Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. We have been pretty busy around here at SMB Nation in gearing up for our SMB 150 Awards Gala Dinner (sponsored by BlackBerry), and our Spring Conference, which will be held May 3-5, 2013, at the Microsoft Redmond Campus. For more information, and to register, go to: http://spring.smbnation.com/.

As for other live industry events, our own Chris Bangs will out and about at the ASCII Group Summit stop in Tampa, FL, and Jay Weiss will be at Intel ISS on Tuesday/Thursday in Los Angeles.

Please take some time to peruse a few snippets of information that we didn’t get a chance to bring you last week….let us also know if there was something we might have missed, which is not mentioned in this entry…because as you know…we love news!

1.) Western Digital Makes Strategic Investment in Skyera: Skyera Inc. and Western Digital said last week that Skyera has received strategic funding from Western Digital Capital as part of its recently announced Series B round of financing. Western Digital Capital co-invested in the $51 million round as an extension of the strategic relationship between the two companies that also includes joint technology development. Western Digital had previously funded Skyera as its initial outside investor.

Skyera’s skyHawk series of enterprise solid-state storage systems, priced at an industry breakthrough price point of less than $3 per gigabyte, mark the first time that the latest generation 19/20nm solid-state technology can be used as a direct replacement for traditional enterprise hard disk-based systems.

2.) Avaya Boosts Security for Enterprise Mobile Collaboration: Avaya last week announced new security enhancements for enterprise collaboration, designed to protect today’s increasingly distributed businesses that have remote, home-based and mobile employees around the globe. The new release of Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise (SBCE) provides organizations with a simple, flexible and cost-effective solution to secure Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based applications across networks, enabling workplace collaboration to remain productive and protected from any location.

 The Avaya SBCE helps companies more effectively manage ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) strategies—where employees use a single device for both work and personal use. This is essential as companies face mounting threats from Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, viruses, configuration errors—along with the need to meet security compliance guidelines—as mobile collaboration continues its rise in the workplace.

This is version 6.2 of Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise, globally available in calendar Q2, 2013. A customized version is also offered for small and mid-size enterprises. For more information, visit here.

3.) Axcient Taps Shore Tel Alum Mark Swendsen to Lead its Sales Team: Axcient last week appointed Mark Swendsen as Vice President of Sales. Swendsen previously achieved 400% sales growth at ShoreTel and now leads Axcient’s sales strategy and partner programs, working closely with resellers and managed service providers to grow their revenues and increase Axcient’s market reach. 

Swendsen comes to Axcient with 15 years of experience and a proven record of accelerating revenue growth domestically and globally. Prior to Axcient, Swendsen was Vice President of Sales for Service Providers at ShoreTel, growing the company’s managed service earnings by 400% over three years and playing a key role in the company’s successful IPO. Previously, he served as ShoreTel’s Managing Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and grew quarterly EMEA revenue by 800% in less than three years.

4.) Samsung Introduces the GALAXY S 4: Samsung Electronics announced last week the fourth generation GALAXY S 4. The new device features a highly crafted design encompassing a larger screen size and battery, minimized bezel, all housed in a light (130g) and slim (7.9mm) shape. At launch, two color options will be available - Black Mist and White Frost, with a variety of additional color options to follow later this year.

Samsung GALAXY S 4 will be available from Q2 globally including US, partnering with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, as well as US Cellular and Cricket. In Europe, Samsung GALAXY S 4 is partnering with global mobile operators such as Deutsche Telecom, EE, H3G, Orange, Telenor, Telia Sonera, Telefonica, and Vodafone.

5.) Ingram Micro’s Cisco-Powered Collaboration Now Available to NA Partners: The North America Services Division of Ingram Micro Inc. last week said its Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS), powered by Cisco, is now available to qualified Cisco channel partners across the U.S. and Canada. The cloud solution has been in beta with select Ingram Micro channel partners for several months and is set to be demonstrated live at Ingram Micro’s 2013 Cloud Summit April 7-10 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

 Featured on the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, the new Ingram Micro HCS offering is an end-to-end system that allows partners to create subscription-based, “as-a-service” offerings around Cisco Collaboration technologies including Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco Customer Collaboration and Cisco WebEx®.  Additionally, the offering includes the full range of Cisco Collaboration functions along with the tools to deliver those functions to the end customer in an automated, standardized and efficient manner.
 

