Larger Premium Dell XPS Laptop Line Gets New 15- and 17-Inch Models

Dell’s new XPS-17 is the first 17-inch version of the XPS in nearly a decade.

Dell is expanding its premium mobile computing line with the rollout of new XPS-15 and XPS-17 laptops.

The upgraded models with 15-inch and 17-inch displays were both long overdue for refreshes. While Dell upgrades its compact 13-inch XPS-13 at least once per year, the company left the 17-inch model for dead. Dell said its last XPS-17 came out nearly a10 years ago. Likewise, the company hasn’t released a major new XPS-15 system in five years.

Dell’s XPS is the high end of its consumer portfolio, but the vendor sells them through both retail and commercial channels. Targeted at content creators, given its starting price is well over $1,000, the XPS appeals to business users and executives.

The smaller XPS-13 is popular among traveling professionals since it is small and lightweight.. Now that most professionals work at home, it appears Dell is betting many may want heftier, more powerful systems.

Based on the specs and descriptions Dell revealed Wednesday, the new XPS-15 and XPS-17 laptops should deliver.

At the high end, Dell is billing its XPS-17 as its most powerful XPS laptop to date. It runs Intel’s 10^th Generation Core processors and is available with up to 64GB of RAM and with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card and its Max-Q design.

The Dell XPS-17. The picture at the top of this page is the XPS-15.

“Packing this much performance into a laptop this size required unparalleled engineering ingenuity,” said Donnie Oliphant, Dell’s senior director of client solutions, in a presentation shared with media and analysts. “Under the hood, you’ll find a brand-new thermal design that allows more airflow and more performance to ensure you can tackle your most demanding workloads.”

New Dell XPS Laptop Specs

Set to ship this summer, the XPS-17 is just 19.5 mm thick and offers the portfolio’s hallmark razor thin bezels. A new design featuring dual opposite outlet fans to expand airflow lets it run up to 92 watts of power.

The XPS-17 is available with HDR displays, 500-nit panes, Dolby Vision and 4k resolution. Although it has a 17-inch display, Dell claims it is smaller than almost half (48%) of 15-inch laptops available today. It includes four USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, two DisplayPorts, a full-size SD card reader and a 3.5 mm headphone/microphone combo jack. Depending on configuration, the XPS-17 models can weigh between 4.65 and 5.5 pounds.

Meanwhile, the Dell XPS-15, available immediately, is also equipped with Intel’s 10th Generation Core processor and an option for NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics accelerators. It is thinner than the XPS-17, measuring 18mm, and can support up to 55 watts of power. It starts at $1,299. Weighing more than four pounds, the XPS-15 comes with one USB-C 3.1 port with power delivery, a full-size SD card reader, 3.5-inch audio jack and two Thunderbolt 3 displays. The USB-C and Thunderbolt ports include DisplayPort support.

The new systems also support the recently upgraded Dell Mobile Connect tool, which integrates smartphones with Dell’s newer XPS models. It originally only worked with Android phones, but Dell recently added support for iOS devices as well. The software lets users dial and receive calls, handle texts, see notifications and move files between the phone and PC.

Dell is also offering software that will let partners or tech-savvy customers migrate older Windows PCs to the new systems.

The new Dell Migrate tool moves data and system settings from any Windows 8 PC to new Dell PCs. It specifically works with new XPS, Inspiron and Alienware systems. Available immediately, the tool costs $39.

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Recruiting and Retaining Security Leadership Rests on Deepening Your Bench

Here are tips on recruiting and retaining CISOs.

Recruiting and retaining qualified CISOs and their lieutenants is challenging in the best of times. It’s even more difficult during a pandemic when the new work-from-home environment often impedes work relationships and dampens company loyalties.

A new report by Kudelski Security and its Client Advisory Council (CAC), a cybersecurity think tank, illuminates several skills to help identify prime new recruits or to develop in existing personnel to build and deepen the successor bench.

Among the report’s top findings:

• CISOs should have a 50/50 balance of technical and soft skills like communication, relationship building and executive presence. But the report found this talent mix to be extremely rare.
• In terms of key CISO skills, 82% of those interviewed say communications skills are critical. That compares to just 52% who believe hands-on technology experience is critical.
• The highest percentage of respondents (29%) say governance, risk and compliance positions are the best pre-CISO role. But the report lists a wide range of previous jobs that can also lead to a CISO position.

