MSP, MSSP and IT Notes Industry July 26th, 2021

IT, MSP & MSSP Industry Notes

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July 26th, 2021

Arcoa Group

Why partnering with ARCOA makes sense
Electronics Recycling is an important and profitable part of the IT asset lifecycle, but it can be overwhelming with all you already do, varying state regulations, and the limited resources at hand. That’s where ARCOA comes in. When you partner with ARCOA, you get all the benefits of a big company without any of the capital investment. We’ve been doing this since 1989 and have the expertise, certifications, and nationwide resources to get the most for all your clients’ retired IT assets. Plus, positioning your clients as environmental stewards not only elevates their appeal to consumers, it meets government requirements and avoids fines.

What partnering with ARCOA looks like
Our role is to make it easy for you to bring more value to your clients. We work with you to help stretch your clients’ IT budget by reducing the total cost of ownership of their electronics. We’re experts at identifying and implementing the solutions your clients need for the end-of-use remarketing, recovery, and recycling of their technology assets. The sooner you involve ARCOA, the sooner you and your clients will see better results.MSP, MSSP and IT Notes Industry July 12th, 2021MSP, MSSP and IT Notes Industry July 12th, 2021

Kaseya Now Has A Master Decryptor To Aid Victims Of REvil Ransomware Attacks

• Reported on Forbes.com
• Forbes contributor Davey Winder called the incident “the most significant ransomware attack the world has ever seen.”
• Kaseya stated that it’s in possession of a universal decryption tool
• The tool leverages a master key
• Key is capable of decrypting all of the 1,000 businesses and organizations that were affected

Dataprise Acquires Wireless Watchdogs

• Reported on AIthoeity.com
• Dataprise provides managed IT Services while Wireless Watchdogs provides mobile managed servoces
• Acquisition allows Dataprise to extend services the US West Coast
• “Mobile and IoT devices are deeply woven in the fabric of business yet too often mobility strategy and management are siloed from strategic IT management. With this acquisition we are joining two leaders in these respective industries to solve this challenge. Together we will deliver a holistic and aligned solution portfolio supported by one strategic IT partner,” saidSteve Lewis, CEO of Dataprise

ICX Managed Services Ranks #172 on the Channel Futures MSP 501 List

• Named one of the world’s premier managed service providers in the prestigious 2021 Channel Futures MSP 501 rankings
• Channel Futures MSP 501 survey examines organizational performance based on annual sales, recurring revenue, profit margins, revenue mix, growth opportunities, innovation, technology solutions supported, and company and customer demographics.
• “The 2021 Channel Futures MSP 501 winners are the highest-performing and most innovative IT providers in the industry today. They stand head and shoulders above the competition,” said Robert DeMarzo, vice president of content for the Channel Futures and Channel Partners Conference & Expo division of Informa Tech Channels

NexusTek Honored with Microsoft US Partner Award

• Announced it was honored with a 2021 Microsoft US Partner Award in the category of Modern Workplace for SMB
• MSUS Partner Awards program recognizes outstanding work by Microsoft's US partners
• investment fund will accelerate Xceptional’s expansion and growth strategy, enabling the organization to reach a greater number of customers across the Western United States
• Microsoft celebrated NexusTek and the other winning partners during the Microsoft Inspire US – Live Community Connection session, led by Bryson, on July 14

CentricMIT Appoints Innovative Technologist and Cybersecurity Expert as New Chief Information ...

• Announced the appointment of Orrin Rohrer as Chief Information Officer. Mr. Rohrer brings 20 years of experience to the CentricMIT team of business technology experts serving clients in the 417 area
• Centric MIT is the managed IT services division of Paperwise, Inc. a document management and process automation software provider headquartered in Springfield, MO
• entricMIT is a Springfield-based Managed Services Provider (MSP) serving small to medium-sized businesses throughout the 417 area code

Dealer suffers cyber attack

• JustTech, headquartered in La Plata, Maryland, announced that it and its clients had fallen victim to ransomware attack, according to The Hill magazine
• Attack came through Kaseya remote monitoring and security software, which dealer uses
• Apparently impacted 90% of dealer’s 3,000 clients in area
• The ransomware group, REvil, demanded $45,000 per computer in ransom, which was not paid

Big merger approved

• SYNNEX stockholders announced their approval of merger with Tech Data
• Deal valued at roughly $7.2 billion
• Combined $57 billion in annual revenue
• Growth areas include cybersecurity, cloud, data and IoT technologies

etherFAX announces new partnership

• Announced partnership with Clearspan Communications, a cloud communications technology provider
• etherFAX DirectFax Messenger allows Clearspan customers to securely send and receive faxes and other business documents utilizing its patented hybrid cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service solution