Oops…My Bad! 5 Blogs We Missed Last Week

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. We have been pretty busy around here at SMB Nation in gearing up for our SMB 150 Awards Gala Dinner, and our Spring Conference, which will be held May 3-5, 2013, at the Microsoft Redmond Campus. For more information, and to register, go to: http://spring.smbnation.com/.

As for other live industry events, our own Chris Bangs will out and about at the ASCII Group Summit stop in Tampa, FL, and Jay Weiss will be at Intel ISS on Tuesday/Thursday in Los Angeles.

Please take some time to peruse a few snippets of information that we didn’t get a chance to bring you last week….let us also know if there was something we might have missed, which is not mentioned in this entry…because as you know…we love news!

1.) Western Digital Makes Strategic Investment in Skyera: Skyera Inc. and Western Digital said last week that Skyera has received strategic funding from Western Digital Capital as part of its recently announced Series B round of financing. Western Digital Capital co-invested in the $51 million round as an extension of the strategic relationship between the two companies that also includes joint technology development. Western Digital had previously funded Skyera as its initial outside investor.

Skyera’s skyHawk series of enterprise solid-state storage systems, priced at an industry breakthrough price point of less than $3 per gigabyte, mark the first time that the latest generation 19/20nm solid-state technology can be used as a direct replacement for traditional enterprise hard disk-based systems.

2.) Avaya Boosts Security for Enterprise Mobile Collaboration:Avaya last week announced new security enhancements for enterprise collaboration, designed to protect today’s increasingly distributed businesses that have remote, home-based and mobile employees around the globe. The new release of Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise (SBCE)provides organizations with a simple, flexible and cost-effective solution to secure Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based applications across networks, enabling workplace collaboration to remain productive and protected from any location.

 The Avaya SBCE helps companies more effectively manage ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) strategies—where employees use a single device for both work and personal use. This is essential as companies face mounting threats from Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, viruses, configuration errors—along with the need to meet security compliance guidelines—as mobile collaboration continues its rise in the workplace.

This is version 6.2 of Avaya Session Border Controller for Enterprise, globally available in calendar Q2, 2013. A customized version is also offered for small and mid-size enterprises. For more information, visit here.

3.) Axcient Taps Shore Tel Alum Mark Swendsen to Lead its Sales Team: Axcient last week appointed Mark Swendsen as Vice President of Sales. Swendsen previously achieved 400% sales growth at ShoreTel and now leads Axcient’s sales strategy and partner programs, working closely with resellers and managed service providers to grow their revenues and increase Axcient’s market reach. 

Swendsen comes to Axcient with 15 years of experience and a proven record of accelerating revenue growth domestically and globally. Prior to Axcient, Swendsen was Vice President of Sales for Service Providers at ShoreTel, growing the company’s managed service earnings by 400% over three years and playing a key role in the company’s successful IPO. Previously, he served as ShoreTel’s Managing Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and grew quarterly EMEA revenue by 800% in less than three years.

4.) Samsung Introduces the GALAXY S 4:Samsung Electronics announced last week the fourth generation GALAXY S 4. The new device features a highly crafted design encompassing a larger screen size and battery, minimized bezel, all housed in a light (130g) and slim (7.9mm) shape. At launch, two color options will be available - Black Mist and White Frost, with a variety of additional color options to follow later this year.

Samsung GALAXY S 4 will be available from Q2 globally including US, partnering with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, as well as US Cellular and Cricket. In Europe, Samsung GALAXY S 4 is partnering with global mobile operators such as Deutsche Telecom, EE, H3G, Orange, Telenor, Telia Sonera, Telefonica, and Vodafone.

5.) Ingram Micro’s Cisco-Powered Collaboration Now Available to NA Partners:The North America Services Division of Ingram Micro Inc. last week said its Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS), powered by Cisco, is now available to qualified Cisco channel partners across the U.S. and Canada. The cloud solution has been in beta with select Ingram Micro channel partners for several months and is set to be demonstrated live at Ingram Micro’s 2013 Cloud Summit April 7-10 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

 Featured on the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, the new Ingram Micro HCS offering is an end-to-end system that allows partners to create subscription-based, “as-a-service” offerings around Cisco Collaboration technologies including Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco Customer Collaboration and Cisco WebEx^®.  Additionally, the offering includes the full range of Cisco Collaboration functions along with the tools to deliver those functions to the end customer in an automated, standardized and efficient manner.