To gain these insights, the researchers said they surveyed C-level and VP-level security leaders from companies. Those include Aaron’s, AES Corp., BKW, Blue Cross Blue Shield, BNP Paribas, Capital One, Technicolor, Urenco and Zebra Technologies.

Michael Zachman is CSO, Zebra Technologies, and one of the contributing Council members.

Zebra Technologies’ Michael Zachman

“Given the current challenges we face, CISOs and CSOs need to work both internally and externally to build a pipeline of new security leaders,” said Zachman.

While today’s pandemic environment might make recruiting and retaining security talent more challenging, it’s also making more trainable talent available.

Dismal Employment Numbers

According to Janco Associates, a management consulting firm, COVID-19 cost 102,300 IT pros their jobs in April alone.

“IT pros who do not have a job are finding it difficult to even find contract work,” said Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco.

Janco’s Victor Janulaitis

“Many companies are directing IT functions to facilitate the support of non-IT professionals with new and enhanced internet driven applications for telecommuters,” Janulaitis added. “The demand for contractor help in this effort was high initially, but now is nonexistent. All of this has put IT professionals the same state as the rest of the labor market.”

Companies can look to that pool of workers to develop more security talent, as IT professionals have experience in both technical and security work.

But this available talent pool will shrink some too. Janco predicts IT hiring will resume by the end of the year, but has cut its forecast for overall IT job market growth to just over 40,000 for 2020.

“Regardless of how you choose to staff teams, it is important to identify employees with institutional knowledge, communication skills and some ambition for career growth who can become security leaders with the right training and mentorship,” said Zachman.

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VDI Solutions Improve Support for Remote Workers

Scale Computing and Leostream are partnering to support organizations’ adoption of VDI solutions.

Recent world events leading into 2020 have reinforced many of your customers’ needs for more flexible computing options for their remote workers. Organizations around the world have been taking the necessary steps to support a distributed workforce for an indefinite future. Many organizations that had previously implemented virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions found themselves better prepared to support their workers remotely. Those that have not yet implemented VDI should now give it proper consideration.

Last quarter, Scale Computing, in cooperation with Leostream, introduced a work-from-home strategy using some VDI solution components that allowed IT administrators to quickly react to the immediate need to connect users remotely to their existing corporate workstations. Many of those who adopted that strategy are now taking a step back to look more strategically at how they may best support work-from-home employees in the future.

A full VDI solution done correctly requires forethought and planning. Now that most organizations have met their immediate needs in providing remote work options for employees, a closer look at VDI can be taken. Scale Computing is here to help. We have partnered with Leostream to provide VDI solutions to organizations of all sizes. Our experts are ready to help you understand how VDI can be deployed successfully and at a lower cost for nearly any size organization.

To help ease the transition from traditional desktop solutions to VDI, Scale Computing is currently offering a free hyperconverged infrastructure appliance with the purchase of three appliances of equal or greater value. This offer allows organizations to acquire a powerful, highly available, easy to deploy and easy to manage infrastructure for their VDI solution. In addition, Scale Computing is offering Leostream VDI licenses at a 25% discount on top of the free appliance offer. Our partners are welcome to make this same offer of a free appliance and the 25% discount on Leostream VDI licenses.

We believe lowering the acquisition cost of our VDI solution will make it easier for organizations to make the decision to adopt a VDI solution, but the real value is far beyond the discount we are currently offering. Our HC3 infrastructure solution lowers the total cost of the solution compared to competing virtualization technologies by being easier to deploy, easier to manage and easier to scale out when needed. VDI solutions have traditionally been complex to deploy and manage because of the underlying infrastructure required. Scale Computing HC3 simply makes it easier and more accessible for organizations of all sizes.

Not only can VDI on HC3 make remote working easier, but it can enhance data security by keeping sensitive data within the corporate network and not exposing the corporate network to employees’ private networks through VPN connections. BYOD support can provide flexible options for workers on the devices of their choice while maintaining data security for their desktop workloads.

This free appliance offer is available through June 30. We would like to talk to you at your convenience to understand how you can help your customers meet their needs with VDI. We welcome you to contact us at [email protected] or 877-722-5359.

If you prefer to research on your own first, you may like to start with one of the following resources from Scale Computing:

White Paper

Introduction to Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – VDI with Scale Computing HC3®

Webinar

HC3 and Leostream: VDI for the Rest of Us

Web Page

Scale Computing Partner: Leostream

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship

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Juniper Networks Vet Promoted to Lead Nutanix Channel Partner Program

Also unveiled are new features for its hyperconverged infrastructure platform, including built-in disaster recovery.