Current printer trends report

• Article published by Mike Scrutton of Mopria Alliance
• Much higher volume of materials being printed in the home
• Because home printers are limited in terms of paper size and finishing, jobs are being outsourced to print service providers
• Home printer now being used by all members of household for work, home and homework
• Predicts that “domestic” and “light production” MFPs will see increased sales
• “workgroup” MFPs will see reduced demand
• Disposable on-demand printing is increasing

Cybereason Announces Acquisition of empow to Enhance XDR Offerings

• Announced the acquisition of empow, a security analytics company based in Tel Aviv
• empow acquisition adds innovative predictive response technology, a library of out-of-the-box data integrations, and top-tier engineering and product talent
• Acquisition follows on the heels of Cybereason securing $275 million in crossover financing and the exceptional performance for Cybereason in round 3 of the MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations

Konica Minolta Research Reveals Impact of COVID-19 on SMBs

• Research from Keypoint Intelligence for “Top SMB IT Pain Points & Solutions”
• Study surveyed 550 SMB IT decision makers in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic to identify their main challenges and pain points relating to technology
• 48 percent described security and data protection as being their number one IT challenge
• 37 percent of businesses said that their employees had experienced virus, malware or security threats due to conditions imposed during the pandemic
• As a result of those security issues, 47 percent of companies have acquired or upgraded IT security software or services
• 38 percent of IT decision makers viewed managing remote work as being difficult or very difficult
• 49 percent lack of necessary employee hardware or software was a difficulty associated with home-based working
• 44 percent of IT decision-makers identified servicing/supporting home workers’ IT hardware or software as a challenge
• 51 percent of respondents identified communication with managers or other employees as a business operation challenge resulting from work-from-home arrangements
• 37 percent indicated that locating files was an IT challenge associated with working from home
• 30 percent cited digital document collaboration as another business operations challenge resulting from employees working remotely

SolarWinds Completes Spin-Off of its MSP Business; N-able, Inc. Begins Trading as Independent ...

• Announced the completion of the previously announced spin-off of the SolarWinds managed service provider ("MSP") business into a standalone, separately-traded public company named N-able, Inc
• N-able will provide cloud-based software solutions for managed service providers ("MSPs"), enabling them to support digital transformation and growth within small and medium-sized enterprises
• SolarWinds will retain its Core IT Management business focused primarily on providing IT infrastructure management software to corporate IT organizations

PairSoft acquires Webiplex

• Announced its acquisition of Webiplex, an automated business process and document management solution
• Acquisition will further round out PairSoft's offerings by extending deeper AP automation and document management functionalities to NetSuite's ERP users
• Since 2008, Webiplex has been automating accounts payables, business processes and document management for companies like Quiksilver, PlanetFitness, CraftMark Bakery, Kayak, and The Motley Fool

Tampa firm OPSWAT acquires a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions

• OPSWAT announced on Monday that it has acquired all assets of Bayshore Networks
• OPSWAT will add Bayshore’s tech solutions and retain its team members
• OPSWAT caters to the defense and manufacturing sectors

Connecticut Becomes Third State to Incentivize Cybersecurity Best Practices for Businesses

• Connecticut Governor, Ned Lamont signed HB 6607, "An Act Incentivizing the Adoption of Cybersecurity Standards for Businesses" into law last week
• Prohibits the Superior Court from assessing punitive damages against an organization that implements reasonable cybersecurity controls, including industry recognized cybersecurity frameworks such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Critical Security Controls (CIS Controls^®)
• "In Connecticut, we took a step to accomplish this voluntarily without regulation by incentivizing organizations to adopt cyber best practices, like the NIST framework and the CIS Critical Security Controls."

Samsung launches “Paperless” service

• (Samsung of South Korea sold its laser printer/MFP plant to HP in 2017 for $1.05 billion, and HP sold plant to Foxconn in May, 2021)
• The SDS division of Samsung, which handles information and communication
  technology, launched “Paperless”
• Goal is to provide reliability and transparency of documents in cloud environment
• Is a cloud-based blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) solution
• Manages sensitive documents on blockchain to prevent forgery and falsification
• Enables documents to be disposed of after a certain period of time by encrypting and storing info in a separate server, only keeping the hash value of each data on the blockchain
• Pricing not announced

Microsoft advised users to disable printers

• Urged clients to disable printing from their devices until a system vulnerability (called “PrintNightmare”) was patched
• Vulnerability in Windows’ print service allowed remote users to execute code on computer system