Joe "Joe Kovar" Kovar

The New ‘Frontier Partners’: Selling Change, Not Technology Futurum’s Tiffany Bova told distributors and vendors that a new breed of channel partners, called frontier partners, are selling change that comes with AI instead of products.

IT distributors/vendors looking for success in the fast-moving world of AI will need to connect with a new breed of channel partner not focused on selling tech. Tiffani Bova called them "frontier partners," and talked about their impact.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/2wz5ufdn

I guess the assumption is, it's about DEI, and that's all we need to know.

Wow. Two Friday the 13ths in a row.

Is that particularly bad luck or what?

EchoStor Acquired Pennant Networks In Big Life Sciences Managed Services Play EchoStor Technologies’ acquisition of fellow MSP Pennant Networks gives it a big boost in the life sciences vertical.

IT solution provider EchoStor Tuesday unveiled the acquisition of Pennant Networks, a fellow solution provider and MSP with a focus on the life sciences vertical. I had a nice talk with the leaders of the two organizations about the deal.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/2kw8tped

NetApp CEO George Kurian On AI, Cloud Growth, Memory Shortages And What’s Next NetApp continues to grow in spite of, and perhaps because of, uncertainties in the cloud, AI, and data center infrastructure businesses.

I had a wide-ranging conversation with NetApp CEO George Kurian where he provided insights into the memory and storage component shortages, AI, cloud growth, and even the current Mideast war.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/2xy85jkc

Ericsson US Unit Reports Data Breach Tied To Third-Party Service Provider Ericsson reached out to employees and customers in the U.S. whose data was breached via a service provider last April to offer security services.

The U.S. subsidiary of Swedish multinational networking and telecom company Ericsson Monday sent notices to California and Texas state officials to report that private information of some of its employees and customers was breached.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/4rn9uhhp

AI-Based Service Intelligence Key To Boosting Ticket Management, Says Thread Exec AI-powered service ticket automation can help MSPs significantly reduce the time spent handling service calls, thereby increasing margins while better competing with fellow MSPs.

AI-based service intelligence is key to increasing the efficiency of managing service tickets as MSPs start using agents powered by intelligence with information from their knowledge base, previous tickets, and real-time events, Thread said.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/3nm83tjt

Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover

The richest man owns X.

The second and third richest men control Google.

The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post.

And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros.

See the problem here?

NetApp Posts Record All-Flash Revenue Amid Soaring Memory Prices NetApp also said AI has become an increasingly important business driver with about 300 customers choosing NetApp in the last quarter for their AI workloads.

NetApp CEO George Kurian said despite “unprecedented inflation” in memory prices that its all-flash storage drew record revenue in 3Q26.

Kurian also said 300 new customers in the third quarter selected NetApp storage for their AI workloads.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/yx8zffpp

Nvidia Hits Record Quarterly Growth, Says It’s The ‘World’s Largest Networking Business’ Nvidia said Wednesday that it saw the largest sequential growth in company history for the fourth quarter as it claimed to be the “world’s largest networking business.”

Nvidia said Wednesday that it saw the largest sequential growth in company history for the fourth quarter as it claimed to be the “world’s largest networking business.” www.crn.com/news/ai/2026...

Why AMD Is Putting $250M Behind Nutanix’s Agentic AI Push AMD will purchase $150 million in Nutanix stock and fund up to $100 million for Nutanix to use on joint engineering initiatives and go-to-market collaboration.

AMD and Nutanix Wednesday unveiled a multi-year strategic partnership aimed at developing what they called an open, full-stack AI infrastructure platform specifically for agentic AI apps. AMD is also sending Nutanix $250M.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/55ex5ek8

IT Distributors Warn Memory Shortages, Supply Chain Strains Impacting The Channel Ingram Micro, TD Synnex, Arrow, D&H, and Exclusive Networks told CRN they were making every effort to address the growing memory and storage shortage impacts.

With memory prices escalating and supplies tightening, distributors and channel partners are navigating a landscape of uncertainty, according to top executives from 5 IT distributors who met with @crndotcom.bsky.social for exclusive conversations during last week’s GTDC Summit.

tinyurl.com/bdz4vced

Inside Pure Storage’s Everpure Pivot And How 1touch Adds the Data Context It Was Missing For AI Here’s why Everpure, formerly Pure Storage, is acquiring 1touch to enhance its data classification and AI-driven contextualization capabilities.

Hello. Did anyone else besides me see that with Pure Storage's rebranding as Everpure, it chose the same name as a maker of something for deodorizing protein shakers and sports bottles, another making skin care products, and several other companies?

tinyurl.com/bptz54ae

Inside Pure Storage’s Everpure Pivot And How 1touch Adds the Data Context It Was Missing For AI Here’s why Everpure, formerly Pure Storage, is acquiring 1touch to enhance its data classification and AI-driven contextualization capabilities.

The acquisition of 1touch by Everpure, formerly known as Pure Storage, is aimed at giving the data storage and management company the data discovery, classification, enrichment, and contextualization capabilities needed for building the AI use cases of the future.

tinyurl.com/bptz54ae

Monday.com Expands Partner Capabilities With Eye On AI For Workflow Automation Monday.com relaunched its partner advisory board during the company’s annual partner summit this week.