Hired last year to run Nutanix’s Americas channel sales, Christian Alvarez will now lead the global Nutanix channel partner program.

Alvarez came to Nutanix from Juniper Networks, where he was worldwide head of channels and distribution. He worked for Juniper for four years.

As the new senior vice president of worldwide channels, Alvarez is in charge of the company’s channel community and strategy. That includes developing global sales and distribution programs for VARs, distributors, OEMs, global system integrators, telco partners and others.

Nutanix’s Christian Alvarez

Alvarez said he wants to lead Nutanix’s worldwide partner organization through its next phase of growth.

Alvarez joined Nutanix in September as vice president of channel sales for the Americas. Just five months later, the company named him interim head of worldwide partner sales. As the COVID-19 pandemic struck, he has helped partners and customers react to help their redistributed work-from-home users. He also led the development of a special financing program to help partners alleviate cash flow concerns during the crisis.

Chris Kaddaras is Nutanix’s executive vice president of worldwide sales. He’s all-in on Alvarez.

“Christian is an innovator and a strategic thinker, spearheading new offerings and contributing to collaboration across the organization,” said Kaddaras. “Christian is ideally suited to execute on our global mission to help both our partners and customers adapt to and enable virtual work.”

Until Nutanix hires a new Americas regional channel sales leader, Alvarez will continue to lead that effort as well.

Nutanix endured some growing pains in 2019. A year ago, the company saw its global channel chief leave after only 15 months on the job. In addition, its chief revenue officer also left after lower than expected revenue guidance was reported. Those developments came nine months after the company’s president departed to head a big data vendor.

Nutanix HCI Gets Platform Upgrades

Nutanix on Wednesday also announced several enhancements to its hyperconverged infrastructure platform, including built-in multisite disaster recovery tools. Also included is advanced automation for recovering applications and data, as well as support for synchronous replication for AHV workloads. And it also supports near-zero data loss with near sync replication for recovery point objective (RPO) times of 20 seconds.

The Nutanix platform’s ability to support multisite DR allows enterprises to recover faster from simultaneous data center failures. The synchronous replication of data between multiple locations now is natively supported on the Nutanix AHV hypervisor. AHV works with a wide range of critical workloads, including virtual desktop infrastructure, databases and general server virtualization.

Nutanix’s Greg Smith

The new built-in disaster recovery capabilities make things easier for partners and customers. So says Greg Smith, product marketing VP at Nutanix, told Channel Futures.

“Business continuity is now more important than ever and, with this release, Nutanix partners will be able to deliver a native, comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery solutions to their customers,” Smith told Channel Futures. “Before, customers looking to implement strong disaster recovery plans for critical applications had to deploy complex, often disparate technologies that demanded specialized, ongoing administration. Now, with the new capabilities in Nutanix HCI, AHV customers can deliver disaster recovery applications with significantly less complexity and without real-time management.”

Naveen Chhabra, analyst with Forrester Research, said the updates will allow a Nutanix channel partner to solve customer needs more easily.

“They can new confidently sell a single packaged solution,” said Chhabra. “Up until now, if a client needed data replication, they would have to rely on other companies. Now partners can sell one solution from one vendor.”

That is helpful for managed services providers (MSPs), particularly those who standardize on the Nutanix platform, he said.

“This makes a lot of sense. There will be fewer integration needs. And integrations break, and then things don’t work,” said Chhabra. “This simplifies that and removes those potential problems.”

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Might Apple Take On AWS, Azure and Google in Cloud?

Speculation is rampant that Apple could be the next big public cloud provider.

This early-in-the-week cloud news roundup highlights a range of activity. First, the question of a possible leap into the cloud game by one of Silicon Valley’s most vaunted companies. Then, a partnership featuring a Google Cloud-only MSP. We wrap with highlights from a China-based cloud computing vendor.

Apple Getting Into the Cloud Game?

Is Apple preparing to launch a cloud computing platform to go up against AWS, Azure and Google?

That’s the question posed over at tech site Protocol, which spotted a recent trend: Apple has hired several software engineers known for their expertise in containers and Kubernetes. Plus, the company has posted dozens of cloud-centric jobs over the past few months, as well as this week.

The new hires of note include Michael Crosby, who used to be at Docker and has proven integral to container development; Arun Gupta, who came from AWS and now leads Apple’s open-source efforts as senior engineering manager; Maksym Pavlenko, also from AWS, who now works as a software development engineer; and Francesc Campoy, from Google, who is working on Apple’s Kubernetes efforts as engineer manager – developer experience.

