The Latest News On The Coronavirus Pandemic In The Technology Industry

The IT industry is feeling the effects of the coronavirus outbreak, as companies have postponed, cancelled or made conferences 100% virtual. Bookmark this page for the latest news and headlines on how the tech industry is dealing with the global coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus outbreak has impacted nearly every aspect of the global economy, from supply chains to air travel to tourism. And the IT industry is feeling the effects as well, as companies have postponed, canceled or made conferences 100% virtual. Dell Technologies, HPE, Intel and AMD have all altered events in the last two weeks due to coronavirus concerns.

Bookmark this page for the latest news and headlines on how the tech industry is dealing with the global coronavirus pandemic.

5 Ways Distribution Is Helping The IT Industry Navigate The Coronavirus Pandemic

Frank Vitagliano, CEO of the Global Technology Distribution Council, says in times of trouble distribution is the ‘gear box for the industry that keeps the global supply chain flowing.’

Google Says Its Network Not Stressed By Coronavirus Crisis

The cloud services giant also assured customers last week, as it suffered a small outage, that its enterprise cloud services—GCP and G Suite—are prepared to maintain peak performance during a surge in use brought on by the pandemic.

Behind The Scenes: Here’s A Look At The Home Offices Of 42 Channel Execs

Executives from such firms as Microsoft, Lexmark, HP Inc., VMware and Zscaler weigh in on their most and least favorite aspects of remote work.

How Channel Partners Can Support Coronavirus Research With Folding@Home

'Everybody should be doing this. Any resource we can throw at this problem is a good resource,' Insight Enterprises' Juan Orlandini says of Folding@Home, which allows anyone to direct underutilized CPU and GPU resources to help uncover potentially life-saving therapies for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Coronavirus Will Change Tech Landscape In A ‘Radical’ Way, Solution Providers Say

'People are afraid of change and don't want to disrupt their environment. Well, people are disrupted now and they are learning,' says one solution provider who believes that the coronavirus is forcing digital transformation.

Lenovo To Launch 'Partner Stimulus Package' To Aid Solution Provider Cash Flows

The PC maker will enable more predictable earnings for partners, and will pay partners on a monthly basis instead of every 90 days, executives tell CRN.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Pledges ‘No Significant Layoffs’ Amid Coronavirus Crisis

In a tweet, the Salesforce founder, chairman and CEO pledges no “significant layoffs” for the next 90 days. That includes hourly employees, who will continue to receive wages while staying at home.

MSPs Brace For Sales Hit As Pandemic Sparks Customer Layoffs

‘At the end of the day, its going to be a few thousand dollars a month in reoccurring revenue that is going to vaporize,’ says Richard Delaney, chief technology officer at Delaney Computer Services, a solution provider serving New York City and New Jersey.

7 Free Collaboration Software And Videoconferencing Tools For Working Remotely

Vendors are coming to the rescue with free videoconferencing and collaboration tools for healthcare and government organizations on the front line, as well as students and employees working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cisco Commits $225M To Combat Coronavirus Pandemic

Cisco is putting up $225 million in cash, services and products to support nonprofits, businesses and government agencies locally and globally battling the effects of COVID-19.

Coronavirus And The Channel: 5 Takeaways From MicroAge's Larry Fulop

While increased remote work has 'definitely accelerated' the move of customers to cutting-edge solutions, a big question is, 'what happens after this wave is complete?' Fulop said.

In Coronavirus Crisis, Public Cloud Computing Is ‘An Unsung Hero’

While front-end collaboration, shopping and gaming solutions are at the forefront of public consciousness, public cloud and its enabling technologies are backstopping the massive shift to remote work and entertainment. ‘It's easy to forget, but ten years ago, none of this would have even been possible,’ says one public cloud exec.

Tech Data CEO Rich Hume: IT Channel Is ‘Enabling The World’ To Work From Home

“The community becomes very small and tight when crisis emerges. We turn to one another with any challenges and issues and hope to resolve them. I would encourage any part of the ecosystem to reach out. If Tech Data can assist in any way, we’re happy to help,” Tech Data CEO Rich Hume told CRN.

Channel Partners Share Tales From The Trenches During Coronavirus Pandemic

With all the news about the macroeconomic impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus, along with travel restrictions and business closures, it's important to remember that we are all personally affected to some degree as stories from 13 diverse solution providers show.

CEO Antonio Neri: ‘Proud’ HPE Technology And Teams Are ‘Being Called In To Help’ Battle Coronavirus

‘From enabling medical clinics to supporting telework and remote education to powering scientific research, we are focused on delivering for customers in bold new ways in these trying circumstances,’ says HPE CEO Antonio Neri.