Workflow automation management platform developer Monday.com Tuesday expanded its channel partner program with an emphasis on helping its partners bring AI to their customers’ deployments.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/4z5wp3sk

Arctiq Heats Up Managed Backup, Networking Services With Verinext Acquisition Guggenheim Partners, which own the Los Angeles Lakers and the LA Dodgers, acted as the matchmaker to bring Arctiq and Verinext together.

I updated this channel M&A story with comments from Guggenheim Partnrs which has a long history of advising channel partners on potential acquisition opportunities including Verinext.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/2hpzc6nn

Led by Pam Bondi, perhaps.

But at who's bequest?

Logicalis Acquires Maple Woods Enterprises For Advanced Cybersecurity Maple Woods Enterprises, the developer of the Overwatch advanced cybersecurity and compliance system, has partnered with Logicalis for years.

Logicalis acquired cybersecurity specialist Maple Woods Enterprises, giving it access to Maple Woods’ Overwatch advanced cybersecurity and compliance technology.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/43e2xsus

Arctiq Heats Up Managed Backup, Networking Services With Verinext Acquisition Guggenheim Partners, which own the Los Angeles Lakers and the LA Dodgers, acted as the matchmaker to bring Arctiq and Verinext together.

IT solution provider Arctiq this month closed its acquisition of fellow channel partner Verinext, bringing together two companies with virtually no geographic, customer or skillset overlap into a new channel powerhouse.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/3z3rys3y

DXC Launches Amazon Quick Practice With Itself As ‘Client Zero’ DXC is rolling out a new business practice around the Amazon Quick Suite AI-powered digital workspace starting with its own employees and branching out to customers.

Global technology services provider DXC Technology Tuesday said it has completed its enterprise-wide implementation of Amazonm Quick and is now looking to roll out the agentic AI digital platform to its enterprise clients.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/2vy5cyes

Kyndryl Stock Falls 55 Percent Following SEC Document Request, CFO And General Counsel Exits Kyndryl share prices fell about 55 percent during the day after the company unveiled key executive departures and an SEC investigation into its financial reporting.

Kyndryl Monday launched an accounting review in response to an SEC request, but said it expects no impact on its balance sheets or financial statements. The company's CFO and general counsel also suddenly departed. Share prices V55%.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/bddb28nj

Vast Data Aims For $1B Round As Demand For AI Infrastructure Surges: Report Vast Data was already one of the IT industry’s top unicorns with a valuation in late 2023 of about $9.1 billion.

Vast Data, which when it closed its last big round of funding in late 2023 said it didn’t need the money, appears to be looking at this massive round as a way to give its early investors a big return on their investment.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/5n8s3y5a

Cognizant CEO: We’re Focused On ‘Solving The AI Velocity Gap’ Cognizant’s BPO business is expected to grow for decades despite the rise of AI because of need to modernize legacy processes and operations, Kumar said.

As AI tech matures, 2026 will see AI offering transformative value, said Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar. Kumar also said Cognizant's BPO business will grow for decades despite AI as companies modernize legacy processes and operations.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/4jnzvkdm

Alphabet CEO: AI Is Driving Growth ‘Across The Board’ AI and Google Cloud led the way for Google parent company Alphabet to break the $400 billion annual revenue mark for the first time in its history.

Google parent Alphabet ended FY25 with what CEO @sundarpichaigoogle.bsky.social called a “tremendous" quarter that saw its annual revenue breach the $400 billion mark for the first time thanks to growth in its AI and Google Cloud business.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/2vuuc9nr

Robert Reich Reacts: Banned SNL Sketch About Media Control Someone told me to watch this SNL sketch about America’s “media-opoly.” It feels eerily prophetic given the Warner Bros/

This SNL sketch from 1998 about America’s “media-opoly” makes some eerily timely points.

Corporations or ultra-wealthy individuals with numerous business interests cannot be trusted to prioritize the public’s right to know over their own financial interests.

Watch.

Garbage food. Eat healthy, folks!

Also, I'm guessing the portions will be smaller?

‘ICE conveyor belt’ illegally detaining, moving Minnesota children to Texas faster than courts can respond ICE is pulling Minnesota immigrant families with legal status out of their driveways, homes and school commutes and send

ICE is running a “conveyor belt” of illegally detained Minnesota families.

Agents are arresting entire families with legal status and immediately shipping them off to Texas to deny them legal representation and avoid the federal courts in Minnesota.

The cruelty is endless.

WD Unveils Hard Drive Road Map: 100-TB-Plus Capacity, AI-Focused Innovations WD unveiled its roadmap to 100-TB-plus hard drives for cloud and AI implementations and introduced new platforms to connect hard drives and flash to enterprise infrastructure.

Hard drive manufacturer WD (Western Digital) Tuesday unveiled its road map for producing drives with capacities of over 100 TB along with a new intelligent platform the company said will redefine the economics of storage.

Details @crndotcom.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/566827fw

* sorry, it's Integris. That's what I get for copying and pasting my post from Twitter.

MSP Integris Rolls Out AIOps Platform Internally, Preps For Client Use Now that Integris has proven its AIOps platform internally, the MSP is getting ready to roll it out to clients even as it expands the platform’s capabilities.

National managed service provider @integrisit has developed an internal AIOps framework and is now looking to roll its experience into an offering it can take to its clients.

Check out my conversation with CEO Kris Laskarzewski at @CRN.

tinyurl.com/mr3ba7ku