Apple may just be interested in supporting its applications and other services through its own private cloud platform, rather than continuing to use AWS and Azure. Or, it could be gearing up to compete for its share of world’s lucrative cloud revenue. And if so, that sounds like more opportunity for the channel.

Maven Wave Adds Snowflake’s Data Analytics to Portfolio

Managed service provider Maven Wave and cloud data warehousing vendor Snowflake have joined forces.

Todd Truesdell is managing director, data analytics at Maven Wave.

Maven Wave’s Todd Truesdell

“We view Snowflake as one of the go-to platforms for cloud data analytics,” said Truesdell.

The deal, of course, adds another revenue stream for Maven Wave. But the bigger picture is that teaming with Snowflake helps Maven Wave customers avoid cloud vendor lock-in, Truesdell told Channel Futures.

“Snowflake technology offers clients an alternative to the native cloud data analytics platform that the three major clouds provide,” Truesdell said.

Because Snowflake runs on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud (as of February), enterprises can reduce reliance on a single vendor, Truesdell said.

There’s more to the partnership as well.

“We also see ‘data exchanges’ having significant growth as more companies share their data with their other business partners,” Truesdell said. “Snowflake is on the forefront of this with its data exchange, which offers clients a mechanism for monetizing on their data with other business partners, suppliers and so on.”

Maven Wave says it’s the first Google Cloud partner to launch such a partnership with Snowflake. The MSP’s clients will get access to Snowflake’s training and support, as well as a certification program.

Katie Ecklund is director of SI partnerships, Americas at Snowflake.

“It’s the perfect fit, given Maven Wave’s deep expertise in Google Cloud and data analytics,” said Ecklund. “This partnership will elevate their ability to help enterprises realize the true value of their data.”

For its part, Snowflake achieved general availability on Google Cloud in February after months of initial legwork; that pairing combines Snowflake’s platform with Google Cloud’s AI, machine learning and analytics capabilities, the companies said. Snowflake already worked with AWS and Microsoft Azure. The company serves more than 3,000 users worldwide, including eight of the top 10 Fortune 500 firms.

Tencent Cloud Eyes Expansion in Japan

Tencent Cloud, part of China’s internet services behemoth Tencent holdings, aims to triple its sales in Japan this year, according to a Japan Times report.

This could bode well for the channel; Tencent distributes through resellers, consultants, developers and service providers.

Tencent has targeted Japan since last year but now wants to broaden its focus beyond gaming enterprises.

“We want to develop together in the fields where Japan leads the world, including games, cars and medical services,” Zhao Jiannan, managing director of Tencent Cloud for Northeast Asia, told Japan Times.

Such a strategy will more directly pit Tencent against AWS, Azure and Google. Indeed, recent statistics from Synergy Research Group show Tencent gaining significant traction in the cloud computing market. This may put more pressure on the vendors while also giving channel partners more options.

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Scale Computing Launches New Class of HC3 Appliances

The new performance tier targets performance-intensive applications.

Scale Computing is out with a new class of HC3 appliances that target database analytics and high-density virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments.

The vendor, which historically targets infrastructure for SMBs, and more recently edge computing, launched the new HC3250DF HCI appliance. It is designed for performance computing for enterprises and SMBs, from the core data center to the edge.

Craig Theriac is director of product management at Scale Computing.

Scale Computing’s Craig Theriac

“HC3 brings together four pillars. Those are simplicity, availability, scalability and affordability,” Theriac told Channel Futures.

Scale says the latest device can get up and running quickly. The integrated platform includes software, servers and storage. The HC3250DF is an all-NVMe device, the first in Scale Computing’s product line. And users don’t have to worry about VMware. The company relies on a KVM-based HyperCore hypervisor.

Expanding Portfolio

Like all Scale Computing HC3 appliances, the HC3250DF features intelligent automation for self-healing and high availability. This keeps clusters running through component and appliance failures. It also features integrated disaster recovery capabilities that protect data and workloads at remote sites for fast failover and recovery.

Scale says the HC3250DF is an ideal application platform for core data center and edge computing use cases where IoT, ease-of-use, high availability and TCO matter. This includes retail, industrial, finance, remote office/back office and mobile platforms.

Scale Computing’s Scott Mann

“This device becomes a differentiator for our partners,” said Scott Mann, director North America channel at Scale Computing. “It is an exciting new technology with all-flash NVMe, offered at an affordable price point.”

Scale Computing is a channel-led company with more than 1,000 global partners.