Michael Dell To Spring Breakers Ignoring Coronavirus: ‘Please Don’t Apply To Work’ Here

A viral CBS video of young people partying in Miami despite the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus caught the attention of the CEO whose company has committed to battling the pandemic.

10 Cool Tech Gadgets To Survive Working From Home

From Wi-Fi and cell phone signal boosters, to noise-cancelling headphones and gadgets for distraction, we've rounded up some of the top devices to consider while you ride out the outbreak.

Intel CEO Bob Swan: Tech Industry 'More Essential Now' Than Ever

'You provide vital services, tools and infrastructure to millions of people who are directly struggling with this virus, caring for those who are, or doing their part through social distancing and other shared efforts to help ensure the safety of family, friends and neighbors and to ultimately defeat the COVID-19 pandemic,' he says in a letter to partners and customers.

Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang: We Are ‘Prioritizing’ Customers On Coronavirus Front Line

Lenovo's people have been creative in coming up with ways to serve customers despite factory shutdowns and supply chain disruptions, with local teams making decisions that bring both products and support to clients worldwide, Yang wrote.

Here’s How Telecom Companies Are Helping Customers During Coronavirus

Wondering what the country’s biggest cable and wireless providers are doing to lend a helping hand to customers during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic? Here’s a sampling of what some firms are doing to assist customers who are forced to work from home during this crisis.

IDC: 'Significant Contraction' For Global Semiconductor Sales Likely

'U.S. data center and enterprise markets will actually do better than the consumer-facing markets that are being slowed by travel bans, closure of retail stores and quarantines around the world,' says IDC researcher Mario Morales, who outlined four potential scenarios for the semiconductor industry this year.

6 Ways The Tech Industry Is Confronting The Coronavirus Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the IT industry hard with supply chain disruptions, plunging stock prices and forecasts of reduced IT spending.

Coronavirus Strains IT Supply Chain: ‘We’re Down To Buying Computers From Costco’

‘You can’t get a notebook or a desktop right now. You can’t get a webcam. It’s insane,’ says Benjamin Niernberg, executive vice president at MNJ Technologies, an Oak Grove, Ill.,-based MSP.

VMware’s Pat Gelsinger: Coronavirus Will ‘Permanently Change’ Work

To push remote workforce solutions to combat the coronavirus, VMware is offering free trials of Workspace ONE and its new SD-WAN Work @Home offering, while also extending free trials of Horizon and VMware Cloud on AWS.

Nvidia Postpones GTC Product Announcements Due To Coronavirus

'That way, our employees, partners, the media and analysts who follow us, and our customers around the world can focus on staying safe and reducing the spread of the virus,' Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says.

Dell Donates Millions To Fight Coronavirus: ‘We Are All In This Together’

Dell Technologies is donating at least $4 million to fund front-line organizations who are fighting the coronavirus pandemic as well as to hospitals in China.

Apple Closing All Retail Stores Outside China Due To Coronavirus

CEO Tim Cook announces a series of measures including expanded paid leave for workers and normal pay for hourly workers as part of the company’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

Google Sister Company Corrects Trump On Coronavirus Website Claims

The president said Google has made tremendous progress, but the website Google's sister company Verily is developing is still in early stages and to be rolled out initially only in the San Francisco Bay area, with hopes of later expansion.

Cisco Employs Mandatory Work From Home Policy Due To Coronavirus

COVID-19 coronavirus is hitting the tech segment hard as Cisco cancels partner-focused events and implements a mandatory work from home for many of its employees.

Michael Dell On Coronavirus: ‘Customers And Partners Need Us More Than Ever’

“Our supply chain is in relatively good shape, particularly in notebooks where we think that’s certainly a place where we’re seeing demand shortages because of the work from home strategy,” said Dell CEO Michael Dell in an interview with CRN.

EVENT INFORMATION

• Adobe Summit 2020 (March 29 - April 2): Virtual event only.Face-to-face event canceled.

• AMD Americas Partner Summit(April 28 - 30, New Orleans): New date pending.

• Apple WWDC 2020 (June): Virtual event

• Aruba Atmosphere 2020 Conference (March 22 - 27, Las Vegas): Virtual event only. Face-to-face event canceled.

• Channel Partners Conference and Expo (March 9 - 12, Las Vegas): New date pending.

