026, when the firm is reported to be planning to stage an IPO.
4. Socure acquires Effective for fraud detection: Nevada-based digital identity verification and predictive analytics firm Socure will acquire California-based real-time fraud and risk decisioning technology provider Effectiv. The $136 million deal is poised to be finalized next month, according to SecurityWeek. The Effectiv team will be folded into Socure, leveraging the former's platform to facilitate automated risk and trust decisions from a single platform, noted Socure. Aside from gaining real-time payment fraud and anti-money laundering transaction tracking capabilities, Socure's acquisition of Effectiv would also allow the creation and importation of dedicated machine learning models tailored to enterprises' customer risk profiling needs.
5. EasyDMARC names new channel sales leader: Email security firm EasyDMARC is doubling down on its MSP strategy, bringing on Allan Richards as global MSP growth lead to help build out the company's partner network, the company said in a statement. Richards is a seasoned cybersecurity channel sales expert with nearly two decades of experience. He has a proven track record of driving partner growth and revenue, most recently as channel sales manager at OpenText. Prior to that, he spent over 10 years at AppRiver, which was acquired by OpenText in 2021. At AppRiver, Richards played a key role in developing and executing successful channel sales strategies. At EasyDMARC, Richards will be responsible for strengthening EasyDMARC’s global partner relationships, particularly across the US, UK, and ANZ regions. Congratulations!
In-Person MSP and Channel Partner Events
- Kaseya Dattocon, October 28-30, 2024, Fontainebleau, Miami Beach, Florida
- Ingram Micro One, November 6-8, Gaylord Resort, Washington DC
- IT Nation Connect, November 6-8, Orlando, Florida
- OpenText World, November 19-21, The Venetian Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada
- AWS re:Invent 2024, December 2-6, Las Vegas, Nevada