The vendor recently rolled out a new partner portal and launched new training certification courses. The first phase of training is for a technical and sales certification. A second phase will begin next quarter. This will include more advanced technical and sales training.

The HC3250DF will be available next quarter.

Last June, Scale Computing announced the HE500 series of edge appliances. The company says that new edge family helps companies looking for reliable, easy-to-deploy and affordable infrastructure at the network’s edge.

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IoT Security Company Ordr Formalizes Channel Partner Program

The IoT security company’s channel strategy kicked in from day one.

Ordr, an IoT security company, on Tuesday said it is expanding and formalizing its global partner program. In doing so, the company creates more ways for partners to make money with the channel-focused startup.

Founded in 2015 by former Aruba executives, Ordr early on understood the value of growing with partners.

Ordr’s Greg Murphy

“From the outset we knew we needed to be a channel-first company,” Greg Murphy, president and CEO, told Channel Futures. “I saw that from my years of work at Aruba. Getting the understanding of how channel partners give you breadth, but also bring the expertise to enable organizations to successfully absorb and use solutions such as ours.”

Murphy refers to the Ordr Systems Control Engine (SCE), an actionable AI-based systems control engine for the hyperconnected enterprise. Ordr SCE, which debuted last fall, identifies and classifies devices in the environment. It regulates device flow and behavior, and delivers closed loop security. And, Ordr SCE provides businesses with system utilization.

The IoT security company addresses the challenge of unmanaged IoT and OT devices connected in the enterprise. These devices include things such as building systems, connected medical devices, and manufacturing infrastructure. Also, many devices that are unfamiliar to the organization, they don’t know what to do with and have a hard time protecting them.

Channel Investment

Eric Berkman, a channel veteran with ties to Cisco, OpenDNX and Citrix, joined Ordr as senior director of worldwide channel in October. Berkman is responsible for expanding the company’s global, and invitation-only, partner program.

“We want to work and focus on partners that can bring best-of-breed capabilities and expertise with our solution.” said Berkman. “A lot of times, channel programs are one-size-fits-all. We’re a dynamic startup organization with a channel-first model and our partner program has a lot of flexible choices.”

What that means is doing what’s best for the partners. So the program supports referral selling, authorized resellers, assessment partners and MSPs.

Strategic growth of the partner program is in terms of regions and verticals. In North America, Ordr is building pipeline with between 20 and 40 partners in a given quarter.

Partner Fit

The IoT security company is interested in partners that have made investments in cybersecurity, as well as strong networking experts.

“Partners with strong networking expertise with companies like HPE, Juniper or Cisco absolutely understand how the network is being asked to do more from a security context. They also have more visibility and awareness that more devices are being asked to traverse the network they’re managing and maintaining — and what that means to them,” said Berkman.

Additionally, Ordr looks for partners who have made investments in verticals such as industrial IoT and health care infrastructure, where there are a lot of IoT devices. Ordr industry solutions include health care, hospitality, enterprise, government, tech manufacturing, retail and transportation.

Ordr offers partners ongoing technical and sales training, joint solution development and selling, multivendor infrastructure integrations and field marketing support. Channel support also includes plug-and-play demo kits, joint sales and marketing, account protection and referral compensation. Additionally, the program offers a chance for partners to become Ordr professional services subcontractors.

Assessment Partners

What is an assessment partner?

According to Berkman, some partners are doing assessments around network segmentation specific to IoT using Ordr technology in that process. Other partners focus on an IoT message around discovery.

“That looks at the IoT devices a company has today and how they’re forecasting growth for the next 24-36 months. Also, they’re having a conversation about beginning the process of taking inventory and how to start protecting and maximizing the devices in the environment,” he explained.

Ordr makes its software available so partners can wrap it into their service offerings. Assessment is often the first phase of giving a customer visibility into what they haven’t seen before.

“The assessment of risk leads to a strategy conversation about products a customer needs and how to operationally implement that strategy,” said Murphy. ‘That’s a real value-added service for partners to bring.”

Partners need to know that Ordr understands the need to work with existing security and network infrastructure tools.

“As we are grabbing information across the network in a passive, agentless manner, we use machine learning to understand what the device is doing. When we integrate with the switch, firewalls and network access control tools – made by Aruba, Cisco, etc. – we’re automatically building and generating policies that those tools operate in. Those policies get ingested into the existing infrastructure. We utilize the existing daily tools of the organization,” said Berkman.

The company also has integrations into ServiceNow and Nuvolo.

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