• Cisco Live 2020 (May 31 - June 4, Las Vegas): Virtual event only

• Cisco Partner Connection Week (March 23 - 25, Boca Raton, Florida): Canceled

• CompTIA Communities & Councils Forum (March 17, Chicago): Virtual event. Face-to-face event canceled

• Data Center World Global 2020 (March 16-20, San Antonio, Texas): Postponed until August 24-27.

• Dell Technologies World 2020(May 4 - 7, Las Vegas): Virtual event only. Face-to-face event canceled.

• Eaton Partner Summit (March 16 - 18, Fort Lauderdale, Florida): Postponed until November 9 - 11.

• F5 Agility (March 16 - 19, Orlando, Florida): Virtual event only (details pending). Face-to-face event canceled.

• Facebook F8 2020 Developers Conference(May 5 - 6): Virtual event (details pending). Face-to-face event canceled.

• Fortinet Accelerate New York (May 16 - 21): Canceled. Silicon Valley event scheduled for Nov. 7 - 12

• Game Developers Conference (March 16 – 20, San Francisco): Postponed until week of August 3.

• Google Cloud Next 2020(April 6 - 8, San Francisco): Virtual event only. Face-to-face event canceled.

• Google I/O 2020(May 12 - 14, Mountain View, Calif.): Canceled.

• HIMSS 2020 (March 9 - 13, Orlando, Fla.): Virtual event only. Face-to-face event canceled.

• HP Reinvent(March 24 - 27, Anaheim, Calif.): Postponed until early fall.

• IBM Think 2020 and PartnerWorld (May 4 - 7, San Francisco): Virtual event only. Face-to-face conferences canceled.

• Ingram Micro Cloud Summit(May 12 - 14, Miami Beach, Fla.): Postponed until early 2021.

• Ingram Micro Trust X Alliance Invitational (May 26-29, Phoenix, Az.): Postponed. Details to come.

• Internet of Things World (April 6 - 9, San Jose): Postponed until August 10 - 13.

• IT By Design Build IT 2020 - (May 17 - 19, Jersey City, N.J.): Postponed until Aug. 30 to Sept. 1.

• Kaseya Connect IT 2020 (May 4-7, Las Vegas): Postponed.

• Microsoft Build 2020 (May 19-21, Seattle): Virtual event only

• Microsoft Inspire 2020 (July 19-23, Las Vegas): In-person event canceled

• Midsize Enterprise Summit: IT Security (March 23 – 24, Tampa, Fla.): Postponed, moved to co-locate with MES Fall 2020, Sept. 21-22, San Antonio, Texas

• Midsize Enterprise Summit Spring (May 3 – 5, National Harbor, Md.): Postponed, moved to co-locate with MES Fall 2020, Sept. 21-22, San Antonio, Texas

• MSPWorld 2020 (March 15 - 17, New Orleans): Rescheduled for September 30-October 2.

• Nvidia GPU Technology Conference(March 22 - 26): Virtual event only.Face-to-face conference canceled.

• Oracle Modern Business Experience (March 23 - 26, Chicago): Postponed until September 21- 24, moving to Las Vegas.

• Oracle NetSuite SuiteWorld 2020 (April 20 - 23, Las Vegas): Postponed until August 10-13.

• Pax8 Wingman 2020 (June 3-5, Denver): Virtual event only

• Red Hat Summit 2020 (April 27 - 29, San Francisco): Virtual event only. Face-to-face event canceled.

• Rubrik Forward 2020(May 11 - 13, Chicago): Virtual event only (May 11). Face-to-face event canceled.

• SAS Global Forum (March 29 - April 1, Washington, D.C.): Virtual event only. Face-to-face event canceled.

• Sophos Evolve (April 22 - 24, Las Vegas): Virtual event only (details pending)

• Synnex STELLRCon (May 18-21, Phoenix, Az.): Canceled.

• Synnex Varnex Spring(March 29 - April 1, Greenville, S.C.): Canceled

• Synnex Red, White and You(March 31 - April 3, Greenville, S.C.): Canceled

• Women of the Channel Next-Generation Leaders (April 2, Nashville, Tenn.): Postponed until Oct. 29

• Women of the Channel West (May 12-13, Carlsbad, Calif.) Rescheduled for Aug. 19 in Phoenix

• VeeamON (May 4-6, Las Vegas): Postponed, virtual event scheduled for June 17-18.

• Zadara Summit 2020 (May 6-7, Las Vegas): Canceled

• ZertoCON 2020 (May 18-20, Hollywood, Fla.): Canceled, will become a virtual event at a later date.